Pirate Playing Cards

[brickzone]

My most recent Lego order arrived today - one of the small items I added in was the Pirate playing cards. These do indeed look fabulous, the box even nicer than in the photos (the red skull is "shiny" - looks great against the matte black).

Here's the issue - the cards stink of toxicy plastic - you know the smell you get from black bin bags that are made from "recycled" plastic? I'm not altogether sure this isn't actually a bad sign - surely with such a smell it suggests there might be dioxins or such from the black plastic on the back of the cards?

Has anyone else encountered this issue with their playing cards, or has anyone else even bought them?

I've left them lying out of the box and spread out in the hopes the smell will dissipate, as I really want to actually use the cards to play with (they are really awesome looking playing cards).

I'm not sure whether to contact Lego or not as maybe the fumes are only temporary - and plus I don't really want to return the cards, I want to have them!

Edited June 15, 2009 by brickzone

[Shadows]

Has anyone else encountered this issue with their playing cards, or has anyone else even bought them?

I have. They smell exactly like all playing cards to me, that heavenly plastic coating smell. Have you ever noticed this smell on normal playing cards, say a pack of Hoyle or even the cards that come in a board game? If it isn't that smell, then something is wrong, otherwise it's perfectly normal and should go away if you lay them out for a while.

[Tom Bricks]

You have smelly playing cards? It's odd that these topics seem to come up every once and a while. I would contact TLC though as it could be serious. And who knows you could get something free from them.

[brickzone]

Smell does seem to have dissipated somewhat over the course of the afternoon. I have bought any number of packs of playing cards before, and apart from a faint odour, I haven't encountered quite such a smell before. However, I asked around irl too and the opinion is that it's just the sheer amount of black ink.

Haven't played with the cards just yet, I've been too busy building Lego. Interesting choice of minifig for the queen though - using the old Queen Leonara head/torso. Green is one of the colours used, it would be cool to have the pointed hat in green as depicted on one of the red suits.

I think I'll just avoid deliberately holding them close to my nose or licking them or whatever :) Should be ok.

Thanks for the feedback!

[commander]

i think the little kids would worry more about the smell...

[Tom Bricks]

Did you buy them online? If you did you could at least mention in when they send you that thing asking how your order was.