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Hi guys! History time with the DM!

I recently got the above amber dice and wanted to share about them with you all! You might recognize their crystaline shape and you should: they look an awful lot like the Crystal Caste d6s shown right! But: they aren’t! They are the Hasbro Monopoly Millenium Edition dice, published in 1999 for Monopoly! They were briefly made before being pulled out of production when Crystal Caste won a lawsuit against Hasbro for infringement of copyright for a non-basic geometric shape!

We can see that the Crystal Caste dice are a bit thinner and use numerals instead of pips, but the shape is the same. The design was invented in 1998 by Crystal Caste. They created a patent for them in 1999. Hasbro saw them as a convention and admitted to ‘borrowing’ the idea, despite the pending patent as a non-simple geometric shape: 

Cue YEARS of legal battle: letters filed, 2003 lawsuit, all ultimately resulting in Hasbro, the worlds largest game manufacturer, having to stop production and in 2008, being forced to reward Crystal Caste $446,182 in lost royalties for unauthorized use of their patented dice! So, while these beauties will never be made again and represent a big company abusing a smaller company, I’m pleased to add them to my collection for their historical significance. Enjoy!

I am proud of how I did, but the battle was predictable.

“Chronic pain? Can’t relate”

“Mental illness? Never heard of her”

“Cos...play? Cosplay? What’s that”

“Invisible illness? What?”

“I don’t think there’s a market for this”

“Fantasy lovers. Wait, they like Harry Potter and  they are ill?”

I see you. I see all of the posts talking about mental health and mental illness. I know you all are alive. I know you’re here because I am you and I love you. I share the same struggles AS you. We may have invisible illness, chronic pain but we are NOT INVISIBLE. We ARE a market and WE HAVE POWER. I will not let anyone tell me that all of you, people I've loved, my friends, people I dont even know -- aren’t worth it because THEY can’t relate.

I got high score, yeah -- but I didn’t win. And we DESERVE the funding, a spot on the shelf, the marketing....we deserve it all. We are powerful and I am not going to stop because the hegemonic norm “can’t relate”. I will make our experience, our daily experience relatable because it’s what we deserve.  If you’ve not signed up for the Crystal Case mailing list, please do so here 

https://relentless-thinker-5227.ck.page/faa148edad