Author Topic: Foam pieces? (Read 1542 times)

joshomme73 · « **on:** February 17, 2025, 02:31:31 AM »

I recently tried Carcassonne at a friends and liked it so much I bought my own copy. I was really dissapointed to find the meeples in my copy aren't wood, but some kind of foam.
That leaves me looking for wooden meeples as well as looking at expansions.
I can get the wooden meeples on ebay, thats fine, but looking at the cost along with the cost of a few expansions - i wonder if it's actually better to go and buy the 2022 'big box' instead.
Can anyone confirm if the big box has wooden meeples in it, not the nasty foam?

Many thanks!
J

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=6827.0

Willem · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2025, 05:27:46 AM »

All legitimate Carcassonne should have wooden pieces.
Did you buy yours second hand?
Or potentially you got a knock off reproduction. There are a few of those known to have (bad) foam meeple.

kheller2 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2025, 01:11:19 PM »

Is there a place / page dedicated to showing the fake games and what to look out for?

djiksvampir · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2025, 12:20:50 PM »

@joshomme73 can you take a picture of them, I wonder what they look like? Also where did yo buy your copy and in which country?

I'm curious because my visually favourite board game, Nibelungen, had two giant pawns, in original German version they were made of wood and in the version that I had, made by Serbian publisher, they were made of cardboard. So I think it is possible that your publisher used different material.

Here at BGG if you take a look at pictures you can see what I am talking about, they have both version:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6386/nibelungen

djiksvampir · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2025, 12:28:24 PM »

Also if we indeed determine that that particular publisher is using different material for meeples, I guess someone in here will have to buy that version as well, @Willem

joshomme73 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2025, 01:36:09 AM »

thanks for the replies everyone.

I hadn't considered that a game like Carcassonne would be so popular that there would be a knock off version - but that does seem the most likely explanation. This was purchased on ebay.co.uk from seller 'all_about_air' for £16.99 including postage.

For those interested in what this possible knock off looks like, here's some pictures of the box and components - the official carcassonne component is on the right in all pictures.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/Q3DTB4TP4W#RcCZVFovZxzY

A UK games specialist was kind enough to confirm the big box they had in stock did indeed have the wooden pieces, and I now have one of those - they aren't kidding when the call it a 'big box', am looking forward to playing some more :-)

Whaleyland · « **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2025, 02:35:18 AM »

The number one clue is that the designer's name has been removed from all of the marketing and, indeed, there is no publisher according to the knock-off. I don't know of any commercial company that wouldn't want to market themselves. There also is quite a bit of foreign language text on the back bottom but all the main text is in English. This doesn't make logical sense. The language of the legal matter should be the same as the marketing blurbs.

The box is also darker in colour than the usual box. This fact alone isn't solid confirmation, but it's a pretty good indicator that the printer used a scanned copy and upped the contrast or lowered the brightness, probably because the scan was too light. I received several knock-off Disney DVDs on Amazon back in 2010-2011 and the same things were evident with those.

Willem · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2025, 04:00:57 AM »

Actually, especially on C2 boxes, the darker, oversaturated colours are a big giveaway for it being a knock off.
There are a lot of these out there, and unfortunately not always as easy to see.

For now, I've seen knock offs of the Base game (C1 and C2) and only a few expansions (mainly a couple of expansion compilations).
There are also some that have adopted a different name, but are clearly Carc knock offs.
I'll see if I can do a post about all of these, just need to grab all of mine together and write it up nicely

Matisek · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2025, 04:12:43 AM »

Quote from: joshomme73 on February 19, 2025, 01:36:09 AM

thanks for the replies everyone.

I hadn't considered that a game like Carcassonne would be so popular that there would be a knock off version - but that does seem the most likely explanation. This was purchased on ebay.co.uk from seller 'all_about_air' for £16.99 including postage..............

That's power

. Foam mepple

Well, one small lesson

. When it comes to games, you should buy new, unused ones. It's a greater certainty than used ones. Nowadays you don't know what other people will send you.

Ker42 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2025, 07:54:45 AM »

Well, one small lesson

. When it comes to games, you should buy new, unused ones. It's a greater certainty than used ones. Nowadays you don't know what other people will send you.
[/quote]

Unfortunately, some knockoffs are sold as new. I once got a "new" Winter Edition which ended up being a knockoff with inferior tiles and malformed meeples. At least if you use PayPal, you can usually get your money back...