[REVIEW] The Crystal Twister Dice Tower

[First published on Tabletop Tribe]
I’ve been wanting a dice tower since I compiled my gamer’s gift list. It’s not that I don’t have room on the table to roll dice, or that I have more money than sense and just want to accessorize something I could do just as well by hand.
For me a dice tower was for dealing with dodgy dice-rollers. You know the type. They waft their hand about an inch over the table and just lay the dice down. I mean why not just place them on the table at the value you want?
Although this rarely happens (and when it does the culprit is usually vociferously berated and/or tarred and feathered), an Anti-Cheating-Bastard dice device seemed like a good idea.
Besides which I’m a sucker for shiny toys.
The Marketplace
Most designs take the “tower” part a bit too seriously with “table castle” approach, or they’re a little theme or genre specific. Or they’re just a bit too MDF. I’m a bit picky.

I did get a folding tower from a Kickstarter campaign that thankfully didn’t sport crenellations, but it was too small, too bland, too crap and certainly not the table centrepiece that I was looking for.

Then one day I saw what looked to be the answer to my prayers: the Crystal Twister from Blackfire Entertainment. Elegant, transparent, not too expensive and featuring a spiral staircase (two in fact) that dice roll down in a glittering sparkle of tilting steps. Nine inches of loveliness. Ooer missus.

Not only would this cure any future cheating git problem, but as dice towers went it managed to pull off the castle tower look with aplomb.
And what’s that? £15* you say? Don’t mind if I do. In fact I might have one for each end of the table.
Assembly
The first thing you have to realise about the Crystal Twister is it’s self-assembly, and you’ll have to set aside at least an hour to get it built. No you didn’t read that wrong. An hour.

The tower components arrive on two roughly A5 sheets of acrylic, which you then punch out into their component pieces. As with the rest of construction, the main thing to remember is: BE GENTLE! The finished tower is fairly robust but the individual pieces are vulnerable to being snapped or damaged when punching out of the sheets or during construction.

You’ll also find a painted piece of MDF with the Blackfire logo on it that serves as the dice tray. And two rubber bands. DON’T THROW THEM AWAY.
As with most commercial acrylic/perspex items, the component sheets come with plastic stuck on both sides. It would be great if you could peel the plastic off before detaching the components from the sheet, but sadly this isn’t possible as the plastic is attached at manufacture and before cutting.

Thus it’s a long-winded 40 minute process to peel the plastic off both sides of each individual piece of the tower prior to construction. Sure, it’s a complete pain, but it’s better than having scratched up tower pieces.

If you have nails then it’s not too much of a drag, but if you bite yours like I do when remotely stressed or nervous, you’ll be wanting to use a blunt butter knife or some sort of plastic spatula (like a clay sculpting tool) to curl up a corner for you to get hold of.

Once everything is peeled, you can start constructing, which is actually easier than it might look at first glance. The instructions are pretty good in fact, and guide you through the process fairly painlessly. There are really only three things to watch for:
- Make sure the verticals are correctly placed. There are guide marks on the bottom. Use them but also ensure the holes that mount the “steps” are ascending/descending right, just to be safe.
- Make sure you mount the steps the right way round, and the same way round all the way up the tower.
- BE GENTLE. If you make a mistake with the verticals then press together the flanges at the bottom to extract the piece from the circular base.
The supplied tool is essential for putting the steps in place, as is one of the rubber bands that came in the box (remember I told you not to throw them away?). Use both these aids well and construction takes way less time than the prep work.
Performance
I’ve found the Crystal Twister performs really well. You can dump a pretty hefty handful of dice in the top and they almost always run through without a hitch.
I’ve had jams right at the top where I’ve dropped two dice directly into the opening at the side of a step and the gap is *just* too small for them to both make it through.
Even then a tiny shake gets things back in order again. If you let the dice out of your hand in a more controlled way rather than just ramming a fistful of dice straight in, you probably won’t have an issue.
I was a little worried the dice would always descend the steps in a fairly standardised way and you’d be able to cheat it by dropping a die in with a certain face up, but there seem to be enough variables for this not to be the case. The twin helical runs and the swivel to the top step give enough randomness from the drop anyway.
It’s certainly looks cool too, glittering away after each drop. So is it that design grail of form and function? Well, not quite.
Gripes
My main gripe is that the tower opening at the top could be ever so slightly bigger. The diameter is *okay* but I’d prefer to be able to hurl some dice in with a little more carefree abandon. It would also give the dice more room to move and so make them less likely to stick, plus of course they could be slightly bigger.
It’s loud. But then all dice towers are pretty loud. I guess the mechanics of the Twister strings out the roll a little longer than most towers, so you notice the noise more. The steps squeakily swivelling for a while after the dice have stopped doesn’t help either, although that’s actually kind of cool.
It also doesn’t work with d4s. Personally I think d4s don’t roll for sh*t even by hand, so I’m happy to halve a d8, which rolls down the Twister well enough.
That said the d8 is still a little prone to getting stuck mid-tower. This might happen one in every ten drops. The tiniest of shakes will send it on it’s way, and to be perfectly honest, I so rarely use a d8 (let alone a d4) that this has never been a deal breaker for me.

It still rolls d8s better than I do across the table, and looks better doing it.
However, if you’re hoping to use a tower for your full gamut of polyhedrals for your favourite RPGs (obviously not that d20 system crap), then you’d best look elsewhere.
Conclusion

Overall I think it’s a great-looking and well-performing dice tower, and at the price it’s very good value considering the competition. Sure, you’re going to have to put aside an hour to build it, but at the end of it you’ll have something that will work well, look pretty funky on the table and be a talking point at your games night… at least the first time folk see it!
Pros:
- Looks cool.
- Works well.
- Pretty cheap compared to the competition.
- Good construction instructions.
Cons:
- Takes a good hour to build.
- Fairly loud.
- No d4 support and d8 can be occasionally problematic.
- The top could be *slightly* wider.
[*Prices vary: Boardgame Extras — £15+£2.75 shipping; Amazon — £20.41+Free Delivery]

