One maker · Rochester, NY · Since 2019
In 2019 Joe Abenhaim wanted an insert for Marvel Champions. Nobody was selling one. So he joined a makerspace to learn a laser cutter he'd never touched. Everything here came out of that.
How it started
The whole thing traces back to one game and one missing part. Joe needed an insert for Marvel Champions, went looking, and found that in 2019 nobody was selling one. Not expensive. Nonexistent.
Then he found out his local makerspace had a laser cutter. He signed up and learned the machine the way most people learn anything now: countless YouTube videos and a lot of ruined material. The insert got made.
A few friends asked for one too. Here's the part worth being honest about.
My first version was horrible. You couldn't even get the cards out easily. So I made a tweak. Then another one.
That tweaking is the actual origin of how the studio still works: build it, put it on a table, find what's annoying, redraw it. Several versions later, a friend took delivery of one and said the obvious thing: put this on Etsy. Joe was reluctant. He did it anyway.
The first listing went up in November 2019, and what followed was an explosion of orders. For months Joe worked a full day, then went to the makerspace and cut wood for nearly seven more hours a night. Within a month the shop had earned enough to buy a laser of its own, so in February 2020 he ordered the parts and started building one.
Then in March 2020 the makerspace closed for COVID, and with it went the only machine he had. The Etsy store was suspended mid-momentum. The half-built laser on the bench stopped being a nice upgrade and became the whole business. It ran its first production job in May 2020, and the store reopened the same month.
By the time the makerspace reopened that summer, there was no reason to go back. The garage was already in full production. A second laser arrived in January 2021, and in July 2021 the operation moved into 950 square feet of its own, just down the hall from the makerspace that had closed on him a year earlier.
By 2023 that had become 2,000 square feet: five lasers, five 3D printers, a CNC machine and UV printers. More capability means more of the catalogue can be made properly rather than approximated, which is the only real reason to expand.
Fourteen and a half thousand orders later, the range runs to 85+ products across Star Wars: Unlimited, Disney Lorcana, Primal: The Awakening, Marvel Champions, Arkham Horror and Marvel United, with every piece still drawn, cut, engraved, sanded and boxed by the same person who couldn't find an insert in 2019. Nothing is warehoused. Your order is cut after you place it, which is why we quote a real lead time instead of pretending otherwise.
Across Etsy and our own storefront, every one cut to order.
From more than 2,800 verified Etsy reviews.
Five lasers, five 3D printers, CNC and UV printers.
Drawn, cut, engraved, sanded and packed by Joe.
The materials
01 · Cast acrylic
A token should look like it belongs to the game it came from. The material, the colour and the artwork get chosen per range and then tested over and over until it feels right: clear, frosted, smoke, mirrored, colour-filled, layered. Whatever reads best across the table for that game.
The dials get the most attention of anything we make. Multiple layers, seated magnets, a weighted turn, finished until they feel closer to jewellery than a game accessory.
Colour-matched per game · double-sided · magnet-set
02 · Baltic birch plywood
3mm Baltic birch is strong for its weight, which matters when a box has to survive being carried to game night for years. Most card areas are double-walled, so the wall you actually handle is a quarter inch thick and does not flex when you pull a deck out.
The etching is where the time goes: fine, deeply detailed engraving. Every piece is inspected before it goes in the box.
Double-walled card bays · detailed etching · inspected by hand
03 · 3D & UV printing
From token holders to game inserts and accessories, 3D printing is where it's at. It builds the shapes a flat sheet can't: curves, cradles, housings that hold a magnet at an angle.
We pair it with UV printing to put vibrant, full-colour graphics straight onto the printed part, so these accessories complement the rest of the line instead of looking like an afterthought.
3D print + UV print · full colour · built to match the range
The road so far
2019
No insert existed for Marvel Champions, so Joe joined the local makerspace for access to its laser cutter and taught himself to run it off countless YouTube videos. First version: honestly bad. The cards were a pain to get out. Then came the tweaks.
Nov 2019
A friend took delivery of a much-improved version and pushed him to list it. Joe was reluctant, then listed it anyway. Orders arrived immediately and did not stop. For months it meant a full day of work followed by nearly seven hours a night on the makerspace laser.
Feb 2020
The shop had earned enough for its own machine within a month of opening, so Joe ordered custom parts and started building one rather than buying off the shelf.
Mar–May 2020
COVID shut the makerspace in March 2020 and took the only machine with it. The store was suspended mid-momentum. The laser on the bench went from upgrade to lifeline, ran its first production job in May, and the shop reopened the same month.
Summer 2020
By then the garage was in full production on his own machine. What had started as a workaround was now the business.
Jan 2021
Two machines running in a home garage, which is roughly the point where a hobby stops pretending to be a hobby.
Jul 2021
Out of the garage and into a real shop, a few doors from the makerspace laser that cut the very first insert.
2023
Five lasers, five 3D printers, a CNC machine and UV printers. Enough capability to make a piece the right way instead of the easy way.
Now
Still one person, now with a shop that can cut, print and mill whatever a game needs. 14,500+ orders shipped, 85+ products across Star Wars: Unlimited, Lorcana, Primal, Marvel Champions, Arkham Horror and Marvel United, new sets cut as the games release, and custom work still taken by request.
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Behind the bench
Owner, designer, laser operator, sander, packer and, most usefully, the person who plays the games these pieces are built for. Self-taught on a borrowed machine in 2019, and still the only pair of hands on your order.
He answers the messages too, usually within a few hours. Custom orders are welcome. If you're playing something we don't stock yet, that's exactly how most of this range got started.
