[MSPatton]

T-Mold “Semi-Custom” Chip Offering

This offering is intended to allow the use of the “T-Mold” clay chip tooling that is owned and used exclusively by Holdem Poker Chips (HPC)
to the members of ChipTalk.net and other clients of HPC, for the manufacturing of chips with the Blue Chip Company (BCC). In the past
we were not able to offer the use of this tooling as it is BCC’s policy to allow it’s vendors to use their tooling only for sets that are
“configured and registered” to their respective companies, and as such, custom, one of a kind, sets to the general public are not allowed.
HPC has decided to offer our exclusive tooling for the “T-Mold” to allow what we are deeming a “semi-custom” set of chips.
To fall within BCC’s guidelines we need to “configure and register” a set of chips that can be available to the members here and our other clients.
In the near future we will be opening a series of dedicated threads so members of the ChipTalk.net community will be able to offer
suggestions and submissions to develop the colors and edge spot designs to be used on these chips. These submissions will be then
polled to determine which designs are preferred by the members. Once the set of chips is established, they will be “registered” with
BCC and members will be able to design their own inlay and commission BCC to produce their “semi-custom” chip on the T-Mold.

This is not a group buy, but rather an opportunity for members of the ChipTalk.net community to design a set of chips among themselves
with access to a mold, some chip colors, and edge spots that may otherwise not be available to them in a private custom order

Before we begin the development process we have listed the basic outline of this offering:

1. HPC will be providing the use of the T mold for a fee, all other production specifics will be handled by BCC.
2. All chip orders will be placed directly with BCC as per their pricing at the time of the order
3. Purchaser will be responsible for inlay art submission and corresponding fees with BCC
4. Purchaser will be responsible for a mold rental fee of 15¢ per chip to HPC
5. Minimum Order is 500 chips, HPC reserves the right to limit the maximum number of chips per inlay design
6. Re-Orders will be allowed under BCC’s normal ordering guidelines, and must be approved by HPC
7. There will be 10 chips in this set
8. All chips will be the heavier BCC clay composition, this group will decide between 39mm and 39.5mm diameters.
Only one diameter of chip will be offered for this setup
9. All chips must have an inlay, no plains (blanks)
10. Clients may only use this setup with their personal inlay and done on the T Mold.
11. All inlay art must be presented to HPC for content evaluation; there are a few themes we will not allow to be presented on our mold.
most notably, trademark (copyright) issues, gang, sex, and drug related
12. Substitution of selected edge spots with the base color in full (i.e. Samurai 25¢ or $1000 chips) will not be an option
13. Partial substitution of edge spots with the base color (i.e. Mardi Gras $25K chip) MAY be an option
14. Keep in mind while you are choosing colors that “appropriate” colors for a cash game set and tournament set should be considered,
and possibility a few more vibrant colors along the lines of “California” colors to provide the maximum choices for customization
15. While member feedback will be heavily weighted, HPC reserves the right to make the ultimate final decision in all instances
16. The final setup assembled will be "registered" at BCC under HPC's properties and HPC will become the sole owner of this setup
17. It is HPC’s intention to have this offer open and accessible until December 31st, 2008 at a minimum

• There will be 33 base colors of chips for you to choose from

Sky Blue Dolphin Blue Horizon Blue Light Blue Dark Blue	Sherbet Green W. Day Green Dark Green	Almond Canary Yellow Mustard Gold	White Off White Bone White Black Charcoal Grey
Arc Yellow Peach W. Blaze Orange Coral	Mauve Royal Red Blood Red Plum Adobe Chocolate	Light Pink Hot Pink Lavender Purple Laker Purple

• There will be 36 edge spot colors for you to choose from

Sky Blue Dolphin Blue Horizon Blue Light Blue Dark Blue	Sherbet Green Day Green W. Day Green Dark Green Forest Green	Almond Saturn Yellow Canary Yellow Mustard Gold	White Off White Bone White Black Charcoal Grey
Arc Yellow Peach W. Blaze Orange Coral	Mauve Royal Red Blood Red Plum Adobe Chocolate	Light Pink Hot Pink Lavender Purple Laker Purple

• You can choose a chip configuration from a selection of 24 different alternatives

312 (3 x ½ inch spot – 1 color)

314 (3 x ¼ inch spot – 1 color)

3D14 (3 x double ¼ inch spot – 2 colors)

3T18 (3 x triple 1/8 inch spot – 2 or 3 colors)

412 (4 x ½ inch spot – 1 color)

4A12 (4 x alternate ½ inch spot – 2 colors)

414 (4 x ¼ inch spot – 1 color)

4A14 (4 x alternate ¼ inch spot – 2 colors)

4D14 (4 x double ¼ inch spot – 2 colors)

418 (4 x 1/8 inch spot – 1 color)

4A18 (4 x alternate 1/8 inch spot – 2 colors)

4D18 (4 x double 1/8 inch spot – 2 colors)

4T18 (4 x triple 1/8 inch spot – 2 or 3 colors)

514 (5 x ¼ inch spot – 1 color)

614 (6 x ¼ inch spot – 1 color)

6A14 (6 x alternate ¼ inch spot – 2 colors)

618 (6 x 1/8 inch spot – 1 color)

6A18 (6 x alternate 1/8 inch spot – 2 colors)

1-1 (1 x 1 inch spot – 1 color)

358 (3 x 5/8 inch spot – 1 color)

3U = 3Horseshoe (3 x Horseshoe spot – 2 colors)

3Moon (3 x Moon spot – 1 color)

1/4Pie (2 x 1¼ inch spot – 2 colors)

[MSPatton]

Edited:

Spot Colors Green's and Orange's.

[MSPatton]

In the next couple of days information on the selection process will appear.
I have asked Jeff (jdunford) to facilitate the boards here in my forum for this
process. Jeff as been involved in a couple chip dev. projects and I believe his
experience will be a positive thing. Jeff and I have spoken at length about this
project and I think with good particiation we can have this setup done by March 1st


While Jeff and I will be speaking about the process, Jeff will be handling all the
organization of the decision making boards. I will be here to answer all the technical questions.

Let's make an awesome set of chips!

Michael

[jdunford]

Summary of the "Semi-custom T-mold" project:

Using one of the best and most exclusive molds, a set of 10 chips will be made and registered by HoldemPokerChips.com. The versatility of this set of chips will be unsurpassed: in the end, you design your own artwork for your custom inlay, and put it on whichever chips you want from the 10 T-mold chips in this set. You will be able to use whatever denominations you want on whichever of these spotted chips. This is a unique opportunity in the quality chip market. And a project this unique requires a selection process equally so. Michael (MSPatton) has decided to give us, the ChipTalk.net community, the opportunity to create the best set of chips out there! It's up to the ChipTalk.net community to decide on the colours and spots that will be available for these "semi-custom" chips.

Here is a quick outline of what's to come. There will be three "rounds" of polls. In short:

Round #1: Select colour palette", including base and spot colours (but not spot type) on an individual chip basis.

Round #2: Group the basic chips into 10-chip sets and configure actual edge spot combos, selecting from colours in Round #1. Narrowing to 4-5 favourite t0-chip set-ups.

Round #3: Final "tweaking" of winners of Round #2 and voting for the final set-up.

Each "round" is explained in more detail below.


Round #1:

The purpose of Round #1 is to decide on the colour palette for each chip in the set (ignoring spot combinations at this point). Basically, it's a matter of picking which spot colours will go on which base colours.

For the "colour palette" round, there will actually be 9 subsections, each with its own poll. To make this set as versatile as possible, there must be a chip from each of 7 standard casino chip base colours: "white", "red", "blue", "green", "black", "purple", and "yellow". By popular demand, there will also be a "brown" subsection for earth-tone based chips. Three more chips can be chosen from what we'll call the "other" category. These might include "grey", "orange", "pink", more "brown", a second (perhaps much darker or lighter) "blue", etc. I put these in quotation marks as there are several different BCC base colours that might qualify for each of these polls. For example, a "white" chip might use BCC's white, off-white, or bone-white as the base. The colours available are listed in above (OP). The choice is yours, as long as a "white" chip looks like a white chip for all intents and purposes: i.e. it could be used as a traditional $1, a Cali $100, or whatever denomination someone wants a white chip to be for his/her custom set.

Since edge-spot pattern is irrelevant for this first round, all entries will be mocked-up with a (boring?) "3d14" pattern in ChipTalk.net's Poker Chip Factory. Don't be alarmed; final chips won't all be 3d14! Submissions will be made in a designated thread in the marketplace forum of HoldemPokerChips.com. Each entry in each subsection will allow 1 base colour + 2 spot colours. In the next round, when building a 10-chip set, keep in mind that some spot combinations make a 2 (e.g. 3-moon, 714, etc.), 3 (e.g. 4d14, 6a18, etc.), or 4-colour (e.g. 3t18, 4t18) chip. An entry could include just one of the spot colours, both, or both + a third (for a 4-colour chip), where there is no restriction on the third colour. More details will follow.


Round #2:

Once the favourite colour combinations have been chosen, there will be a second round to build 10-chip sets. The goal in this round will be to make a coherent set from the favourite chips -- including edge spots.

Round #2 will be comprised of 10-chip entries consisting of 1 chip chosen from qualifiers from each of the 8 standard (+ brown) base colour polls (top 2 or 3, as voted by the ChipTalk.net community), and up to 4 from the "other" category (chosen from the top 5 or 6 most popular). For a 2-colour chip (base + 1 spot colour) in a set, the base and lone spot colour must be from one of the qualifying chips from Round #1 (and the other spot colour from that individual chip entry is ignored). For a 3-colour chip (base + 2 colours), both spots must be from a Round #1 qualifier. For a 4-colour chip (base + 3 colours), a third colour can be selected from all available colours to go with the 2 chosen in Round #1.

Due to the versatility of sets produced through this project (that some customers might want to build a traditional cash set, traditional tourney set, Cali cash set, Cali tourney set, high-denomination tourney set, or some custom set that doesn't conform to any "standard"), edge-spot "progression" is not very important. As several CTers have mentioned in the interest thread, it may be best to make every chip as good as it can be, with the assumption that any chip in the set could be the "workhorse" chip in a semi-custom set. At the same time, of course, a 10-chip set used for one of the "standard" progressions should look good together, where neighbouring chips are easy to distinguish from each other, etc. More second round information may be announced at an appropriate time.


Round #3:

There will likely be a third round to choose between the top 4 or 5 10-chip sets, which might undergo some revision before the final poll. This is basically a revision of Round #2. A few (maybe top 4 or 5)
of the best entries from Round #2 will be voted on a second time. There might be some revisions (based on suggestions from the ChipTalk.net community) before this final round.


Additional information:

For Round #1, entries will be accepted for 5 days in each of the 8 subsections. Voting will take place for 5 days (following the entry period) for each of those subsections. For Round #2, entries will be accepted for 7 days, followed by 7 days for voting. Time periods for Round #3 will be announced later.

Everyone can participate in the entries for each round and in the voting. There is no restriction related to commitment to purchase, etc. Keep in mind that Michael (MSPatton) has the right to make final decisions if he chooses to, and ultimately BCC has the right to refuse to make any chip (e.g. some colour combinations are "forbidden" by BCC). Pricing is BCC's normal custom chip pricing + a 15¢/chip mold fee, as posted elsewhere (linky).

I think that's it for now. Round #1 will begin receiving entries tomorrow morning. Keep an eye on the HoldemPokerChips.com marketplace!

[MSPatton]

Edited Spot Availability

714 (7 x ¼ inch spot – 1 color) is not available due to broken tooling
It has been removed from the list

[jdunford]

The "other colour" subcategory will open after all 8 initial polls are complete. Instructions for Round #2 will be listed after Round #1 is over. Please use the "gauging interest" thread for comments and questions.

In the meantime, may I present the Round #1 finalists...
(updating as the polls close)

Red:

1st (tie): Blood red with black and (white or hot pink) - - 1st (tie): Blood red with hot pink and (light pink or white)


3rd: Blood red with black and (chocolate or dark green) - - 4th: Blood red with gold and (off white or mustard)



Green:

1st: Sherbet green with your choice of mixed greens


2nd: Dark green with mustard and (adobe or dark blue) - - 3rd (tie): Dark green with w orange and (laker purple or almond)


3rd (tie): Dark green with gold and (chocolate or black)



Black:

1st (tie): Black with hot pink and (blood red or purple) - - 1st (tie): Charcoal with black and (dark blue or grey)


3rd: Charcoal with w orange and (almond or canary yellow) - - 4th: Black with purple and (day green or dark green)



Purple:

1st: Laker purple with arc yellow and (w orange or white) - - 2nd: Lavender with laker purple and (light pink or sky blue)


3rd (tie): Laker purple with lavender and (sherbet green or saturn yellow) - - 3rd (tie): Laker purple with hot pink and (white or light pink)


3rd (tie): Laker purple with grey and (purple or white) - - 3rd (tie): Purple with hot pink and (sherbet green or sky blue)



Yellow:

1st: Canary yellow with blood red and (gold or w orange) - - 2nd (tie): Canary yellow with w orange and (chocolate or black)


2nd (tie): Canary yellow with dark blue and (light blue or horizon blue)



Brown:

1st: Chocolate with gold and (mustard or almond) - - 2nd: Gold with chocolate and (mustard or almond)


3rd: Chocolate with arc yellow and (almond or w orange) - - 4th: Chocolate with day green and (grey or sherbet green)



White:

1st: White with dark blue and (dolphin blue or canary yellow) - - 2nd (tie): White with hot pink and (mauve or day green)


2nd (tie): White with hot pink and (arc yellow or peach) - - 4th (tie): White with dark green and (grey or dark blue)


4th (tie): Almond with coral and (light blue or plum)



Blue:

1st: Horizon blue with dark blue and (sky blue or white) - - 2nd: Light blue with white and (dolphin blue or dark blue)


3rd (tie): Horizon blue with white and (w orange or coral) - - 3rd (tie): Light blue with dark blue and (sherbet green or black)



Other (Orange / Pink):

1st: W Orange with arc yellow and (white or royal red) - - 2nd: Hot pink with blood red and (light pink or white)


3rd: Hot pink with purple and (dolphin blue or grey) - - 4th: Mauve with forest green and (laker purple or coral)


Other (Dark / Earth tone):

1st: Mustard with adobe and (chocolate or black) - - 2nd: Charcoal with peach and (dolphin blue or mauve)


3rd: Sky blue with dark blue and (horizon blue or lavender)

[MSPatton]

First off I want to Thank Jeff for doing a great job at keeping this project
organized, creative, and moving forward all at the same time. There are
a lot of good stuff in the first 8 chip selections.

One of the reasons I asked Jeff to facilitate this project is I did not want to
have my influence in this project. I wanted it to be as much more of a ChipTalk.net
project then an HPC one. As I am sure Jeff will attest, I have done very little
outside of conveying a general outline of the project and have let him run with it.

I have two comments to make about the progress from a personal and
Professional (vendor) point of view.

1. Sherbert Green....I am going to have a very difficult time accepting a chip
with 50% or more of the exposed rolling edge being Sherbert Green. Of all the
potential chips in the first 8 this is the one that I will most likely put my foot
down on and say no. The color of this chip just will not be condusive to those
who want to either have a Traditional Cash or Tourney set and this chip would
be used in both as the $25 chip. While the "Cali Color" chip concept is desireable
by some and myself included, my opinion is that a more traditional green would
be most benificial not only now, but for the future chip clients who may not
be involved in this project and discover these later on. W/O a traditional
green chip this may turn of too many folks.

2. We have the first round completed for 8 basic (popular) colors and are in the
process of adding 2 "Additional" colors to complete the 10pc set. I have laid out
a lot of concepts on my desk using these colors and trying to keep the goal of
the ability to make several types of sets with these 10 chips. It is tough and
may be a little restrictive, so I have decided that we should expand this set
to 12 chips thus allowing for 4 additional chips to be added as "Additional"
colors.

I am sure Jeff will be updating the submission pages later to include this info.

Michael