--On February 25, 2006 Billy Brahma wrote:
Please please please do not kill the single color pyramids
distrubution!!!!
Think of Volcano...
Right now to play it costs 48 bucks...
with the new method.. it will cost almost 80!
We now have a heavily demo'd game from the past we can no longer in good
conscience Demo! please reconsider this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Billy! (and everyone else on the Icehouse list)
We are concerned about Volcano too... and are working on several ideas to
make sure the game can be purchased without having to buy 5 of both color
sets of the Treehouse sets.
But keeping the stash tubes in distributions isn't the answer.
The fact that something is in distribution does not make it available in
stores. If only it was that easy! Right now there are very few stores
around the country that sell the pyramids in stash tubes, our largest
distributor orders a half dozen of each color on each restock. They simply
are not selling.
So what are we doing about Volcano?
First, there is the 11th color of pyramids we just made. The fine folks at
KLON just made a whole bunch of little opaque grey pyramids! Our mold
makes 3 pyramids at a time, one of each size - and we had them cut off just
the smalls, and grind up the other two sizes and the runners and toss them
back into the mold again. Over and over again. Until we had 5000 little
grey pyramids - which will make 1000 copies of a new little product called
'Volcano Caps'. (The last time through the mold, we kept the medium and
large grey pyramids - so we will also have full stashes of grey pyramids
coming out soon as a Dangling Carrot exclusive.)
'Volcano Caps' will only be available in our Short Run Depot at first - but
if you have a local store that is selling the pyramids, and wants to sell
Volcano, they can get it from us at a 40% discount. (They can get the
single color stashes too.) So Rabbits can either direct new Volcano fans
to our web site to buy the caps, or talk to your local game store and make
sure they know about our Short Run Depot.
Second, Andy started searching the house yesterday for other things that
might be used as caps for Volcano... so he could mention in the 3HOUSE
book that Volcano can be played with 5 Treehouse sets + 5 of "something you
should have on hand". Little 1 pip Lego pieces works quite well, and my
thought was Cherrioes - but it would be really hard not to pop them in your
mouth and eat them. :) Anybody have any other ideas? A little ball of
playdough poked onto the pyramid would make a pretty functional cap...
Anyway... trust me when I say we care about Volcano. Getting Treehouse
selling in stores is the best step towards the larger mold and the boxed
Volcano set that we will publish eventually (and put into distribution and
into stores everywhere)... but first we need to build up the demand for
the pyramids - and simplifying the message, with this change in the way the
pyramids are purchased in stores, is an excellent path towards this goal.
Please look around your house and think about what else could be used for
Volcano caps!
Thanks for playing and promoting pyramid games!
-Kristin (of the Looney variety)