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Monday, February 4, 2019

Chaotic Cube outer box from 1970

Some time ago I came across an interesting box.


The box measures about 10 by 10 by 10 centimetres.


According to the sticker on the front it retailed for US$ 3.79 by Sears, Roebock and Co.

The Sears company is an American institute (over the last decade fallen on hard times), with department shops across the country and a hugely popular mail order catalogue.


Inside is another box, with a Chaotic Cube.


The Chaotic Cube dates from 1970 and it must have been produced in quite large numbers. It is not too difficult to find one these days, given that it is almost fifty years old.

A version with outer cardboard box, however, is much rarer. I have come across only one.


The Chaotic Cube is featured in the Sears Wish Book of 1970, which was the catalogue for the holiday season.

scan by www.wishbookweb.com

The list price in the catalogue is US$ 3.44, slightly less than the sticker price on the one I found. Maybe the store price was higher than the price for mail order?

scan by www.wishbookweb.com

The Chaotic Cube is a puzzle game that came in three different colours: white, green and red.

What's the link with Nintendo, you ask? Well, this puzzle was invented and produced by the Japanese company.


It is actually one of the first Nintendo products sold outside of Japan in significant numbers, be it licensed and sold under a different company name. But if you take a close look at the game itself, you can see the original manufacture's name next to the dot on the 'one' side of the dice cube.


For more information on the Chaotic Cube, also known as Challenge Dice, check out this post from 2011.

2 comments:

  1. I don’t know if you still check this blog, but my father in law is an extreme hoarder and I just found one of this in the cardboard box as well. Too cool.

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