Today’s Mintage Monday is all about metal currency that’s not coins, featuring – you guessed it – Terraforming Mars! I picked up this set of metal cubes from Top Shelf Gamer.
I was not an “early adopter” of Terraforming Mars. I like the game a lot, but my desire to play is just flat ECLIPSED by others in my game group. But once I had it, I was damned well going to upgrade it!
These metal token upgrades are really fantastic, and are a great aesthetic bump for a game that is, frankly, not well known for its aesthetics.
With this particular set of cubes, I have three minor warnings:
1. The silver cubes have a problem with being a tad too reflective, which means they take on other colors and can sometimes blend with the copper cubes. It would’ve been nice for the silvers to be a slightly different size, like their plastic counterparts.
2. They are very heavy. That’s not a problem for me, but I know some people don’t like it, as evidenced by the complaints over the original metal coins for Dinosaur Island.
3. They’re a touch expensive. For enough to handle 5 players, the cost is about $60 USD. Per piece that’s still only about 30ยข, but you need so many that it’s pretty spendy.
All-in-all, though, these cubes are one of my favorite metal “coin” upgrades. In spite of my warnings, I still think they’re a must have for anyone who really loves Terraforming Mars.
Thanks for joining me for another Mintage Monday!
CLICK HERE for the archive of previous Mintage Monday posts, and check back every Monday for more awesome metal coins you can add to your favorite board games!
