First we saw Hasbro combining some of its classic board games with a series of mash-up games, then last summer the game and toy company released a fun line of its games in giant beach towel editions. This summer Hasbro has stripped down its games to the bare essentials, making sure that anyone who wants to play one of its seven most famous board games can do so anywhere, on the go, in the back of your van on a road trip, or in an apartment. Combining another classic–Colorforms–with miniature paperboard versions of Battleship, Sorry!, Chutes and Ladders,Candy Land, Trouble, Guess Who?, and even Monopoly, anyone can get their hands on these games, available anywhere from $1.25 to $5.00.
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.
If you ever needed a big, fun, family game, it’s probably now, right? We’ve just previewed Avalon Hill’s forthcoming summer release Scooby-Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion, arriving in stores later this month, and it’s a winner–no doubt it will go down as the season’s best tabletop game. With dozens of throwbacks to the classic animated series featuring Scooby-Doo and the Gang, it mixes elements of Clue,Monopoly-like strategy levels, and staples of the roleplay game genre including its own Monster’s Tome game book. Twenty-five impressive mysteries and dozens of possible outcomes for each will keep your family busy this summer with your favorite sleuths: Velma, Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and, of course, Scooby-Doo.
You won’t play this game without piping in with your own ruh roh and jinkies along the way. Clues, objects, and events all point back to elements of the TV show. Colorful tokens (like Scooby snacks, pizza, flashlights, and treasure) are provided specific to each of the 25 mysteries that work together with clue cards (like a painting with eyes following you, a mysterious letter, and a locked box), layout tiles to build 28 rooms inside the haunted mansion and spooky areas outside, along with 8 dice and three guide books, all to set 3 to 5 players on their way to sleuthing out a mystery, Mystery, Inc. style. Everyone plays one of those famous “meddling kids,” then one player steps out to play the monster, ghost pirate (or is that pirate ghost?), masked neighbor, werebeast, alien, witch, henchman… you’ll have plenty of familiar baddies to take on, challenging each other in the style of previous roleplay games like Magic the Gathering with upgradable strengths and dice roll battles.
With a new Ghostbusterssequel coming to theaters this summer, expect the original Ghostbusters characters to get the spotlight from several different toy lines. Plus, following up on individual figures released last year, Playmobil is finally rolling out the DeLorean time machine (including Marty, Doc, and Einstein the dog) from Back to the Future, coming this spring (pictured above). Online toy store Entertainment Earth is the first out of the gates taking pre-orders for the time machine (check it out here), and it is also offering a special 1955 edition of the figures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown (check ’em out here). As New York Toy Fair 2020 draws closer, expect to start hearing more about new releases from these two 1980s sci-fi properties.
Ghostbustershas already licensed several products to major toy brands, featuring their Ecto-1 Ectomobile, and characters Venkman, Spengler, Stantz, and Zeddemore, all expected to pop up in Ghostbusters: Afterlife in theaters in July. We found several sets available on Amazon to get kids (young and old) psyched up to revisit these characters, like the Playmobil Ectomobile, including Janine and Zeddemore (here), a set of all four Playmobil Ghostbusters (here), the Gargoyle Dogs with Venkman and Dana (here), and the Stay Puft marshmallow man with Stantz (here). The best has also been released before but is coming back next month: the big Ghostbusters NYC Firehouse, which has lots of detail, includes five figures, the firepole, the ghost depository, and it has a garage for the Ectomobile (check it out here).
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.
If there is a bigger Trivial Pursuitfan I don’t know who it is. Whether it was the classic 1981 Genus Edition, the 1983 Silver Screen edition, the 1984 Genus II edition, the 1989 1980s edition, the 1992 10th Anniversary Edition, the 1994 Genus III, the 1996 Genus IV, or 1998 Millennium Edition, or the dozens of tie-ins and card deck supplements since, you can pretty much count me in anytime. But the latest may be the most fun yet. Adding to the Stranger Things season three Hasbro Gaming tie-ins Dungeons & Dragons, Monopoly, Ouija board, Screen Test, and an Eggo card game is an all-new throwback 1980s version of Trivial Pursuit. I thought I was a Trivial Pursuit purist, but the new Stranger Things Back to the ’80s Trivial Pursuit convinced me that the classic game had some problems and they’ve now been fixed.
The questions come from movies, TV, music, people, events, technology, fashion, sports, and more, and that classic orange sports/wild card category is now questions about your knowledge of the Stranger Thingsuniverse. Don’t worry, that last category will be easy to dodge for anyone at the game table not familiar with the series, but new rules and gameplay also make it possible to give anyone a leg up toward an ultimate win. “Roll again” spaces are gone, meaning there’s more time answering questions and less time rolling multiple times per turn. You still need six wedges to win, but you no longer need a pie wedge from each category, so the game time is shorter. If you aren’t a pro in any given category, you’re also no longer hamstringed into riding out a losing game because of the new “walkie talkie a friend” feature. As with the Who Wants to be a Millionaire gameshow concept, so long as you’re not playing in Upside Down mode, you can enlist a helper, and if you win, share the spoils with a pie wedge for both players.
The Upside Down is an easy, clever board add-on that allows the entire board to be switched from real world mode to the dark Upside Down the series is famous for. When you’re in the Upside Down you can lose pie wedges by answering incorrectly, and you can’t ask a friend for help. It fits the Stranger Things story, and it further helps level the playing field among a diverse group of players.
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:
The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your kind made a wasteland of it…. Would an ape make a human Monopoly game, with ape street names? … Don’t look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find. –Dr. Zaius (paraphrasing a bit)
In its most recent earnings statement, toymaker and licensor Hasbro reported that its gaming unit revenue for the second quarter was up significantly over last year. Its franchise brand revenues, driven by growth in games like Monopoly, resulted in a 21 percent revenue increase for the company, to $545.7 million. What does that mean for fanboys and fangirls? Not only is Monopoly thriving, the 115-year-old marathon board game about real estate that we’ve all played over the years is here to stay. Although it was slow to adapt to computing (the bootleg game Monopole was popular before then-owner Parker Brothers jumped in), to keep up with the times Monopoly partnered with municipalities, sports teams, movies, and other brands to keep Monopoly fresh. What? You missed the U.S. Navy edition? The Ford Thunderbird edition? The Superman Returns and Pokémon editions? The Heinz, Doctor Who, and Batman and Robin editions?
It’s a madhouse. A madhouse! … We finally really did it. You maniacs! –Astronaut George Taylor
For its next franchise tie-in, Hasbro has partnered with 20th Century Fox Consumer Products to release this summer’s strangest mash-up game: Monopoly: Planet of the Apes Retro Art Edition. It’s not just your typical Monopoly tie-in with a popular franchise.
