It's been a week or two since I've had a chance to be pedantic, so here
goes:
Buddha Buck wrote:
> Stackable pieces have not always come in tubes. My first set (of 4
> stashes) of Stackable pieces came in a clear plastic box which I think
> was sold as a "Martian Chess Set", although I'm sure others will
> correctly inform me of a different name.
ICEHOUSE The Martian Chess Set.
(First shipped in Nov of '99:
http://wunderland.com/WhatsOld99/WN.11.11.99.html )
> It was impossible to get
> individual colors as a stash for a while. I believe I got a different
> set of 4 stashes as part of the Zendo boxed set (which I only bought
> for the pyramids, already having the rules for Zendo handy).
Both the "Martian Chess Set" and Zendo came with Green, Red, Yellow and
Blue.
> I don't know if
> individual tubes were available at that time yet, either. I
> believe the tubes came about as part of a marketing attempt based
> around one of the games which can be played with fewer stashes than
> Zendo or Ice House.
If I read the archive correctly, the first colors available as single
stashes were purple and orange. (Nov of '01):
http://wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2001/WN.11.22.01.html
Zendo came out June of '03:
http://wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2003/WN.06.12.03.html
IceTowers, the second boxed set with Purple, Cyan, Clear and White. came out
December of '03:
http://wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2003/WN.12.04.03.html
It sounds like the monochrome tubes first came out as a way to sell pyramids
that weren't available as part of ITMCS. Purple was later available in
IceTowers, but Orange wasn't a part of any boxed set (ITMCS, Z or IT).
Ryan