Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Aug 2, 2016 03:07 AM UTC:
There's an old thread devoted the idea of Universal Pieces (started by CVP editor Joe Joyce, circa 2007), if one clicks on "List all subjects" on the Comments page. It comes very close to the notion I was thinking of, namely assorted fairy chess pieces being manufactured & sold individually &/or in a customized set for a customer order. I might have said these could be 3D western style pieces (not really for, say, Shogi) that wouldn't clash if used with a standard chess set made of the same material. In fact such a manufacturer could stick to just plastic fairy pieces, all compatible with each other.
The hard part could be assessing which pieces (of the endless ones) would be worth producing in the greatest numbers in the shop ahead of orders coming in. Some would be easy choices, such as Archbishops (which could alternatively have a different figurines if the customer prefers to call them, say, 'Princesses'). Some could be made as unique special orders from scratch if a customer is willing to wait & perhaps pay a little more. It does seem like a very dicey proposition for anyone thinking of trying it, but it could be a safer bet if combined as a sideline with the (possibly existing) production of standard chess pieces of compatible style, for example. It's too bad there seems no way to estimate how many CV players there are worldwide (not counting Chess, Chinese Chess or Shogi, at least). That could help anyone thinking of such a venture. Perhaps a unique visitor hit counter for this website might be installed at some point, to get a crude estimate of the amount of interest in CVs out there.
[edit: The total registered users of this website at present is 3401, if that's useful to anyone; the number of members of the Chess Federation of Canada presently is only about 2000. The CVP pops up early when one Googles "Chess Variants", so a unique visitor hit counter might indeed over time have a good chance of roughly indicating global interest in CVs.]
There's an old thread devoted the idea of Universal Pieces (started by CVP editor Joe Joyce, circa 2007), if one clicks on "List all subjects" on the Comments page. It comes very close to the notion I was thinking of, namely assorted fairy chess pieces being manufactured & sold individually &/or in a customized set for a customer order. I might have said these could be 3D western style pieces (not really for, say, Shogi) that wouldn't clash if used with a standard chess set made of the same material. In fact such a manufacturer could stick to just plastic fairy pieces, all compatible with each other.
The hard part could be assessing which pieces (of the endless ones) would be worth producing in the greatest numbers in the shop ahead of orders coming in. Some would be easy choices, such as Archbishops (which could alternatively have a different figurines if the customer prefers to call them, say, 'Princesses'). Some could be made as unique special orders from scratch if a customer is willing to wait & perhaps pay a little more. It does seem like a very dicey proposition for anyone thinking of trying it, but it could be a safer bet if combined as a sideline with the (possibly existing) production of standard chess pieces of compatible style, for example. It's too bad there seems no way to estimate how many CV players there are worldwide (not counting Chess, Chinese Chess or Shogi, at least). That could help anyone thinking of such a venture. Perhaps a unique visitor hit counter for this website might be installed at some point, to get a crude estimate of the amount of interest in CVs out there. [edit: The total registered users of this website at present is 3401, if that's useful to anyone; the number of members of the Chess Federation of Canada presently is only about 2000. The CVP pops up early when one Googles "Chess Variants", so a unique visitor hit counter might indeed over time have a good chance of roughly indicating global interest in CVs.]