Hellcats is a dark art deco themed playing card deck inspired by the original 1946 Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron and their aircraft; the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat. This deck is designed and illustrated by Stephen Lewis of Custom Gambler Playing Cards.

The Blue Angels is the United States Navy's flight demonstration squadron. The team was initially formed in 1946 by order of the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Chester Nimitz. It is the second oldest formal aerobatic team in the world. The first Blue Angels demonstration aircraft was the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat. They were navy blue (nearly black) with gold lettering. The current shades of blue and yellow were adopted when the first demonstration aircraft were transitioned to the F8F-1 Bearcat. This deck depicts the planes in the nearly black navy blue color.

Hellcats has an art deco style characterized by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes and strong colors. The deck will be printed on Premium Stock crushed paper with an Air Cushion Linen Finish by the USPCC. It will be a limited edition run of 2,500 decks, and the deck seals will be numbered.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/customgambler/hellcats/description

Full Deck Scan: https://cardscans.piwigo.com/index?/category/922-hellcats

https://www.portfolio52.com/deck/14694/view

Differences include:

There are many subtle differences. First, this deck has no foiling or embossing on it. Secondly ,all the text on the tuck is different. This deck states it’s the “standard edition”. The V1 deck stated it was the “naval aviation edition”. And lastly, the production year on the bottom will be different.

The Hell-Forged BRONZE DARK RESERVE Gilded Edition Featuring:

• Inherits the iconic back design of the 1st Generation of 666 decks
• Shines in BRONZE COLD FOIL on the back of each card
• Flaunts molten-bronze metallic ink on the faces, numbers, and indices
• Comes blazing-hot off the Cartamundi press, on the famous Slim-line Paper Stock
• Foiled with black and bronze accents on quality matte-paper tucks
• With additional foiled seals showing each numbered decks
• Limited run of 199 decks