Custom Dice Manufacturing

We get a surprising number of inquiries from people looking to have custom dice produced for a vast number of reasons: for special events, game releases, book releases, personal use, even trick dice for magicians. Unfortunately, Awesome Dice itself is not a manufacturer, so we are not always able to provide, but we can certainly point you in the right direction. 

First, let's stress the difference between custom dice and customized dice. 

• Customized dice are, in essence, blank stock dice that have already been put into production. Your custom design can then be laser etched or painted onto the surface of one or more die faces. The die itself is not a custom shape or color, and since the design is laser etched as opposed to beveled, it might not sit as deeply as dice produced with a mold. You can get customized dice in smaller quantities and at reasonable prices. However, depending on the material, the per-die cost will often be higher than custom dice and you will be limited to the colors and shapes of stock dice already available. 

• Custom dice are produced through the use of completely custom molds. With a custom mold, the dice can be of any shape, any combination of colors, any opacity, and fully beveled. This is the method you will need if you want a unique size or number of faces on your dice. With this option, there can be as much as substantial up-front costs and you will be required to purchase a much higher amount of dice. 

Custom and Customized Dice Manufacturers

Customized dice can be made in smaller quantities and the costs tend to be affordable. Depending, you may even be able to get price breaks by purchasing large quantities, though it won't bring the cost down to only pennies. You can get customized dice in a variety of styles from: 

• Chessex: Chessex offers customized dice in a large variety of d6 colors and sizes (with customization on the 1 or 6 face), a more limited variety of d10s (with customization on the 10 face), and opaque white dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, & d20 with customization on all faces). The turnaround time for small orders is a few weeks 

• Q-Workshop: Q-Workshop offers customized dice in a large variety of colors and sizes and for every type of die. This includes customization on all faces. As long as you are looking for standard die shapes, Q-Workshop customization will essentially let you get almost entirely custom dice without the cost of custom molds! 

For truly custom dice, you will need to pay for the creation of a custom mold, which could cost anywhere from $100 to well over $1,000 depending on the material and shape of your dice. You will also need to be willing to purchase, at the very least, 50 sets of dice. This number is often in the 100s and can get as high as 2,000. This is particularly true for single die. Manufacturing will happen overseas, so you will also have to pay for shipping, the price for which is rarely ever less than $100. One of our recent, larger purchases reached $900 in shipping. 

Some manufacturers may even require sample fees. On top of all of this, these manufacturers typically only sell to retail businesses. If you want to find a U.S. plastic injection mold manufacturer for your dice, be prepared for the potentiality of paying as much as ten times more for your setup and final product. 

Why the High Minimum Order Quantities? 

Making dice can be expensive. Any single manufacturer's minimum order quantities reflect how many sets they would need to make in order to earn a profit from the sale. They need to earn a profit in order to stay in business. Therefore, different manufacturers may have different minimum order quantities. 

For more information: what minimum order quantity any single project faces additionally depends on the material used, the amount of dice within the project (a single d20 vs a full set of 7), and the dice style (rounded edge vs sharp edge). Of course, this too varies by manufacturer. 

If you are interested in a custom dice project of your own, please feel free to send us an email.