Thunder Road Vendetta: Maximum Chrome Components Overview and Impressions
Thunder Road Vendetta is a game I’ve looked at often but never pulled the trigger on. To be honest, I should have done more research because I wasn’t entirely sure what it was. Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a decent enough game, but I wasn’t really into the racing genre as much as I thought I would be. Turns out that while Thunder Road is a race, it’s a lot different than Heat, and I’m going to like it a whole lot more.
At GenCon 2025, Restoration Games was kind enough to send me home with the Maximum Chrome big box for Thunder Road Vendetta which included the base game and a number of released expansions. I was a bit concerned about all the punching and sorting I would need to do, but it was a much smoother experience than I could have imagined.
Right off the top, I have no complaints with the production of the game, and we will get into that soon. What I wish, though, was that Restoration Games included a packing guide sheet with this Maximum Chrome edition. There are four levels of trays in the box, and everything does ultimately have a home, but with multiple expansions and base game content, it’s nice to keep things as separate as possible.
There was an image sheet that told you what came in the box, but it was not as detailed as I would have liked – thankfully, I’m guessing enough people had questions that Restoration Games did put out an official video on how to pack your box. Check that out below!
First and foremost, when you need to punch as much as you’ll have to punch when you unbox Thunder Road Vendetta, that punchboard better be high quality. It most definitely was, and everything came out of the punchboards with relative ease. In fact, the punch board was so good that some pieces fell out without me doing anything. Thankfully I got through dozens and dozens of punches without ruining a single piece, which I was fully expecting to happen, but thrilled when it didn’t!
The whole process seemed daunting at first, but the trays included in the box are fantastic. One tray for cars and dice, one tray for hazard tiles and an expansion, one tray for cars and drivers, and another tray for all the map tiles. Even without the video, I probably could have figured out how to store this stuff on my own, although that is no excuse for not having a packing guide in the box!
That said, Restoration Games obviously spent a lot of time maximizing the space within the box to make the most sense possible. Keeping expansions with expansions, and separating the generic use-with-any-expansion content all together where appropriate (cars, bikes, Big Rig).
The dice in the game are mostly nothing special. Each coloured set of cards gets standard coloured d6 dice. There are, however, a few custom dice used in the base game and expansions that are pretty neat, and great iconography on the dice means you likely won’t be referring to the rulebook much after your first game or two.
The vehicles associated with all the coloured dice are fantastic as well. I did see some complaints online that the vehicle wheels were stationary to the cars themselves as opposed to free, but an obvious onlooker would recognize having cars roll would be a pretty big problem. I think the cars look fantastic, each miniature car getting a nice wash to give them a weathered look – I’m not sure if this wash is included in the base game boxes. The choppers, biles, and Big Rig vehicles are fantastic as well; and yes, the propellers on the choppers do spin!
Across the entire game, the cardboard tiles are fantastic. Everything is really detailed, and when iconography or words are required, they are large and clear and really help show where things need to go, what things do, etc.
Honestly, I think it could be just a little bit of work to get this game to the table, but the trays will make that experience much more streamlined than if they were not included. I’ve seen big box games like this just have tons of baggies and a few slots, so to see so much dedication from the team to the storage solution is fantastic. And although more content is coming for Thunder Road – we have another expansion unboxing and review coming up! – we feel this big box Maximum Chrome edition is well worth owning IF you don’t already have content for the game.
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Article By Adam Roffel
