[hachkc]

Dunes Commemorative Pure Clay Chips

Manufacturer: TheChipRoom - www.thechiproom.com
Retailer(s): TheChipRoom - www.thechiproom.com
Average Price: Presales price of 0.25ea each till July 1st, Estimated retail price of .30-.35
Material: Injection Molded Plastic Composite with no insert

Basically, these are some of the best looking, inexpensive chips you can buy. On top of that, they are legal reproductions/commemoratives of a classic Las Vegas hotel chip, The Dunes Hotel and Country Club. The predecessor to these chips are the Desert Palm Pure Clays (DPs) which are also sold by The Chip Room. Currently, they come in $1, $5, $25, $100, $500, $1000, $5000 and $25000 denominations. A 25c and 50c chip will also be added to the mix.

Price
The Chip Room is offering a presales price of 0.25ea till July 1st which is about 20% off the expected retail price which will probably be in the 0.30-0.35 range. The chips are expected to ship sometime around 9/30/2007.

Feel
The feel is quite nice compared to other chips in this price range and they do have a clay like feel but you won't mistake them for real clay chips as they do feel a bit plasticky. Unlike the DPs, the Dunes labels are more recessed. The DPs seem to have the labels almost flush to the mold while the Dunes seem to be a bit more recessed below the mold area.

Stacking
These chips stack ok and stacks of upto 16 appear fine but bump the table and I'm not surprised to see some of the stacks fall over. The chips do stack a bit better than the original DPs which I'm attributing to the recessed inlay. They do stack better than my dice chips but are not upto par with my ASMs. I've heard mixed comments regarding the DPs stacking better after they've been broken in a bit; some say they get better, some say they don't.

Sound
Sound has never been a big issue for me as long as the chips don't sound like loose change rattling around. That being said, these chips have a very nice clank sound to them which is on par with real clay chips.

Looks
As for looks, you can decide for yourself from the pictures below but I'll give you my comments here. All of the chips adhere to traditional colors except for $500 which is an off white. As for the color combos, they all seem to work well together with 2 notable exceptions. The center edgespot color in the $1 and $25000 don't contrast enough IMHO especially in low light situations. The most notable issues with the edgespots are on the rolling edge. Basically, the edgespots on each face of the chip don't perfectly align when you look at the rolling edge. Jim at The Chip Room is looking into this but at this point he's unsure whether it can be addressed for the first run of chips. From my perspective, this isn't a very big deal. Even real clay chips have inconsistencies in there spots plus we are talking about a 25c chip here. As for the label, there is not much to say as its a based on the original Dunes inlay so you'll either like it or not. Personally, I like it though I'm a big golfer so that helps. All of the labels are round but about half are design to look like die-cut inlays (scallops, cogs, etc). This works well on the $100 and $1000 as the label color closely matches the chips' base color but on the $5, $25 and $500 it doesn't work as well. The word "Comemorative" does appear on the top of the label to help differentiate it from the original chips but its currently misspelled. This will be corrected before the production run.

Security
From a security perspective, the best thing going for these chips are they are only available from a single retailer but they are not that expensive as they'll retail for between .30c - .35c per chip.

Durability
In normal use, these chips should last a long time. The composite material is tough but can be scratched. Also, the chips can be snapped though someone has to be trying to snap them for that to happen. The labels seem well attached and barring any adhesive failures over time, I don't see them coming off without someone deliberately trying to remove them. I was able to remove a label with my fingernail but it took some effort to do so.

Reviewers Comments
All in all, I think these are very nice chips. I much prefer these over the DPs and will probably purchase around 600-800 for a tourney set. The Dunes chips are one of the more popular collectible chips around and its nice to see a low price commemorative version of them. The Chip Room is also planning to make a higher end commemorative version in partnership with BCC. These chips will have the same colors and spot styles as the original Dunes chips. These will obviously retail at a much higher price. For pictures of the original Dunes chips, go to http://www.silver-state-treasures.co...s/thedunes.htm .

Pictures

All Chips


Individual Chips



Stacks



Internals

[KingZilla]

Dunes Commemorative "Pure Clay" Chips
Purchased from: Paulson Poker Chips, Paulson Clay Poker Chips For Your Home Poker Game
Price Paid: $5.99 for a sample set of 10 (available in larger sets @ 30-35¢ each).

I purchased a sample set of these fantastic looking chips with the intention of buying 1000, if they tested ok. Unfortunatly, these chips did not pass muster.

Pros:

• Weight: advertised as 9.5g
• Feel: Only "pro" here is that you can actually feel the Dunes mold.
• Stacking: They will stack evenly.
• Inlay: Very nice printing on the inlay with a very slight texture.
• Appearance: To me, these are the best looking chips for the price. An attempt was made to mimic shaped inlays by the printing technique. The pull it off reasonably well, but fail on the $500 chip.
• Price: About 30¢ per chip, purchased in sets. Again, very reasonable considering the classy appearance.
• Large selection of denominations, from 25¢ to $25,000.

Cons:

• Feel: Hard, slick plastic feel. Other than being able to feel "Dunes" molded into the chip, there is no "clay-like" feel to these at all.
• Stacking: As mentioned above, will stack evenly, but are too slick. Chip stacks will slide apart or fall easily.
• Although made as "Dunes Commerative" chips, the edge spot colors and designs are not even close, excepting the $100 chip.
• Jump in denom from $5,000 to $25,000: They should have gone ahead with a $10,000 chip as well.

Summary:
The original Dunes casino chips are my personal favorite. These chips capture SOME of that look with the inlay design and the house mold. I really like the looks of these chips. But as with other things in life, LOOKS aren't everything. These chips were a disappointment to me. I was expecting something closer to The Real McCoy. If they could find a different manufacture technique maybe the chips would handle better. I have seen NEXGEN chips with the CASINO mold and even though they are slugged, I have read they have a better feel and stack better than plastics. Perhaps on that platform, with more accurate edge spots (and "Dunes" instead of CASINO), these chips would have turned out better and cost just the same.

[links_slayer]

Dunes Commemoratives
Purchased from: The Chip Room - Texas Hold'em and other poker supplies
Price Paid: $0.29 each

I had to take advantage of the sale Jim was having on these chips. I purchased the following quantity of chips:

100 x $100
150 x $500
125 x $1,000
25 x $5,000

I plan on using them for an 8 player T20,000 tournament with the following starting stacks: 10 x $100, 14 x $500, 7 x $1,000, and 1 x $5,000.

Pros:

• Looks: The inlays on these look incredibly close to the real Dunes casino chip inlays. This is one of my all-time favorite inlays.
• Cost: At only $0.29/chip the price is hard to beat, especially when compared to buying authentic Dunes chips which can sell from anywhere between $5 and $250+ per chip.
• Stacking: I know stacking is a big deal for some people. It is not an issue for me, but I was able to stack these 20 high with no problem. I did not try to stack them higher; I did not see the need to do so.
• Sound: When shuffling and splashing these chips into a pot, they sound pretty good. While it is nearly impossible to duplicate the sound of true clay composite chips, these come pretty close.
• Colors: I love the colors of the Dunes chips. They are quite vibrant and look very nice as a set.

Cons:

• Edgespots: I do not like that all of the chips have the same edgespot pattern. My guess is the manufacturing process was the deciding factor in having the same pattern on all the chips.
• Inlays: Some of the inlays were "stuck" together when I took them out of the plastic shrink wrap they came in. It is my assumption that they stuck together due to some of the adhesive leaking out past the inlay. I hope the extra adhesive will eventually wear off and this will not be an issue.
• Colors: Also listed in the "Pro" section. However, some of the edgespot colors were more faint than other similar colors and some were badly smudged. This is a very minor annoyance.
• Feel: These chips are made of plastic and thus have a plastic-ish feel to them but are nowhere nearly as slippery or plasticky feeling as dice chips or super diamonds.