by Kurgan » Wednesday December 15th, 2021 6:12pm
Quick update:
For those curious about the Remake cards, although they have a "linen" texture on them, it is a pretty standard type of finish similar to commercial playing cards of the Poker size (maybe a couple of hairs taller on the top). The boxes and tiles have a textured surface that is different from these card linens. It's hard to explain other than to say that the cards have tiny little "pits" in them that trap air, vs. the box/tiles that have a faint kind of layered string type pattern that gives it a surface texture rather than being perfectly smooth. The Remake cards are a little less "slick" than some playing cards I've handled, so might not be as easy to shuffle as say, a brand new bicycle deck (shuffling only occurs when using the Treasure deck or the "Spell Scroll" artifact cards, under the official rules for 2021 except in very rare circumstances of quest notes like one or two quests where you have to draw a random monster).
The one exception to the "box texture" is the box that came exclusively with the Mythic tier, that holds the "stretch goal" miniatures and the smaller box that holds the Hasbro Pulse "bonus heroes." These two boxes have a smooth, semi-gloss (satin?) type of finish to them.
Incidentally the small box that holds the five "pulse exclusive" heroes (but also Sir Rangar) lacks the paper band that holds the other stacks of cards, evidenced by many people's cards spilling out of this box when they do unboxing videos.
Some have advised using a hairdryer (be careful) to help loosen the "tape circles" holding the boxes together.
The retail versions are distinguishable from the Pledge versions because they contain the familiar black and white "UPC code" square somewhere on the outside of the box. The only way to get (other than buying from a third party re-seller online) the bonus gender swapped heroes still appears to be buying it directly from Hasbro Pulse, which unfortunately isn't available in some territories, so I am told.
The Knight hero expansion seems sold out everywhere but new stock is expected in late January, in territories where it has been available thus far.