Review of e-Raptor Small Dice Tower Tyrannosaurus Rex

Blurb from the publisher: 'The smaller version of our Tyrannosaurus Rex Dice Tower, just like its bigger brother, is made of high quality Plexiglas with a beautiful, improved overprint.

Every Dinosaur Dice Tower from this collection has different size and its own style. Their overprint is way better than anything we have printed on this material before - you can even feel the texture imitating the skin of a dinosaur. What is more, when assembling the Tower, you can choose if you want to have the smooth surface on the outside or do you prefer the one with overprint. Every tower is easy to assemble and can be assembled without glue.'

What you get: Your EUR 12 or equivalent will buy you the e-Raptor Small Dice Tower Tyrannosaurus Rex, a dice tower for use with any game that uses dice and can somehow fit dinosaurs into its theme (this includes Firefly, as expected). The tower is comprised of seven plexiglass pieces. The side panels portray a green Tyrannosaurus Rex growling towards the sky. When assembled the tower has a height of 11,5 cm, a width of almost 8 cm and a length of 16,5 cm. From the moment one throws a die to the moment it hits the ground and rests, it will have touched three different angled platforms.

The strong points: Shiny! I had never thought of dice towers themed after the Mesozoic Era, yet here we are. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is the only of the dinosaurs who made it in the small iteration of this dice tower. If you prefer him at a larger size, or if you wish to field one of his brothers instead (the Triceratps, a second Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Velociraptor), you will also want to see e-Raptor's large Dice Tower range. We will visit these products shortly.

This is a pretty tower, to say the least. I was not kidding before; it looks shiny and modern, full of energy and confidence. You can choose whether you want to have the textured side inside or out. I went for inside, because I wanted the reflective surface outside, shining bright towards everybody. What good is a dice tower if people don't notice it?

The tower is very easy to assemble once you understand how to. The whole ordeal of mantling the tower lasts about a minute. The pieces are sturdy and without small or flimsy-looking hooking extremities, which allowed for a better use of force while assembling. The pieces are interlocking through movable yet practically unbreakable parts. If you make a mistake or two, you will be able to backtrack. You will be even able to fully disassemble the device for storage or transport, even though I wouldn't recommend making a habit out of it.

Once built the tower is sturdy. I experimented by throwing it on the table from a resting position; the tower stayed intact. I did not dare throwing it from the table to the ground however. Why tempt fate after all?

The weak points: Even though there are only seven panels in the tower, I would have appreciated some instructions. I needed to backtrack twice when assembling the tower, when I realised that my panel placement was going to result in the bigger dice getting stuck. Why do the same work twice?

Unfortunately the tower has a major engineering flaw that severely reduces its usability. The space between the lowest inclined panel and the blocker at the front of its base is less than 5 cm long. This means that as the dice are coming down full force, they will hit the blocker and return towards the platform. Seeing how the tower is designed, with the tyrannosaurus bending forward and the sides being coloured, visibility is extremely low. You and your co-players will be literally stooping to see the results of your rolls. Things will be even worse if you have dice with dark colour combinations or sub-optimal light conditions. Unfortunately, this is not a problem that can be fixed, unless you remove the blocker. In such a case however, your dice will roll some 30 cm in front of the tower. Isn't the point of the tower to use space efficiently?

The tower is not as stable as I wanted it to be. Namely, it appears to rest on only three quarters of its ground-touching areas. Touching it makes it move like an old chair that needs a protector pad. Again, this is disappointing.

One can always allege that dice towers distract from the game if their theme is not relevant. I do not feel that way; they are tools to use on the gaming table. If one however is a purist and does not wish this tower in his contemporary or sci-fi game (bar Firefly, I repeat), then one might have less use for the this tower than I do. Speaking of tools, like with any dice tower, wooden or plastic, rolling the dice on one is more noisy than rolling on the tablecloth or inside a game box.

Conclusion: The e-Raptor Small Dice Tower Tyrannosaurus Rex is a pretty design, unique and unusual at the same time. Unfortunately, the way it is constructed seriously reduces the visibility of the rolled dice, something that beats the point of having a dice tower. As much as you like dinosaurs, this doesn't work the way it should have.

To find out more about e-Raptor and its Small Dice Tower Tyrannosaurus Rex take a look at http://e-raptor.pl.

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