Author Topic: An Afternoon at Basically Wooden (Read 8178 times)

Decar · « **on:** February 10, 2018, 11:55:00 AM »

We took a trip to see Andrew and Sue at Basically Wooden this afternoon.

It's the first time I'd been up to see them, I hadn't realised how close they were (about 50-minutes). I had a big order to pick up so thought it would be a way of saving a few quid on postage.

We got the grand-tour, looking at their fine machinery, varnishing suite, early prototypes and immense stores.

I took a few photos too:

To begin with we got up close and personal with their machinery:

We got to see just how fast and accurately their lasers could work, etching a prototype design for some shop-window product boxes.

Then I took some sneaky shots of some recently completed inserts:

In the main workshop Andrew showed me the Big Box of Catan he had recently finished. The trays slot on top of each other and can be easily lifted out:

I'm glad I'm not a Catan player!

This is the Carcassonne work station, they had been asked to produce a Mega Carcassonne box, which I assumed would hold all the spin-offs too. It will contained ~24 tile trays and 6 trays for tokens, which are the same size as the Big Box. It was pretty incredible to see - The Carcassonne Chest I suppose!

We headed up to the Varnishing room, which houses a lot of the projects nearing completion:

You can see some Firefly and Arkham box sets, as well as Carcassonne and their infamous Bee Boxes!

Andrew also had a set of children's toys, I forget where they were originally from - but were charming:

Ticket To Ride Boxes are very popular too!

Here's a great view of the entire workshop:

We marvelled at their Dragon, he's called George

We took a look at some of Andrew's early prototypes, locked away in 'the back room' - some of these things are likely to be making a reappearance at some point, so I didn't snap any pictures!

Then we took a look at some bits and bobs in the main shop:

I particularly liked these card-holders, they come in two sizes, my wife thought they'd make a great travel-craft-project box:

Here's another card box:

If you've been following Basically Wooden you'll know they have a range of magnetic token/card trays. One of their newest pieces is a double-sided card-stack. I thought it would be great for any 2-player deck-building games, or function as a discard:

All the magnetic components slot together too.

I love these deck boxes too:

So it was time to come home, here's a photo of all the things we collected:

A Bee Box and small Bits Box:

The Dominion Box, the original reason for going

The larger card box, (travel craft box), and bee-hexagon.

You'll also spot the original prototype Carcassonne-travel box. Andrew has a couple more of these, which he considered seconds, due to some faults in the wood or cutting process. Let me know if you're after one

The Bee Dice Tower, I really like my BW dice tower, and couldn't say no to this design. There have been some improvements to the standing mechanism too:

A 7 Wonders Box Insert, the other reason I was originally going for:

Basically Wooden have been making several Gloomhaven boxes, one of their ongoing problems is they have a lot of off-cuts they don't want to waste, so we found a home for some, but we're looking for novel ideas for them. The hexagons are Catan sized and the meeple, well they're just meeple

All in all a great little trip - we're very glad Andrew and Sue could accomodate us on our visit. I'm looking forward to seeing them again soon and their future projects

Now...to start sleeving Dominion cards

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=3837.0

Beachcat · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2018, 12:42:04 AM »

Thank you showing all the photos ... really enjoyed seeing behind the scenes.

I bought their big Carcassonne box last Summer for all my first edition tiles, and shall soon have to buy another for the second edition tiles.

From their December newsletter, I'd seen they were going to introduce a Catan box and have nearly completed my collection of all the expansions, so will soon be ordering one of them ... I'd better start doing some weight training! Plus, I've a full set of the current Ticket to Ride games, which will also need a couple of boxes

I see you have 2 Dominion boxes ... how many sleeved cards will you be able to store in each? I don't yet have Dominion, but it's on the wish list.

Decar · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2018, 12:55:02 AM »

Welcome to the forum beachcat! Thanks for taking the time. The ticket to ride boxes were really nice, but I can't remember how many maps each box holds.

As for Dominion. I think these two boxes will host mostly everything produced. They make a really big box, but I felt it was going to be too huge for the shelf. Instead I've gone for two smaller boxes which aren't as long. We have an afternoon of card sleeving ahead of us so I'll be sure to post a few images as each expansion goes in their new home!

Decar · « **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2018, 02:34:19 PM »

Hi beachcat, we spent the afternoon sleeving.

Still have guilds and cornucopia, the alternative base cards and promos to sleeve up.

Im pretty hopeful I can fit those all in. Each row can fit about 600 cards sleeved with tinmen sleeves. Though i need to sort out dedicated dividers.

Im hopeful that I'll squeeze in the 2nd edition cards into the remaining column, maybe with a bit of overspill.

Here's the current standing:

franks · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2018, 03:33:08 PM »

Decar, thanks for sharing from the inside!

These folks are such a pleasure to order from! Always great communication and beautiful work. Still tempted to get one of their beautiful big boxes!

jungleboy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2018, 12:30:33 AM »

Quote from: franks on February 11, 2018, 03:33:08 PM

These folks are such a pleasure to order from! Always great communication and beautiful work. Still tempted to get one of their beautiful big boxes!

I have two of them. Highly recommended!

Chartreusito · « **Reply #6 on:** February 12, 2018, 03:30:37 AM »

Nice visit, happy to have a look behind the scenes !

danisthirty · « **Reply #7 on:** February 12, 2018, 04:22:57 AM »

Great photos Decar, thanks for sharing!

Beachcat · « **Reply #8 on:** February 12, 2018, 07:44:37 AM »

Thanks for the views inside the Dominion boxes ... I can feel a purchase coming on!

Decar · « **Reply #9 on:** February 12, 2018, 07:50:19 AM »

I should have it all sleeved up and in situ this evening - will post some picks of the final layout

Rich_The_Fish · « **Reply #10 on:** February 12, 2018, 10:50:27 AM »

I love their stuff so it was great to get a glimpse from behind the scenes. Thanks very much for sharing Decar. Merit

Mr Meeple · « **Reply #11 on:** February 13, 2018, 02:25:31 PM »

Thanks for sharing, really appreciate the stuff they are doing. I'm excited to see what they plan to release in the future.

The big Carcassone box is really huge