Metal vs. resin dice

The short answer

Choose metal when the dice are the premium product — a collector edition, a flagship tier or a convention bestseller — because weight in the hand is the whole sales pitch, and die-cast zinc alloy with enamel fill and plated finishes looks and feels expensive. Choose resin when colour is the point: swirl, glitter, translucent and layered bodies that nobody else has, in the full seven-piece set the tabletop world expects. Get Custom Dice makes both as metal dice sets and resin polyhedral RPG dice sets, from a minimum of 12.

Side by side

Weight and feel: why metal sells

Picking up a metal die is the entire sales pitch. The density changes how it rolls and how it lands, and it is the reason metal sets are priced and marketed as a premium tier rather than a standard option.

That weight has one practical downside: metal dice can mark a bare wooden surface, which is why almost everyone rolls them on a mat or in a tray. If you are selling metal sets at retail, Get Custom Dice can supply a rolling mat with them.

Colour and finish: where resin wins

Resin is where the personality lives. Bodies can be solid, translucent, swirled with two or three colours, filled with suspended glitter, or poured in layers that read differently from every angle — and the numerals are inked and recess filled in your own font.

Because no two pours are identical, Get Custom Dice sends a physical colourway sample before any resin production run, rather than asking you to approve a render. Read more about materials in Custom Dice Materials Compared.

Tooling, reruns and planning a range

Metal dice are die cast, so the first run includes a one-time tooling step that Get Custom Dice keeps on file — a second edition, a new plating or a different enamel colour on the same shape costs far less than the first run, so plan a range from the start. Resin needs no tooling, which makes it the easier way to launch several colourways at once. Standard production ships in about 2 weeks after approval; die-cast metal can need longer for its first tooling, and faster turnaround is available with express shipping.

The verdict

Pick metal for a collector edition, a premium add-on tier or a convention table where weight sells the set.

Pick resin for core seven-piece sets, crowdfunding colourways and anything where colour carries the brand.

Many publishers do both: resin as the core product and metal as the flagship. Ask Get Custom Dice for a free mockup of each — the minimum order is just 12 dice, so you can hold both before a full run. See every style on the products page or read the FAQs.