Samples At Last!
6 months ago
– Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 08:24:06 AM
DC Heroes fans,
Exciting news: Samples have arrived from the factory! After months of painstaking scanning and cleanup work, licensor approvals, and design work, we finally got to hold actual physical copies in our hands. All we can say is our mouths were on the floor… everything is looking amazing!
Actually, we can say lots more! These are digitally printed samples, but are meant to be pretty accurate reflections of the final product. This is our chance to look for any issues and make any last adjustments before final production.
What we got from the factory:
- both box sets
- all 63 books
- the bookmarks
- the deluxe GM Screen
- the Dice Tray
We were SO impressed with the quality of the books. The pages are made from premium coated paper and it all just feels so NICE. The printing is crisp and the books have never looked so good. The standees from the box sets are printed using actual punchboard so they feel much more substantial than the originals.The GM Screens in the 1st Edition and 2nd Edition Box Sets are much thicker than the originals. The deluxe GM Screen offered in the campaign looks beautiful. And the Dice Tray and Bookmarks are awesome.
We are currently going through each of the books page by page; there will need to be some adjustments on our end (e.g., some pages need some slight tweaks in terms of contrast to be more legible and closer to the originals) and some on the factory’s end. We should finish that process next week and get all the needed updates to the factory pretty soon after.
We are still waiting on samples of the dice boxes and slipcases (you’ll note the white sample) since we needed physical samples to finalize the size of the different slipcases.
Check out the photos and believe that DC Heroes will return soon!
Thanks for your support,
The Cryptozoic Team
Production Update: Closer to Physical Samples
7 months ago
– Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 01:26:00 PM
DC Heroes fans,
We hope everyone is having a great September. Progress continues to be made on DC Heroes! The factory is actively working on physical samples. It may be taking a while, but there are 63 books and 2 box sets, as you know. The factory is printing these samples based on our print files, but they’re also using our physical copies of the original books as a way to make sure everything lines up as well as possible. So it’s painstaking and time-consuming, but really important work when it comes to an amazing final product.
As soon as we get copies in hand, we’ll share photos!
While we have you, we’d like to share some more images! Check out the back of the Slipcase for 1st Edition Modules (Bundle 2 in the Kickstarter) and several pages from the The Green Lantern Corps Sourcebook… one of our personal favorites.
Thanks for backing,
The Cryptozoic Team
Production Update: Eproofs
8 months ago
– Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 09:09:27 AM
DC Heroes fans,
We hope everyone is doing great! We know we’ve been quiet, but things are still progressing quite well. We are at the tail end of the eproofing phase, during which the factory sends us PDFs of the books, cards, and other items for us to double check to make sure everything is present and nothing looks wonky. Also, this is the time they let us know if we need to make any adjustments on our print files. There isn’t much to share during this process, but the next phase will be much more exciting: digitally printed physical samples! Once we have those, we’ll have real copies of the books and extras in our hands to double check and to show you.
In the meantime, we want to thank everyone for their support. We are so excited to get this project across the finish line so that DC Heroes can be out in the world again!
Today, we have a few images to share. First of all, the DC Heroes Core Box 1st Edition has always had something odd about the back cover: It shows blue and yellow dice when (seemingly) all copies have blue and red dice. We asked Ray Winninger about this and he confirmed the dice are supposed to be “Superman blue and red” and he’s not sure why the product image on the back cover never matched. With Ray’s blessing, we have adjusted the yellow dice to red on the back cover. Our edict has been faithfulness to the original books and boxes, but this seemed like an easy update that would prevent some confusion in the future.
We’d also like to share a few images from the Watchmen Module Taking Out the Trash because we love Watchmen. Check it out!
Thanks for your support,
The Cryptozoic Team
To the Factory!
10 months ago
– Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 08:02:13 AM
DC Heroes fans,
We hope everyone is having a great July! We have some great news: We have gone to print! We finalized licensor approvals and sent over print files to the factory at the end of June.
We also did something really unusual: We packed up our physical copies of the original books (organized by bundle) and sent them to the factory as well. After escaping customs (because shipping overseas isn’t so simple anymore), the books will provide the factory valuable resources in making sure the restored copies are true to the originals.
Next up: We’ll get eproofs of all the books as PDFs in the coming weeks. Once we approve them, the factory will print samples. We will share photos as soon as that happens!
While we have you, we’d like to share an image of the back of one of the slipcases (featuring that Superman guy who may have a movie coming out or something…). Backers suggested having a summary of the contents on the back of each slipcase and we thought it was a great idea. Thanks for making the final product better!
Thanks for your support,
The Cryptozoic Team
Green Lantern Dice Sample! Plus Finishing Touches
11 months ago
– Fri, Jun 06, 2025 at 03:51:32 PM
DC Heroes fans,
We hope everyone is doing great! We are getting very close to going to print. Here’s where we’re at:
- All books are fully restored.
- Both boxes are fully restored.
- Some books are still awaiting licensor approvals. It’s a bit of a formality since they’re restorations of existing books, but everyone is on the same page in terms of making sure everything is fantastic.
- Slipcase backs are still out for licensor approval.
- Dice boxes are being finalized according to slightly updated factory specs (we are trying to make them as close as possible to what’s on the Kickstarter page.)
- Dice, Bookmarks, Dice Tray, and GM Screen are all fully approved and ready for print.
We also finally received the Green Lantern Dice samples from the factory, plus updated an improved dice samples for the DC, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman dice. Check 'em out and let us know what you think!
Thanks for your support,
The Cryptozoic Team
