Zazz Polyspheres (Dice)

(image source: boardgamegeek.com)

History

There are several articles online that provide a good history of these, including Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, 20 Faces of Fate Throwback Thursday, and 20 Faces of Fate ZAZZ Polyspheres. Essentially, these were patented, created, and sold in the early 1960's by Fredda Sieve as a counting dice game. There's no known connection to early role playing gaming, these seem to have escaped everyone's notice in the early TSR years. 

Generations

Only one generation of these dice were manufactured. They appear to have been created with molds of the 5 shapes, and then hand numbered afterward. The colors of each die are consistent: an orange d20, white d12, green d8, purple d6, and blue d4. Uniquely, the d20 contains all numbers 1-20 (unlike the later Creative Publications dice which were numbered 0-9), and the d4 has only a single number on each face.

These came in a small plastic case with a Hong Kong stamp on it, and a paper sheet with game rules:

ZAZZ
played with
POLYSPHERES

The Game is called ZAZZ and it is played     
with the 5 Natural Solids (Polyspheres).     

TETRAHEDRON...... has 4  Triangular Faces 
CUBE.. .. ... . . has 6  Square Faces     
OCTAHEDRON .....  has 8  Triangular Faces 
DODECAHEDRON...   has 12 Pentagonal Faces 
ICOSAHEDRON.... . has 20 Triangular Faces 

Instructions: Each player throws all 5 solids 
at once as he takes his turn. Player inspects 
top faces, particularly all 3 showing faces of
the TETRAHEDRON. He then adds all pairs       
or matching numbers plus any number over 12   
that appears on the ICOSAHEDRON.              

Example: Throw shows...TETRAHEDRON            
1, 3, 4... ..CUBE  6....... .OCTAHEDRON       
3.......... ..DODECAHEDRON  8.............    
ICOSAHDRON 14                                 
Add 3 on TETRAHEDRON to matching 3 on         
OCTAHEDRON to 14 on ICOSAHDRON.               
Score is 20 points.                           

Bonus of  20 Points for 3-of-a-kind
Bonus of  50 Points for 4-of-a-kind
Bonus of 100 Points for BLAST OFF  

BLAST OFF occurs when the same throw         
shows no pairs, 3's, or 4's-of-a-kind and the
number appearing on the ICOSAHDRON is        
under 12.                                    

A cumulative score of 100 points or a BLAST  
OFF wins the game.                           

ADVERTISING ATTRACTIONS, INC., N. Y.
COPYRIGHT 1963

(Dice net for Zazz Polyspheres, all but the d20 were created based on online photos, font is not correct)

Note that since these are hand-inked, there can be some inconsistencies in how the numerals are represented. For example, on my d20, the faces with 1's on them are inconsistent. The numbers 10, 11, 16, 17, and 19 have no base and a flag/slant on the upper left of the 1, while the numbers 1, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 18 are simply a single stem with no slant or base. Online photos of the non-d20's show some faces that had the flag/slant and bases on numeral 1's. I just don't think there was consistency in the hand-inking process.

Reprints & Retroclones

None that I'm aware of.

My Memories

I never had these dice as a teen, and like most gamers, had not even heard of them. I first encountered a reference to them at Jon’s Playing at the World blog, not long ago.

However, my grandparents on my mom's side had one of the black Squibb d12 calendars that Jon references in his article, but I don't remember which year and don't know where it is now.

My Dice

I only own a Zazz d20, and it is a very recent acquisition. I would love to acquire more, but I consider the possibility to be very very slim. My Zazz d20 appears to be barely used, with only minimal signs of rolling on the vertex points. I would love to obtain a Zazz d4, d6, d8, and d12 as well.

I absolutely love the hand-inked numbers!

Minutiae

You can play Zazz today on Steam with a tabletop simulator. There is more information available on the Steam game and its development.

I tend to judge value of some dice based on rarity, and what can be found online. I tend to use worthpoint.com to see historical auctions. There are only 3 auctions of full Zazz sets on the site, and only 7 overall including incomplete sets. With that few sold in the last few years, it indicates that these are very rare indeed, and I'm not likely to obtain any more of them.