We’ve seen some good variants on classic board games introduced over the years by USAopoly, and this next merger will appeal to fans of Dungeons & Dragons’ recent years of comic book stories. Clue: Dungeons & Dragons is a licensed update to the 2001 edition of the game with new characters, playing pieces, and gameboard. It’s the game of Clue with a Dungeons & Dragons theme, a good way to pull in younger players who aren’t yet ready for roleplaying games, but want to join in with stories of fun fantasy adventurers like Minsc and Boo.
Only three would take their honored places in the Hall this year when they were announced at a ceremony this week at The Strong in Rochester, New York. The National Toy Hall of Fame recognizes toys “that have engaged and delighted multiple generations, inspiring them to learn, create, and discover through play.” Criteria for induction include: Icon-status (the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered); Longevity (the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations); Discovery (the toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play); and Innovation (the toy profoundly changed play or toy design). A toy may be inducted on the basis of innovation without necessarily having met all of the first three. So what made this year’s cut? American Girl Dolls, the Risk board game, and sand–yep, look out Anakin Skywalker, your least favorite thing is one of the favored playthings of this world.
Which of these 12 toys would make your list for 2021?
The beauty of all these toys? We did some of our own research and about 95% of them are still available for today’s generation of kids. Just click the toy name above and you’ll find most available at Amazon right now. Want to spoil your kid and get them one of each of the 78 toys in the Hall (or donate a set to your local community center)? It’ll cost you about $1,840.
Two years ago here at borg, we talked about Hasbro′s turn at offering its classic games in mash-up form, with Monopoly, Clue, Taboo, Scrabble, and Speak Out colliding with former Milton Bradley games Candy Land, Connect 4, Guess Who?, Jenga, and Twister. Hasbro’s next line of classic games takes your favorite board games outside. They’re in the form of beach towel backpacks that transform into a giant board to stretch out on the beach or at a park, at last giving you something to do when you’re enjoying this summer. We tried out Beach Towel BackpackClue and found lots of reasons why this could be your new version of choice (check out our review below), Connect 4, Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, and a new take on one you’ve probably seen in a giant towel version before: Twister.
In the spirit of The Prisoner, Clue, Sneakers, Ready Player One, Dispatches from Elsewhere, and Kingsman,Cutting Edgeis a new series by fantasy author Francesco Dimitri and award-winning Italian artist Mario Alberti arriving in comic book stores this week. March 2012. Dozens of the greatest minds, the world’s elite, receive letters from a mega-finance corporation inviting them to an event in London, with no further information. Among them, Joshua Malinot, a painter, Hiroshi Itou, a noted genius in physics, Stella Orsini Del Giglio, a post-scandal heiress, Jirakee Walker, a prize-winning National Geographic photographer working in Australia, a suave playboy who goes only by the name Delroy, and Mark Underwood, a social psychologist and expert in information. What do they all have in common? Someone believes they are the “Cutting Edge” of society.
As we inch closer to Christmas, Hasbro Gaming is making its latest effort to breathe new life into its classic board games. The new idea is mash-ups of classics, combining two games into one, which should tap into the nostalgia of long-time players. The game company is taking its recently developed game Speak Out and its famous acquired Parker Brothers inventory Monopoly, Clue, Taboo, and Scrabble, and combining them with its celebrated former Milton Bradley games Candy Land, Connect Four, Guess Who?, Jenga, and Twister. The result: Hasbro Mash-Ups, some strange combinations, but new twists for family game night, all at less than $21 each retail price.
The best bet looks to be Monopoly Jenga. This game adds some additional strategy to the wooden block game where players remove a piece of the tower one by one until the tower collapses. The Monopoly twist is adding color-coded Monopoly properties as blocks: Railroads, Free Parking, Chance and Community Chest cards, and a Go to Jail block. The goal? Collect the most properties, property sets, and railroad blocks without making the tower fall.
The strangest is Hasbro’s Taboo Speak Out. There’s something really creepy about a family game with mouthpieces, and the box cover art doesn’t help much.
Perfect for ventriloquists, but a problem for everyone else, the speaking barriers are the key twist to the fun classic Taboo game. The rules are simple: Give clues to get teammates to say the Taboo word on the card, without using any of the five forbidden words, all while wearing a Speak Out game mouthpiece. Easy peasy, right? Maybe not.
The detective strategy game Clue is making another comeback. Today IDW Publishing is releasing the first issue of a three-issue comic book miniseries called Clue: Candlestick. Writer-artist Dash Shaw is also serving as series letterer, bringing his stylized look to the usual suspects: Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Mrs. White, and Miss Scarlet. Hasbro’s game turns 70 this year, so Shaw has compiled a new crime wrapped in secrets, lies, and puzzles, including a maze and coded message. The puzzles can be unraveled by readers as they make their way through the mystery.
The best feature is Shaw’s incorporation of all the elements of the board game, including the familiar map of the house with connecting floor tiles, stone game pieces that serve as useful art on the grounds of Mr. Boddy’s estate, and, of course, the familiar weapons of choice. To find out who is searching what rooms and when, you’ll need to solve a logic puzzle. As with the expanded Master Detective version of the game, you may have more than you bargain for in the story’s first issue, including a focus on Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, and Mrs. White. It turns out those weapons might have had some history.
In addition to Shaw’s main cover art, variant editions of each issue will form a triptych of the classic Clue suspects and their legendary weapons of choice. Illustrator Jed McGowan (Time in Nature) designed a third variant cover for the first issue. Each issue features additional story content and will feature new, removable Clue game cards on the back cover, based on the comic art in the series.
Here’s a preview of the first issue of Clue: Candlestick, courtesy of IDW Publishing:
A classic board game and TV show are getting new tie-in comic book series and a classic creator and character are all coming to IDW Publishing this year. IDW announced several new books this week to expand their line of monthly series. The Hasbro board game Clue/Cluedois getting a new comic book mini-series. The Netflix award-winning TV series GLOW is getting a limited series. And Stan Sakai is bringing his world of the swordsrabbit Usagi Yojimbo to IDW with stories old and new, including a full-color, three-part series.
The Sakai announcement is bigger than a single series, as IDW says it plans to bring all 35 years of his Usagi Yojimbo stories into new collected editions–the black and white comic will be in full color for the first time–and new stories are being prepared. Beginning in June, a three-part story set again in the Edo period in 17th century Japan finds Usagi “embroiled in a puppet drama where the players are not quite what they seem.” According to Sakai, “Bunraku (Japanese puppetry) captures many elements that make the world of Usagi Yojimbo unique: an adventure filled with Japanese culture, folklore, and history. It also features the return of a long-awaited fan favorite character and Yokai (Japanese supernatural creatures).” Usagi Yojimbo #1 will be released in a main cover by Sakai, plus variants by Daniel Warren Johnson(Murder Falcon),Kevin Eastman(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and comics legend Walt Simonson.
IDW returns to Clue tie-in mysteries with CLUE: Candlestick, a three-issue comic book miniseries launching in May. “Rife with puzzles, secrets, and lies, and everyone’s a suspect,” the series will be created by animator Dash Shaw writing, illustrative, coloring, and lettering a new Clue mystery. Check out a preview of the new Clue series below, courtesy of IDW Publishing. Continue reading →
The Strong’s National Museum of Play has announced twelve finalists for induction into the 2018 National Toy Hall of Fame. Only a select few will take their honored places in the Hall this year when they are announced at a ceremony at The Strong in Rochester, New York on Thursday, November 8, 2018. The National Toy Hall of Fame recognizes toys “that have engaged and delighted multiple generations, inspiring them to learn, create, and discover through play.” The Hall of Fame, which began in 1998, is celebrating its 20th year. Criteria for induction include: Icon-status (the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered); Longevity (the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations); Discovery (the toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play); and Innovation (the toy profoundly changed play or toy design). A toy may be inducted on the basis of innovation without necessarily having met all of the first three. So who are this year’s finalists? American Girl Dolls, chalk, Chutes and Ladders, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper, the Magic 8 Ball, Masters of the Universe, pinball, the sled, Tic-Tac-Toe, Tickle Me Elmo, Tudor Electric Football, and the card game Uno.
This year’s 12 finalists for the National Toy Hall of Fame. Which would you choose?
The beauty of all these toys? We did some of our own research and they are still available for today’s generation of kids. Just click the toy name and you’ll find it available at Amazon right now. Want to spoil your kid and get them one of each of the 65 toys in the Hall (or donate a set to your local community center)? It’ll cost you about $1,390. That total is skewed a bit by the more expensive toys on the list: the current equivalent of the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Gameboy, a bicycle, a dollhouse, an Easy Bake Oven, Lincoln Logs, Lionel Trains, and roller skates. Yet eight toys in the Hall can be purchased for less than $5.00, 24 toys cost less than $10.00, and 50 of the 65 toys in the Hall cost less than $25.00–most of the classics are pretty affordable! And if you want to save your money, how about getting your kid a cardboard box, a paper airplane, a kite, and a stick for Christmas this year–they’re pretty much free.
What do you think is missing? How about Spiro-graph? The Fisher-Price telephone and See ‘n’ Say? Shrinky Dinks, Colorforms, and the Kaleidoscope? Finger paints? The sprinkler? Playskool cobbler’s bench and mailbox? Hello Kitty? Past nominees include Battleship, Care Bears, coloring books, Jenga, Lite Brite, Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, Nerf, Pez, Playmobil, pogo stick, Operation, Pac-Man, pots and pans, Risk, sand, scooter, Slip ‘n’ Slide, stilts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and the top.
Here are the Hall of Fame’s descriptions of each of this year’s nominees:
Everyone is a suspect. The clues are everywhere. For mystery lovers, it’s a staple. It’s Agatha Christie’s most well-known 1934 novel come to life, Murder on the Orient Express, the fourth major production for film or television of the classic whodunit in the English language–the 1974 Academy Award winning Sidney Lumet film being the best known. For the older generation the story is known, but for a new generation the stage is set for a big screen version of Clue/Cluedo. As with the 1974 version, the cast of the 2017 version is extraordinary.
So how do you cast a film against the last generation of film greats? Leading a bevy of thespian knights and dames, Sir Kenneth Branagh both directs and stars as master detective Hercule Poirot, the world’s greatest detective, played previously by Albert Finney (who refused a knighthood in the year 2000). Sir Derek Jacobi plays the butler Edward Henry Masterman in a role played by Sir John Gielgud in the earlier version. Dame Judi Dench plays Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, formerly played by Dame Wendy Hiller. In an update for the new version, American actor Leslie Odom, Jr.(Supernatural, Gotham) takes on the role of Doctor (formerly Colonel) Arbuthnott, played previously by Sir Sean Connery. Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley as governess Mary Debenham, formerly played by Dame Vanessa Redgrave.
The list of American actors includes a fascinating mix of genre favorites old and new. Academy Award nominee Johnny Depp takes on the role played before by Richard Widmark as the debonair businessman Edward Ratchett. Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer is widow Harriet Hubbard, a role played in the 1974 film by Lauren Bacall. Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe is Professor Gerhard Hardman, played earlier by Colin Blakely. Academy Award winner Penélope Cruzplays a newly named character, Pilar Estravados, a missionary, in the part played before by Ingrid Bergman. Rounding out the cast is Josh Gad (Frozen) as Ratchett’s assistant Hector McQueen (played before by Anthony Perkins), and British TV regular Olivia Colman (Broadchurch, The Night Manager) plays the maid Hildegarde Schmidt (previously played by Rachel Roberts).
Take a look at this first trailer for the new Murder on the Orient Express:
Hasbro has successfully launched several toys and games like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Battleship, and My Little Pony into new media territory including tie-in movies and comic books. Everyone’s favorite detective board game is making its way to a five-issue comic book series this year from IDW Publishing. IDW has licensed Clue (or Cluedo for British readers) and is planning some fun tying together elements of the game and the 1985 movie Clue that starred Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd. The new comic book series was announced this weekend at Emerald City Comicon 2017 in Seattle.
The classic cast everyone knows: Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett (or Scarlet in the U.S.), Professor Plum, Miss Peacock, Mr. Green, Miss White, and victim Mr. Boddy, are all here. Of course, over the years other characters have entered the fold–like Miss Peach, Monsieur Brunette, Madame Rose, and Sergeant Grey–via spinoff board games like Master Detective and video game versions of Clue. Will they make an appearance in the new series? Two new characters immediately stand-out from the initial artwork released: a young man and woman, the woman a red-headed starlet. One obvious update to the original cast is Colonel Mustard, the classic “great white hunter” and colonial imperialist of the original game story, is now portrayed as a black officer. Also, Miss White doesn’t have the dated servant maid attire of past versions of the game and the movie.
Writer Paul Allor (Guardians of the Galaxy, G.I. Joe) will be scripting the series, with artwork by Nelson Dániel (Dungeons & Dragons, The Cape). They are putting a humorous twist on the game into their new story, similar to that found in the movie version. Also like the movie, the first issue will have three alternate endings, plus three variant covers. Depending on which variant cover edition you read, a unique conclusion unfolds. Is it a clue, or a red herring? Readers can collect all the variants (and clues), as well as the main cover by Eisner award-winning artist Gabriel Rodriguez (the classic game board image above).
