Thursday, April 6th, 2006

Sponsored by Looney Labs

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In last Thursday's report (which wasn't done until Sunday night) I talked about celebrating Alison's Birthday but then got into a huge explanation of our current long term plans for moving to Canada. So, going back to what happened after visiting the Arboretum, we had a particularly big crowd for our usual game name that night. In addition to lots of regulars, we were joined by several out-of-towners: our Rabbit Coordinator Josh, and a couple of our earliest rabbits, Eric Zuckerman and his lovely wife Beth! We had a 3-flavor Cake-stravaganza, and we played lots of games.

The next day, another big tie-dying marathon began. Josh had a whole bunch of stuff he wanted to colorize, and so did other people, so it turned into a big craft project weekend. Various friends came and went over the course of several days, learning the craft from Alison and Josh, and returning later to pick up the finished projects. The crowd included Eric & Beth, Luisa, Izolda & Rich, TV Tom, Petra, Lauren & Shel, Robin, Kristin, and even a couple of kids who live up the street from us who couldn't resist joining in on the fun going on in our front yard.

So, if you know any of these people, get ready for an eyeful of beautiful new tie-dyes!

I didn't take any photos of the tie-dye factory this time around... I was busy with other work all weekend, and never got the camera out. So this week's main image is instead a picture of the Family Fluxx Display Box.

Why? Because it's an endangered species. After experimenting with 2 styles of packaging for Family Fluxx, we've decided there can only be one, and we're choosing to keep only the blister-package format.

This was not an easy decision. We thought it was a great idea, providing our newest release in 2 different packaging formats, since some stores want the traditional display carton while others have been asking for something that can be hung on a peg.

However, it turns out that making both was a mistake. Retailers may have liked this choice, but we learned the hard way that Distributors (the network of companies who supply game stores with products from many different companies like ours) just don't want to handle 2 versions of the same thing. The confusion factor has been something of a disaster, so we're giving up on adding choice, and making the blister-packed version the only option.

A key reason for choosing to go with the pegged version was the way it works as part of our latest reconfiguration of our store POP display. As you see here, Family Fluxx decks can be hung in the left side of the display, on a peg previously intended for holding tubes of Icehouse Pieces. Meanwhile, the pyramids now fit into the narrow spot at the right end of the display, now in the form of Treehouse sets. (It's interesting to note that it was Kristin deciding to hang Family Fluxx decks in the Icehouse Pieces area that caused me to invent Treehouse.)

This display is now available through any of our distributors, at full discount, either empty or packed out with a starter set of games. We have plenty of color ad slicks pitching this deal, perfect for distributors to send on to their customers, along with an adslick describing the three versions of Fluxx, and a brochure all about Treehouse! So our distributors need to be stocking the blister card version of the game.

Anyway, we're taking the display-style version back from anyone who wants to return them, and we won't sell them that way ever again. (Collectors, take note!)