February 2012 New Specialty Toys — Family Games

The Gate is a challenging strategy game for 2 to 5 players. It’s two games in one: beginner and advanced. The Gate combines the fun of a classic board game with the fantasy of a role-playing game. Fight dragons and other monsters, escape encounters, or buy weapons from the gnome. The stakes intensify as players advance through 3 exciting levels. Earn special fighting dice; battle friends for treasure. The first player to the Gate wins, but they mustn't forget their key. Launch date: November 2011.

This Christmas inspired kit includes: 6 washable, durable nylon 27" square IDEAScarves in Christmas colors. 2 of each of the following colors: Santa suit red, holly green and snow ball white. The Nutcracker (Peter IIyich Tchaikovsky) Music CD with 7 music selections instructional/informational insert. The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet - Paperback by Diane Goode. Nutcracker Activity Book - by Victoria Fremont, a fun candy cane pencil and a sturdy, self-closing, reusable carrying bag with handle. Made in the USA. Launch date: October 2011.

Donkey - It’s a Kick! is an all-play, action-packed, process of elimination card game (with plastic components) that will have up to 8 players (ages 8 to adult) engaging in simultaneous social interaction while at the same time sharpening their hand-eye coordination skills with every round of play. In addition to the playing cards, the "Kicker Cards" present group challenges for each round of play; this not only adds diversity to each round, it creates a platform on which players feel "safe" and "eager" to show off their unique creative talents. "Donkey It's a Kick! is the only game that makes “losing” FUN!... The losers get to stay in the game and wreak havoc on the remaining players!  Although the game will only produce one champion, everyone walks away feeling like a winner," Jayne Cleveland-Kolesar, secretary at Cleveland Kids, LLC., told TDmonthly. Launch date: March 2011.
Awards: 2011 The Toy Man™ Seal of Approval, 2011 The Toy Man™ Award of Excellence, 2011 The Toy Man™ Recommends Award, 2011 The Toy Man™ eChoice™ Award.

Cosmic ConneXion is an entertaining and educational word search card game created to familiarize players with the Greek alphabet and objects of the cosmos. The deck consists of 2 sets of cards, letter cards and celestial point value cards. The letter cards consist of all 24 letters of the Greek alphabet from Alpha to Omega. Each letter card displays the name, uppercase & lowercase Greek letter, along with English equivalents and variants. The letter cards are played in a diamond arrangement to create words. The celestial point value cards consist of 28 objects of the cosmos from our local solar system to the constellations of the zodiac along with wild cards of the cosmos. For each word formed, a player acquires a celestial point value card from the draw pile. The object of the game is to acquire as many celestial point value cards as possible. However, after all the letter cards have been played, the player who has acquired the sun card during regular play has a final opportunity to score additional points during the bonus round by forming a grammatically correct sentence from the words formed during regular play. The player with the highest point value wins. "The greatest benefit of playing games with these cards is to increase player's familiarity with the Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet is widely utilized in many fields of math & science, yet not widely recognized to the general public," Joseph Bongiorno, president of N.E.T. & Computing, told TDmonthly. Launch date: October 2011.

Slooooks! is a new game that's a cross between eye-spy and a scavenger hunt. The rules are simple and all ages can play together ... and the game board folds up like a book so it can be taken anywhere. "It's never the same game twice," Kate Patterson of Ashare Patterson Design told TDmonthly. Launch date: May 2011.

Ugh is the life of a caveman through the eyes of John Kovalic. In Ugh! players encounter the Stone Age life by pushing their luck against the deck and trying to lock in as many sets of cards as they can before they are abruptly shocked by a natural disaster… Ugh! Each turn players can flip over up to three cards, all of which are good options for their set. Contents: 110 cards, including 4 Wild Cards, 28 Ugh! Cards, and 78 Number Cards.

Players must trap their opponents' pawns in one of two games of escape and capture. In Bright Got 'Em! players must outsmart and corner their opponents through savvy card play, sly movement, and clever placement of blocking walls. In the still-casual but even-trickier Brainy Got 'Em!™ players toss aside card actions in favor of a purely strategic challenge. Both games share the same goal, the same exciting intrigue, and the same social fun. Contents: One game board,  The side with colored squares is used for Bright Got ’Em!, The side with white squares is used for Brainy Got ’Em!, 84 wall pieces, 55 Got ’Em!™ cards, 4 pawns.
Awards: Major Fun Award; 2011 Creative Child’s Seal of Excellence

Double Double Dominoes is a new approach to Dominoes. Players score points by matching up dominoes over key areas of the game board. Play a Double Domino and players double their score. Players can grab bonus points every time someone matches their position on the score track with a domino played… including themselves. Contents: Game board, 56 dominoes,  4 score pieces, Game rules.

A completely new, patent-pending "two-in-one" board game, SOUND IT! FOUND IT! is both a guessing game AND a hidden-object game based on silly sounds other players make.  With 96 cards and eight giant-scene boards, it's perfect for today's kids, combining visual fun with the unique twist of guessing sounds to offer hours of laugh-out-loud fun. Launch date: February 2012.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval
— "What a cool game! If your kids like acting out (not acting up), this game is made for them. I had fun playing with Alex and her friend Lily...Alex and Lily are both tweens, but even kids a few years younger or older would love this game. Being silly is the only pre-requisite." - A review by Mike on the blog Just Find it 4 U.

SOUND IT! is a hilarious new card game that offers two great ways to play: On one side of the card, guess the picture based on hearing the silly sounds other players make. On the other side, read the special clue and quickly identify the correct sound to make. Fun and challenging but simple to learn, a deck of 96 SOUND IT! cards offers unlimited possibilities. Launch date: February 2012.

This beautifully crafted board game is an educational and insightful presentation of the principles of karma. 2 to 4 players. It's Monopoly but with karma instead of money; Chutes and Ladders but for adults; and The Game of Life but the life of the soul. 30-90 minutes. Features "Artistic presentation of sophisticated concepts that even a 5th grader can understand," Linda Look, game developer at Cosmic Karma Game Partners, told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2012.
— As of 10/5/2012 this product had 4.7 out of 5 stars from 3 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Well designed; helps to illustrate the concept of karma; thought provoking.

Everyone gets ten dice. Someone says “Go.” Then everyone rolls and rolls as fast as they can until someone gets all their dice on the same number. It’s a fun, fast frenzy. It’s TENZI. It's "Super-simple to learn & super-fast to play," Steve Mark, executive Dice president of  CARMA GAMES, LLC, told TDmonthly. Launch date: April 2011.
— In a February 2012 survey about games, Mary Porter Green, owner of The Curiosity Zone in Ashburn, Va., told TDmonthly that she sells 6+ copies of Tenzi each month.
— In a February 2013 survey, two out of 11 retailers told TDmonthly that Tenzi was their best selling game.
— Glisyn Lewis Jarrells, manager of Imaginations Toy & Furniture in Blacksburg, Va., told TDmonthly in a March 2013 survey that Tenzi is their overall best selling product. They sell around 15 copies of the game each month.

Destina Inc. has released its first expansion to the Wise Money board game: the Spanish Card Set. The Spanish Card Set is a direct translation of all the card decks in the original WiseMoney board game, from Banking and Investing to Identity Protection including directions in Spanish. The Spanish Card Set is an extension of the board game that uses all of the same basic game elements (board, spinner, dice, etc.) of the original English version. "Our product addresses the financial literacy needs in the Hispanic community," Jan Noah, director of R&D at Destina, Inc., told TDmonthly. Launch date: August 2011.