How to Make a Custom Box for Sabacc (a.k.a. the Han Solo Card Game)
This past weekend, I finished a project that's been in the works for over a year: a custom box for The Han Solo Card Game (referred to within the Star Wars universe as Sabacc). I've written in the past about my love for tabletop games. Occasionally, that hobby has inspired me to dip my toes into the DIY world. I made a few custom inserts for some of our board games (one for Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game and one for Killer Bunnies). But this project was by far the most extensive. So if you'd like to see how I did it, just keep reading.
I spent a long time figuring out what size and shape the box should be in order to fit
all the components. The game comes with a deck of 62 hexagonal cards, 24 bounty tokens, and two dice.
The box it came in is shaped like a hexagon, to match the cards. But as a result, it's not very sturdy, and the tokens are free to slide all over the inside of the box.
After measuring all the components, I came up with the idea of shaping the box like a cube. From there, it naturally followed to make it look like one of Han's gold Sabacc dice. The tokens and dice would fit down at the bottom of the box, and the cards would rest on a sort of shelf above it. The lid to the box would have a bar attached to hold all the components in their designated areas.
Here's what you'll need to get started.
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Materials List
- 3/16" Foam Core Board (I picked up a 22”x28” board from my local Walgreens, and that was more than enough for this project)
- Craft Glue (I used Gorilla Construction Adhesive)
- Gold Duct Tape (here's what I used)
- Velcro Strips (I originally had 3M velcro strips like these, but I removed the adhesive strips)
- Adhesive Strips (I used 3M Command Strips)
- Black Acrylic Paint Pen (here's what I used)
- Clear Packing Tape (here's what I used)
Tools List
- Utility Knife
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pencil
- A flat workspace (I used a collapsed diaper box so I wouldn't cut into the table with my utility knife)
Foam Core Pieces
Start by cutting out all these basic rectangular shapes from foam core: then cut out all the slots and taps according to the measurements
below.
- Six (6) 4-1/2" x 4-1/2" squares for the Top Panel, Bottom Panel, Front Panel, Back Panel, and 2 Side Panels
- Eight (8) 1-7/16" x 1-11/16" rectangles for the 4 Token Corner Side 1 and 4 Token Corner Side 2 pieces
- Four (4) 1-7/16" x 1-7/16" squares for the Token Corner Top pieces
- Two (2) 1-1/4" x 1-11/16" rectangles for the Token Wall pieces
- Two (2) 1" x 4-1/2" rectangles for the Card Wall Side pieces
- Two (2) 15/16" x 4-1/8" rectangles for the Card Wall Top pieces
- One (1) 2" x 4-1/8" rectangle for the Top Bar Top piece
- Two (2) 1-11/16" x 4-1/8" rectangle for the Top Bar Side pieces
Once you have those basic shapes, cut out all the slots and taps according to the measurements
below (note: all slots and tabs are 3/16" wide):
Note: Later in the project, I trimmed down the "Top Bar Top" and "Top Bar Side" pieces by about 1/8" on both the left and right sides. I also trimmed down the tabs on the Top Panel by about 1/8" on each side, so they are 1-1/4" long instead of 1-1/2" long. Doing this will make it easier to get the lid on and off.
It took me a long time to finish cutting out the foam core pieces. There
was an extensive period of time where I made no progress on project,
because I couldn't motivate myself to sit down with the utility knife
and make the hundreds of precise cuts that my design called for. But I'd
told my six-year-old son Tim about this project, and finally his desire
to help me assemble the box motivated me to finish cutting the pieces.
Assembly Instructions
The Bottom Assembly
Step 1: Glue the 4 Token Corner pieces (Token Corner Side 1, Token Corner Side 2, and Token Corner Top) together.
Step 2: Glue the assembled corner to the Bottom Panel.
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1-2 for the other 3 sets of corner pieces.
Step 4: Glue the two Token Wall pieces to the Bottom Panel.
The Central Assembly
Step 5: Glue each Card Wall Top piece to a Side Panel. Make sure the Side Panels are oriented opposite to each other (see the second picture under Step 6 below).
Step 6: Glue each Card Wall Side piece to a Card Wall Top piece. Make sure the Card Wall Side pieces are positioned over the centers of the Side Panels. (If oriented the wrong way, they will be not be centered.)
Step 7: Glue the Front and Back Panels to the two Side Panels.
The Box
Step 8: Glue the bottom of the Central Assembly (Steps 5-7) and slide it down onto the Bottom Assembly (Steps 1-4). Getting all the tabs and slots to line up might be a bit tricky. Once you have this assembled, push all the pieces together so they are secured tightly.
The Lid
Step 9: Glue the two Top Bar Side pieces to the Top Panel.
Step 10: Glue the Top Bar Top piece to the Top Bar Side pieces.
Gold Coating and Lid Fasteners
Step 11: Wrap the bottom and sides of the Box (Step 8) with gold duct tape.
Step 12: Place the Lid (Steps 9-10) on the Box (Step 8). Make sure you position the Lid so that the top bar is perpendicular to the card walls inside the Box. This will ensure the Lid keeps the Sabacc cards in place in your finished product.
Step 13: Cut one of your velcro strips in half. Cut an adhesive strip to the same size, and use it to attach the velcro to the side of the Box, right below the Lid. Attach the other half of the velcro strip to a long adhesive strip (with the non-adhesive tabs cut off). Attach the two velcro strips together, and fold the excess adhesive strip down onto the top of the Lid. Cover the adhesive strip over the velcro with gold duct tape.
Step 14: Repeat Step 13 on the opposite side of the Box.
Step 15: Coat the Lid (and the exposed adhesive strips) with gold duct tape.
Decoration
Step 16: Use the black acrylic paint pen to draw on the sabacc dice symbols. I used the game's die as a guide, and free-drew the symbols onto the box. You'll have to wait for your first few symbols to dry before you draw the rest.
Step 17: Cover all painted surfaces with clear packing tape.
Inserting the Components
Step 18: Put the dice at the bottom of the box. (I had originally planned for the bounty tokens to go down here too. But I apparently hadn't left enough tolerance in my design. When the time came to slide the tokens in, they wouldn't fit. I started to panic, but we skipped the tokens and moved forward.)
Step 19: Put the cards in above the dice, between the two Card Walls. Set the instructions on top of the Card Walls. (I tried to split the tokens into two piles, and set them perpendicular to the Card Walls at opposite sides of the box. But there wasn't enough room for the Top Wall of the Lid to fit between them. My panic intensified. Would I have to start completely from scratch?!?)
Step 20: (Here's where my son Tim saved the day. He asked if the bounty tokens would fit inside the Top Bar. Sure enough, they were a perfect fit!) Slide the bounty tokens into the Top Bar, and attach the Lid to the Box.
Once we got all the components packed into our new box, the first thing Tim wanted to do was take them back out and play a game of Sabacc! And with good reason; it's a lot of fun. It matches up pretty well to the version of Sabacc ("Corellian Spike Sabacc") seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The only difference is that instead of betting on your hands, the person with the best hand gets first pick at "bounty tokens," which are all worth different amounts of money. The person whose bounty tokens have the highest total at the end is the winner. There's a fun rule where if someone collects enough of a certain kind of token, they can steal the Millennium Falcon token from another player. It's a risky strategy, though, because you don't know if you'll be able to get enough of the right token to steal it, so you might take bounty tokens that are of lesser value in an attempt to steal the Falcon (which is the most valuable token), only to fall short and lose in the end.
You can vary the game and get some poker chips, and bet on your hands instead of using the poker chips. I'm looking forward to trying that some day, but Tim is still a bit too young to understand the mechanics and strategies behind betting.
You can vary the game and get some poker chips, and bet on your hands instead of using the poker chips. I'm looking forward to trying that some day, but Tim is still a bit too young to understand the mechanics and strategies behind betting.
If you want to pick up a copy of the game (perhaps so you too can make a cool custom die-themed box for it), you can find it on Amazon here.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! If you like my blog, and you'd like to receive emails each time I upload a new post, you can enter your email address below. Or, you can "Like" or "Follow" GCD's Facebook page here. You can also find me on Instagram and RCsocial.net, a Catholic-friendly social network on Mastodon. Have you ever designed a custom storage solution for a game? Do you have any ideas to improve upon this design? If you want to express an opinion, ask a question, or give feedback about this post or others, feel free to leave a comment below, or email me at geekycatholicdad@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading! If you like my blog, and you'd like to receive emails each time I upload a new post, you can enter your email address below. Or, you can "Like" or "Follow" GCD's Facebook page here. You can also find me on Instagram and RCsocial.net, a Catholic-friendly social network on Mastodon. Have you ever designed a custom storage solution for a game? Do you have any ideas to improve upon this design? If you want to express an opinion, ask a question, or give feedback about this post or others, feel free to leave a comment below, or email me at geekycatholicdad@gmail.com.
This is so cool!
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