Tatuaje Announces Unlucky 13 Retailers for 2015 Monster Series

The Unlucky 13 list for 2015 is out.

As has become tradition, Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars has announced—via his private Saints & Sinners forum—the list of retailers who will receive dress boxes of this year’s Tatuaje Monster Series release. They are known as the Unlucky 13, 13 retailers who will each receive 31 13-count dress boxes.

If the numbers are getting to you, it’s on purpose. A total of 666 dress boxes are released, the bulk of which go to the Unlucky 13, although other retailers will receive between one to three dress boxes. In addition, Johnson makes an additional 34 dress boxes for himself; while the 666 are numbered, the remaining 34 are not.

And in addition to the 666 American dress boxes, which feature white paint, there are 62 gray dress boxes made for Europe.

But that’s not all. While the dress boxes will sell out quickly, The Hyde will be readily available. Johnson told halfwheel production will be the same as last year, 4,500 boxes of 10 cigars in addition to the dress boxes. The only difference between the cigars is the dress box cigars do not come in cellophane, where the 10-count boxes do.

The final break down looks like this:

• 403 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars (31 boxes of 13 per store) — Unlucky 13 Dress Boxes
• 263 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars — Non-Unlucky Dress Boxes
• 62 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars — European Dress Boxes
• 34 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars — Not for sale, unmarked dress boxes
• 4,500 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars

As for the cigar itself, The Hyde is a 7 x 49 churchill that features a rounded cap similar to the famous Cuban 109 size. It’s identical in shape to last year’s release, The Jekyll. The cigar uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper over Nicaraguan binders and fillers. The Hyde features a reverse color scheme to The Jekyll, white text on a lime green background as opposed to green on white. It is the same blend that was given out in prerelease form at the 2014 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.

The Hyde, like the rest of the Monster Series releases, will retail for $13 per cigar.

This is the eighth, of 13 planned, Monster Series releases, all of which are based on characters from fictional monsters. This year’s released is based on the Mr. Hyde character from Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Johnson told halfwheel that the cigars will ship on Monday.

The retailers are:

• Famous Smoke Shop
  Easton, Pa.
  800.278.9732
• Federal Cigar
  Portsmouth, N.H.
  603.436.5363
• Fox Cigar Bar
  Gilbert, Ariz.
  480.917.3117
• Iwan Ries & Co
  Chicago, Ill.
  312.372.1306
• Lone Star State Cigars
  Plano, Texas
  972.424.7272
• Maxamar Cigars
  Orange, Calif.
  714.633.3000
• Neptune Cigars
  Miami, Fla.
  800.655.3385
• Old Oaks Cigar and Wine Co.
  Thousand Oaks, Calif.
  805.494.1886
• Sanj’s Smoke Shop
  Bloomfield, N.J.
  973.743.0693
• Signature Cigars
  Washington D.C.
  202.244.6040
• Sir Tom’s Tobacco
  Spartanburg, S.C.
  864.587.1566
• Tobacco Leaf
  Jessup, Md.
  410.799.2094
• Z T Cigars
  Oklahoma City, Okla.
  405.942.0070

To date, only one retailer— the defunct Gloucester Street Cigar—has been selected more than once for the Unlucky 13.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.