Actually I think it looks rather tasty.
Peanut is the name that was given to the only board layout in a Catan rulebook to ever show a diagram of an 8 player option. This board layout only ever appeared in the 1996 English second edition rulebook by Mayfair. This same rulebook also included instructions for another 7-8 player game called the "Big Island", but did not include a diagram. It also listed a number of 5/6 player layouts and some alternate rules as well. (To read the 2nd edition manual - click here).
The English 2nd edition was unusual as it varied from the approach taken by the original German game. Instead of a 5/6 player expansion, Mayfair re-released the 1st edition set with the same basic contents, but 4 new player colours and additional pages in the rule book. The original edition came with green, blue, yellow, and red (some sets have a natural or wood colour set replacing one of these 4 colours). The second edition came with purple, orange, black, and white pieces
When buying the second edition, the outer box was only distinguishable from the original by a small sticker in the corner. This sticker was on the outer plastic seal so once opened the outer boxes had no differences at all.
In 1997 Mayfair released the third edition of Catan, which was the base set we know today using blue, red, orange, and white. If you wanted to expand this game you had to wait until 1999 when the English 5/6 player set was first released using the now standard green and brown (3 years after the first German version).
I have put the combined 1st/2nd edition play set shown here into my collection. I also have the seperate sets too, but liked the idea of having an 8 player set ready for a large group. I do admit though this is unlikely as I have never had 8 people together at the same time who want to play. While it will be fun to try once I can imagine 8 players makes for a long slow game, even allowing for builds between turns
