More of my thoughts on this thread, in no particular order other than as they occur to me (and, perhaps, personal priority): * Piecenikkers Unite! - I'd like to see a shout-out from folks who want Clear and White to remain available monochrome, even if only available later, after the next production run (i.e. it's OK with me if they are broken up to fill out Xeno sets, for the time being--but only if Xeno is low stock!). * This One Goes To 11 - Gray must stay. Gray must stay. (Say it with me!) Gray must stay. Gray must stay. What began as a mistaken run for Volcano caps has become (a) only the third opaque stash available--perhaps only the second *truly* opaque, if the White Translucency Issue persists--and (b) the symbol of the Serious Icehouse Devotee (err, well... at least once it goes back to being only available with Carrots). * Monochrome Gift Sets - If someone finds that they routinely give two or three monochrome stashes as part of a gift--or even part of a repackaging, if that's legal; is it legal to resell stashes with, say, your own rule book?--should go to the Bulk page and buy up Treehouse in sets of 10. Kristin, would you guys "mix and match" that 10-set, to make for 5 Rainbow and 5 Xeno at the same price? If so, you got The Whole Banana for $80: 10 monochrome stashes to divide up amongst three or four gifts. Heck, I *wish* I'd bought my first 10 stashes for that! Even if they don't mix and match, one can still do just Rainbow or Xeno and be careful not to give identical colors to the same person. That said, it is true that it becomes harder for said gift recipient to then "fill out" their collection with, say, the two missing monochrome stashes from the spectrum with which they started. * Treehouse - For what it's worth, I too find Treehouse to be fairly simple, but that might be the very point: an easy to teach and learn game that's played in minutes, right there at the register. "Sure it's simple, sir, but with this one set you can play upwards of 33 games!" That, however, can not be said of monochrome stashes--I know because I just hand-sorted the entire IcehouseGames.org game list by # sets or # stashes, and there aren't very many games one can play with just one monochrome stash (~12). Most require one per person; and meanwhile, the re-branding has us designers coming up with all kinds of single TH set games. Meanwhile, monochrome-oriented game development is generally stalled--yes, a function of the re-branding as well and probably not an indicator of any kind of Universal Truth regarding "best formats" for games using pyramids. * Treehouse And _____? - That said, I *do* have what I think is generally a better marketing strategy overall, moving forward. Keep Treehouse as the game for Rainbow, but design/choose another great single-set game to put on the tubes for Xeno sets. Further (if there's room on the Xeno tube) you could provide a THIRD game's rules, which requires one of each set. Boom! You got synergies out the wazoo, now: a punter prefers Xeno colors but the Rainbow game (Treehouse) and so he goes ahead and buys both, or vice versa; there's a direct incentive to buy both sets for the third game; folks can see right there on the shelf that IH is a game system, not just a single game; and it could even be a reward to a designer, if the new game is invented as part of an IGDC (Fall 2007?). That would even help to bridge the Icehouse -> Treehouse transition, as now you'd have TWO games called "an Icehouse game" on their packaging, further encouraging folks to google Icehouse and discover the wiki... and 184 more games! * Final Random Thoughts - The Full Index Product page at LL.com page should be organized into "sections" by product (i.e. all Fluxx stuff together; all Chron; all Treehouse, Icehouse, PwP, Martian Coasters, etc). That would go a long way toward making it obvious what "goes together" for the whole Icehouse system (and Fluxx and Chron...). Retailers carry a lot of the brunt of explaining that it's a system and goes by a different collective name (Icehouse); perhaps it's time that an icon or symbol be devised for "Icehouse Game System", to create more instant brand recognition and to tie together products in that same line. We could even run it as a contest on the IHG or Rabbit wiki. My posts are too long. David