At the behest of several proud ASM owners, I've decided to start a thread with my thoughts on my first custom chip set. Right now I have ideas for a theme and some spot/color combos, but nothing remotely concrete yet. I'm posting this just to get some ideas out there now, and I'm hoping for plenty of feedback once the set starts to gel. I'm sure that when the chips are finally made and in my hands, it will be fun to look back on this thread and see where they started. So here we go.

GOALS

I'd like a single set that works equally well for low-stakes limit and big bet games. While I don't see my current group growing much beyond .25/.50 NLHE, I'm hoping to eventually grow into a regular limit game and slightly bigger NL/PL games. I don't expect to ever host anything much bigger than 1/2 NL or 4/8 limit, at least not in the foreseeable future. I'll also be happy with a set that can handle two tables, as I doubt I'll ever run more than that simultaneously (except perhaps when I host HPI).

That said, I think a set like those owned by jzpiano, abby99 and Breich will work for me: $0.25 through $100 with lots and lots of $1 chips for limit play.

BACKGROUND

I'm a science geek. I've always been fascinated with the physical sciences, particularly astronomy and space exploration. I own a number of telescopes, and I have spent hundreds of hours observing the little bit of the universe that we can see from here.

I'm also a Disneyphile, and it should go without saying that Epcot (née EPCOT Center) is my favorite Disney park. I visited for the first time in the summer of 1983, less than a year after opening day, and since then I've walked through the front gate at least a couple hundred times. I remember attractions that don't exist anymore as well as the older versions of many rides that are still in operation.

Finally, I'm a beer snob. I enjoy and appreciate good beer, I've dabbled in homebrewing, and I believe that any good custom chip set needs to make at least a passing reference to beer.

THEME

So with all that in mind, I plan to call this set New Horizons. I still haven't settled on "Card Room," "Poker Room," etc., but the theme fits with everything except the beer:

• Horizons was an Epcot attraction that ran from 1983 to 1999 before being permanently closed and ultimately replaced by Mission: SPACE. Riders got to see a vision of the future as Disney thought it might be back in the early 80s.
• New Horizons is a NASA spacecraft that was launched in 2006 and is bound for the ex-planet Pluto. It will arrive in the summer of 2015.

IMAGES

Following is a collection of images that I plan to use as inspiration for the inlay design.

Fonts found on signage (old and current) throughout Epcot:


The logo and exterior sign from the Epcot Horizons attraction:


Image from a postcard depicting the old Horizons attraction:


Beer. Really good beer. From the Epcot Food & Wine Festival:


EPCOT 30th anniversary window display:


Spaceship Earth:


Sea turtle and a not-so-hidden Mickey at The Living Seas:


Spaceship Earth during the Flower & Garden Festival:


Coffee/Espresso/Pastries signage from a stand in Hollywood Studios. I really like this iconic style which is prevalent everywhere at WDW, and I want to work it into my inlay design somehow:


Attraction icons from the early days of EPCOT. Starting at upper left, they are: EPCOT Center, Communicore, Horizons, Journey Into Imagination, The Land, World of Motion, Spaceship Earth, The Living Seas, Universe of Energy, Wonders of Life, and World Showcase:


Montage of Jupiter and Io as photographed by New Horizons. The coolest thing about this image is that you can see a massive volcanic eruption occurring on the top of Io:


Mockups of a tournament set that I did with a similar theme in mind. It uses the shot of Jupiter from above and several different textures that I took from personal photos of Epcot:

Bout time....and welcome to the club!


First thoughts on this and I'm sure I'll have a lot more after some time.

1) Love the idea and the tie in with space, disney, and beer as it gives a lot to work with.
2) On that idea one thing that stands out immediately for me is this set might be one that would benefit from the use different labels on the front and back. You could have one "standard" one that shows up on each chip back, while the fronts would have similar components of a background picture/denomination, whatever. That could give you 6 "images" or ideas to work with, but still ties the entire set together.
3) Love the SpaceAge and Denmark fonts.
4) Jupiter pic is very cool and you point out one of the best parts about it, but the eruption doesn't make it into any of the chips. I was sadden by that
5) Perhaps each chip color, spotting, and image could relate to your overall theme of space (like the Astro Lounge by phcjpp) or features of Epcot (like Breich's Chicago Sports team theme).

Beer snob? Well have you ever tried Theakstons Old Peculier? My favorite among many lol. As to the chips , well I would love to do something like that myself with a Herbert theme. Maybe the economics will work out someday. Good luck on the project.

As jzpiano said, welcome to the club!

Looks like you have some great ideas for your inlays, and I love jz's suggestion to use a common design on one side and a different design for each denom on the other. You certainly have more than enough thematic material to work with. Fortunately, with CPC, using multiple inlay designs doesn't increase the price (at least not currently).

Have you decided on some of the basic elements yet? LV/Cali/Other base colors? $20 or $25, or both?

You will benefit from a good artist. Someone who can take your themes and graphic fragments and turn them into something special. I encourage you not to 'save money' on this step. Time and money spent on getting your art right will prove to be worth the cost, effort and extra time.

More is better - buy enough chips to exceed your expected needs even if the budget gets bent a little. It is a big deal to go back and add on extra chips in a second order - the vendor might be gone or not selling to the public; getting a color match might be impossible; the second set up charge is a killer.

Good luck with the project. It is more work and time than seems reasonable but when you finally open the boxes filled with your private stash of chalky new custom chips I think you'll find the reward worth the effort.

Grats! -=- DrStrange

Epcot was the bomb back in the late 80s and early 90s! very fond memories of going there about 5-10 years old. Florida in general has a great vibe to it when I was a kid. Miss the family vacations there

good luck with the project..

I think I've had it before but it's been a very long time. I recognized the name but couldn't remember anything about it and had to look it up. I'll try to find a bottle next time I'm beer shopping.

Come on down! There's a lot of fun stuff for grown ups here too.

Walt Disney World, and Epcot in particular, went through a rough time in the mid-to-late nineties and early naughts thanks to piss-poor management, underfunding, and overmilking the cash cow. Some attractions were deteriorating and dated, others were closed, or refurbished into shadows of their original selves (Google "Journey Into Imagination" for a good example). Vendor carts were EVERYWHERE, and the exits for most major attractions were rerouted through gift shops.

Things have gotten a lot better in the last 6-8 years. Disney has spent a ton of money on all the parks and is obviously working hard to maintain and improve. I think the vision for Epcot has changed significantly, but it's clear that they have a vision and are working to implement it. It isn't the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" that the original EPCOT Center was supposed to be, but it's still a great place with a lot of special memories for me, both from my own childhood and from recent times.

I like #2 and will probably go that way. I could do just an Epcot-themed set quite easily, but there are some other WDW attractions that I'd love to include too. The Haunted Mansion is one that immediately comes to mind (though I could do a set just on that ride alone).

Regarding the Jupiter pic, I did those mockups about 2 years ago or so but never had them made. I'm not planning an ASM/CPC tourney set anytime in the near future, but I might revisit that design as custom China clays once the cash set is finished and paid for.

And yes, I'd like each chip to have it's own sub-theme much like Breich's set.

Good feedback, thanks.

LV base colors, but I'm about 99.9% sure that I'm going to have $20s and no $25s. I like jz's gold twenties and may rip that idea off.

I will probably do some of the upfront work myself, including a few initial mockups, but ultimately I'm sure I'll need to hire an experienced designer to get everything just right.

Any ballpark on the cost for that? I have no clue.

I'm planning to order these from CPC, and my plan was to break the order into 3-4 smaller chunks to avoid destroying my savings account. I don't believe there's a per-order setup charge, can anyone confirm that?

Thanks!

Depends on what you want done. Ballpark, low hundreds, but don't hold me to that. It will be money well spent.


Unlike BCC, there was no setup charge when I purchased my chips from ASM, and I haven't seen any reference to setup or artwork fees on the CPC price list or in their forum on CT. They do have minimum orders and maximum numbers of denominations per order that you'll need to meet. David said they'd consider orders for add-ons that don't meet their usual minimums on a case by case basis but didn't say how much wiggle room they have. As with so much, it depends on what you want and probably on their production schedule.

iirc my inlay art ran around $200.

And mine was $50, but I provided everything needed to J5 and just had him piece everything together.

Low hundreds for design help definitely sounds worthwhile, thanks.

The spaceship earth symbol is the only thing that jumped to me.

Even if a only a part is visible on the chip, the meaning of the symbol can not be mistaken.

Stealing jzpiano's idea of a different label on either side, I would use the circular "Horizons logo", or a modified version (to avoid copyright issues on one side for ALL chips. It provides a perfect framing for the denominations, and ties in with your love of Epcot. It then leaves the other sides for the individual preferences of space, beer, etc.

So let's talk about molds.

If I'm putting all this time, energy and money into the inlay design, I'd like to be able to see it. That would mean a larger (1" or 1 1/16") inlay, which restricts my mold choices to the following:

• A-Crest
• B-Diamond
• Fleur-de-Lis (currently not usable)
• Hourglass
• Plain

I don't think any of these really fit my theme. Out of the above list, I like the A-mold and Hourglass the best, I think.

We're considering the plain mold for the potential Turtle Club, because the other ones also don't really fit that well.

The A-crest (aka A-mold or American mold) works best for me. What's more American than Disney? In my mind that's not much of a stretch at all. The A-mold is also one of the more consistent molds in terms of thickness, which is important.

The Hourglass mold has the geometric shapes going for it, which are evoked in some but not all of your thematic ideas. This would be my second choice.

The B-diamond mold is fantastic but I just don't see a connection there.

The molds definitely affect the feel of CPC chips. Do you have samples?

I love my A molds and was the reason I chose it for my set. Horsehead is fantastic as well but very specific application. Highly consistent, allows for a 1" and also has a good feel to them (unlike the fleur-de-lis imo or hourglass). Never had a barrel of B molds to play with so I can't comment on them.

All good points, especially the consistent thickness of the A-mold. That is a big deal to me.

I have both color and mold sample sets from ASM, and obviously I've played with jz's A-mold set and loved the look & feel. And with the added bonus that it is one of the cheaper molds, I think we have a winner.

As much as I would love to include all of the above in my theme, I'm starting to think that it will be hard to cram all that in and do it justice. So I'm starting to lean toward an EPCOT-only theme where each chip represents an attraction that has some significance to me:

The Living Seas

I vividly remember the "Hydrolators" - elevators that you had to use to get in and out of this underwater sea base. It blew my mind when they rethemed the ride several years ago and replaced the Hydrolators with plain old doors. Obviously I was an adult and knew that the attraction wasn't really underwater, but it was a convincing piece of Disney magic that I loved and still miss today.

Living Seas icon:


Interior view of a Hydrolator:


Spaceship Earth

This is the symbol of EPCOT, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the park, and one of my favorite rides. Obviously it deserves a prominent place in the design, and it will probably be featured on the inlay that is common to all chips in the set.

Spaceship Earth icon:


Night shot of the big ball:


This mural has been at the entrance of Spaceship Earth since the beginning back in 1982, and I think it captures the theme of the ride (communication) wonderfully. I'm not sure how I might use it as the central theme of a chip, but I may try:


World of Motion

This ride was a fun romp through the history of transportation until it closed in 1996, and I have great memories of this ride from my childhood. Two of the images that I remember most clearly are below, and any chip that uses this theme almost must feature the sea serpent in some form.

World of Motion icon:


Columbus and the Sea Serpent:


Shoeless Cavemen:


There are a few other attractions that I could base a chip on, but I need to spend more time gathering pictures and my thoughts.

Finally, I was playing around in the Chip Factory and came up with these. Far from final, of course, but my thoughts at the time were:

Blue quarter = The Living Seas
White dollar = Spaceship Earth
Red $5 = Horizons
Yellow $20 = The Land
Black $100 = ???

Eliminate the dot in the centre of the "World in Motion" icon and you, again, have a great framing for your denominations.