Review Details

Brass: Iron Clays (Retail Edition)

Product Review (submitted on July 15, 2020):

I purchased the 200-count set from another retailer, which includes everything shown here plus 50's (grey) and 500's (green) in a similarly decorated flip-top box with a magnetic closure. I will also caveat my remarks by noting that I am not a poker player, and I purchased these chips mainly for boardgame use as a nicer currency alternative to paper money or cardboard tokens.

The chips themselves are quite nice - good heft and pleasantly smooth in hand. They are comparable in feel and finish to the (also very nice) chips that AEG uses for War Chest, though noticeably less "clinky". There is some texture to the faces of the chips, but the decorative scrollwork pattern around the numbers is essentially flat, not significantly embossed as the pictures might lead you to think. Oddly, the pattern feels dead flat on most chips and ever so slightly raised on others, but it is not obvious that the presence of texture necessarily matches the pattern. The central circle with the number is slightly recessed, but again the number itself is not raised. Colors are tastefully muted but readily distinguishable, and the pattern/base colors have fairly low contrast (except for the 50's), which could affect legibility in lower light conditions for those relying on the printed denominations.

The plastic storage tray provided is nice and sturdy, but would have benefitted from some additional finishing (or a better mold design) to take the hard/sharp edges off the bottom, particularly given the weight of the contents. I envision plenty of scratched tabletops and gouged felt until people sand or dremel those edges to a gentler state...or put a pad underneath. Not a dealbreaker, but unfortunate given the otherwise luxe pretenses of the product. The outer box looks nice, but may be a tad wimpy (at least for the 200 set) given the heft of its contents.

Overall, while I am pleased with these chips and look forward to using them with a number of different games for many years to come, my overall impression (chips, tray, box, etc.) was of a package that was not quite as "premium" as it was cracked up to be, particularly for the price. There is undoubtedly some very nice graphic design, and I definitely prefer the look of these chips to standard poker chips, particularly for thematic/period games, but the total package is solidly 8.5/10 relative to my expectations. Chalk that up to the power of slick Kickstarter marketing, I suppose... No regrets, and I would recommend these to anyone who likes the look/style, but I definitely wouldn't run out and buy them at full MSRP.