Max Eddy of Geekosystem rounded up pictures and information about unusual and macabre chess sets, such as the above set inspired by the Alien movie franchise. Facehuggers make appropriate pawns.
You know what would be good to see? A chess set inspired by the chess episode of Lexx.
Link | Photo: Contaminated
Which would presumably lead to a 16-month period of you having this sad partially-completed chess-set with salt shakers or whatever standing in as pieces until you could get all of them on the installment plan.
One time I was in a store that mainly sold Dungeons & Dragons stuff (sadly, now long departed), but which also sold elaborate chess sets. I overheard a guy and his wife or girlfriend looking at them.
The guy had obviously been seeing those ads. "We could buy two pieces a month."
His wife or girlfriend looked at him like he was from the moon. In a voice that could not be more disdainful, she replied, "That's stupid!"