So I have another booster box video coming up soon. Today I noticed my box was way different.

Primarily the dice are just loose in the packs. The cardboard wasn't even punched - dice literally falling out of the packs as soon as I tear it open. I haven't seen that before.

Additionally most of my legendaries were changed to be at the BOTTOM of the box as opposed to the top. If you get any NEW booster boxes, take note of that. See if your results are the same as mine. Video will be up later tonight if you subscribe to my channel.

Only 1 of my 3.5 boxes had dice that were NOT loose. (One of these was pre-release)

Only 1 of my 3.5 boxes had dice that were NOT loose.

Wow! news to me. Every box I've pulled boosters from, and every box my buddies have pulled from (that I'm aware of) were all in the cardboard.

Maybe my area (Orlando FL) had our first wave from the batch that was "Cardboard Ready", and other areas weren't the same! lol

All the dice from the pre-release were in the cardboard...

To my knowledge all the dice in shipments after there were loose, its not a big deal i have yet to have a damaged card or anything form it.

At least that has been my experience, i figure they did it once realized it really was not necessary and then stopped doing it to save some cash.

My entire release box was out of the cardboard.

Come to think of it, of the 50 or so packs I've opened, NONE have been in the cardboard "holder".

During the pre-release at my FLGS not a single die was in the cardboard for anyone from two boxes of boosters. The box I bought personally after release, they were all in the cardboard. It's nothing to read into. Just a lazy person on the assembly line.

All my dice from boosters where lose, pre-lease and from booster box when the game was released on the 1st, the cardboard was not punched either, do't think its a big deal.

Ya, pre-release dice were in the cardboard at both locations. My release box from CSI was loose.

I do wonder though. Have any mismatched die/cards come from dice that were in the holder? If something gets bumped on the line and they just put dice randomly back because they weren't in the holder... That could explain a preponderance of mismatches being resolved inside the same booster box as well.

The best explanation I've heard for why this is the case is the shipping issues that this game has been having. Basically, the interest for this game is much higher than expected. FFG use cons, tournaments, and brick and mortar interest for determining how much product they produce. Once prerelease happened, interest for this game skyrocketed to levels that they were not prepared for. When you combine that with the production delays, it makes sense that they would be removing not completely necessary steps in the manufacturing process in order to get out product as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In other words, when you're making large quantities of items in a factory setting, shaving off seconds can save days and weeks in production time. Once supply has caught up with demand, I would expect the original packaging to be reinstated.l but that still remains to be seen

Only dice from pre-release boxes were in the cardboard for me. Every pack I've had since has been loose.

My FLGS only allows six boosters per day per person. With people digging through the gravity to pull anything but the front few boosters, I actually found a loose die in the box. There were only about eight packs left, so it was easy enough to find the pack the dice had squeezed out from, and it was worth the effort as it was Launch Tubes. Still, if the dice had been in the cardboard I imagine it would have helped protect from this a bit more. I did notice that all the packs left in this particular gravity feed weren't fully sealed, the point where the seam was had small gaps. This coupled with forcing hands into the box and sliding them around must have been enough to pop the loose die out.

it was easy enough to find the pack the dice had squeezed out from, and it was worth the effort as it was Launch Tubes.

Better hold on to that. There is no card called Launch Tubes so you ever have an ultra rare, or a custom card!

(I assume you meant Launch Bay actually, and if so, grats!)

Only 1 of my 3.5 boxes had dice that were NOT loose.

Wow! news to me. Every box I've pulled boosters from, and every box my buddies have pulled from (that I'm aware of) were all in the cardboard.

Maybe my area (Orlando FL) had our first wave from the batch that was "Cardboard Ready", and other areas weren't the same! lol

We opened 3 boxes with friends last week. One random booster had the cards ordered backwards. It was not a legendary.

I wasnt gonna complain bc I got 4 Vaders out of my boxes. But the cardboard wasnt punched so dice were loose.

~D

If the purpose of the cardboard is to protect the die and the cards and it's not present, then it does matter. People reaching up into gravity feeds are more likely to bend or even crease cards while still in the pack without the protection. The dice themselves may stress the cards when being pressed. The boxes may still be relatively stable during transport, but any other displacement in the box could damage product. This is a QA issue, especially since the consumer is eating part of the cost of having the cardboard inserts included. That said, the lack of uniform protection/packaging probably won't affect the primary or secondary market too much.

The box I bought sealed had loose dice. The new box in the store has dice in the cardboard.