Monday 27 July 2009

X2010 Traditional Camel Bone Staunton Chess Set

Eh, this chess set is alright. Pretty black and white to me. And I don't mean that in the metaphorical sense. I mean literally...very black and white. Most pieces are shaped in the contemporary chess style (which I guess is normal, but sometimes I need a king that shooting rocket propellent out the top of its head to get me going nowadays) but I can say that the paint used is extremely polished. I can almost see myself in these things. Which brings me to an off-track point if I may for a second - they should make chess pieces completely out of mirrors. That would be pretty cool. Anyway, back to this Camel Bone Staunton Chess Set. Very nice classical look.

X2009 King Cross Staunton Chess Set in Camel Bone

Ya know - these kind of chess sets are always fun to write about because I always get to gripe about how insanely detailed they are. Most sets (even detailed sets) are only carved wood, but these guys look like porcelain with imprinted symbols stamped all over them. But these arn't even made from porcelain which can be partially melted and imprinted with a stamp. They are made of camel bone which cannot be melted, which means all of these imprints were hand engraved. Even the king has a hollowed out top. And that cant be easy to do. That Chess Baron store - they keep making these cool sets.

X2008 Margaret Anne Knight 4 inch King Triple Weight Ebony Chess Set

This set is a set of full ebony chess pieces from ChessBaron, and apparently, some great time is put into making these. As I've heard, the entire set takes over two weeks to finish! That's pretty amazing seeing that I would most likely die of boredom making these things, and end up pretending they were golf balls and flying them across a field with a nine-iron for fun. The manufacturer also claims the material used is pretty resistant to cracks and brakes. If I had the money I'd test this out by packing up a hand full of firecrackers and see what happens. Unfortunately the price is set at 170 so I don't think it would be worth the investment for a potential 15 min. worth of fun.

X2006 Ami Elizabeth Staunton Chess Set - Ebonised Black

When I first took a look at this set I said "oh great, yet another ordinary set", but I took another look and realized that this is actually a very nice set. I took a look at the pictures and especially liked the carving on the knights as usual, but also noticed they had a great fancy leather foot pad on the underneath of each of them. No pot leafs growing underneath like some other sets (Maybe that's optional for the stoners) but still a nice foot pad. The pieces are made of ebony (or as the manufacturer says: "These pieces have been ebonised" as if they have been slapped with a palm full of awesomeness) and have a nice paint coating to them.

X2005 Stallion Knight Ebony Staunton Chess Set 3.5 inch King

Your pretty average chess set here. All pieces are pretty short and just about the same height for each. Although I'm not sure if the lines on the back of the knight are suppose to be hair or a spine. Maybe I have bad eyes, but either way, nifty carvings. I still feel bad for whoever is carving this though. These things seem to keep getting more and more detailed and that's gotta suck. But fantastic paint job on one of the sides. Pure shiny black. Very nice looking. But I would still add some crazy color like purple to the other side for fun.

X2004 Carved Chamfered Base in Rosewood Staunton Chess Set

No complaints for this set. All pretty nice looking pieces...except for the king. Most kings have a pretty little cross on their heads, but not this one. I think he sinned and got some satanic looking thing stuck on his head. Might as well slap a swastika on him and call the piece the dictator instead of the king. See - this level of creativeness is how new games are created. Anyhow, on a serious note, the pieces look nice, and look pretty polished and nicely carved. Also cheaper than most I've seen, and that's always good.

X2003 LARGE Lotus Carved Weighted Chess Set

This chess set looks like something vagly from the Disney world magic. Set them up on the chess board and the first line pieces look like castles and the back line looks like some kind of magical wizardry. It's also got an extremely tall king that will make you wonder how they got it that tall without it tipping over. If your a guy, just don't stick this particular piece in your pants. Probably not the best idea. But either way it's an interesting little set. Nice pieces and it looks like nice quality material.

X2002 Carved Chamfered Base Ebonised Staunton Chess Set

A nice set with yet another detailed knight piece. This company seems to be quite into making their knight pieces look as sexy as possible (if a knight can be sexy) But the knight has a tad of a smirk on it's lips that makes me feel like it's gazing at my beauty. But it's nice to be complemented. Raises your self esteem. Maybe it will help you win more. Or you could just get a date. Whichever. Either way it's a nice set with some nice pieces, especially the king and queen. All in pure ebony. Pretty fancy hu? ...well, that is if you think a carved chunk of wood is fancy.

X2011 - Exotic Christina Staunton Chess Set in Camel Bone

Heres another on of these fancy "hard-to-believe-they-cared-that-much-to-draw-all-those-lines" chess sets. Their also made from camel bone which has to suck in carving and shaping. But more on the positive look on things - whoever made this did a pretty nice job. Especially without any mess ups along the way. Although if your not a fancy kind of person, I wouldn't recommend them. They are pretty classical looking to me. But all together, nice style and very nice work on the individual pieces.

X2001 - Margaret Anne Knight Chess Set 3 inch King Ebony

This pretty chess set is made from ebony, which is a bit softer than plain wood but their coated in solid paint, and have a great carving. The knights are especially well carved. They even include teeth unlike lots of other sets. In a way they even look like they have buckteeth. Quite amusing if you think hillbillies are a nice punching bag. The manufacturers are also very quick to point out that the caftsmans' they hire pay great attention to detail in the carving process. So I guess you pay for what you get.