July 2012 New Specialty Toys — Family Games

CampAntics™ is the children’s board game of summer camp adventures. Each trip around the board is one day at camp, where players participate in daily activities (sailing, baseball, etc.), get into mischief, follow the camp director’s announcements, and try to avoid the Forbidden Forest. Primarily for children 5 to 11 years old; also loads of fun for older siblings, parents, and grandparents. Special features include: comic book instructions, many opportunities for social interaction, and single player rules. Launch date: February 2011.
Awards: 2011The Toy Man Award of Excellence; 2011The Noise on Toys Award of Excellence; 2012 Tillywig Toy Awards Sterling Fun Award; 2012 Dr. Toy Best Vacation; 2012 Family Review Center Gold Award

Look, see, play and score...a lot. Add cards to a grid, making sure that color, shape, and number are either all the same or all different across the line. Sounds easy but as the grid expands, so do the possibilities. Whoever sees the opportunities will seize the win. Iota – The pocket-sized game that’s big time fun. Launch date: September 2012.
Awards: 2012 Mensa Select
— In a Fall 2013 survey, two out of 12 retailers told TDmonthly that Iota was their best-selling card game.

Crossword Cubes is a unique word spelling dice game. Roll all 13 dice and play them in a crossword fashion to create the highest score possible. A combination of crosswords and anagrams, this fun, compact, educational game is great for travel, gifts, stocking stuffers, and sharpening up your spelling. Portable and fun, Crossword Cubes is one of a kind. Launch date: 2010.

Pride & Prejudice Trivia is a fun trivia game based off the novel by Jane Austen. Game includes 300 trivia cards, including 8 bonus Jane Austen trivia questions, score pad, die. Test your knowledge of the book while having fun. Do you know how long Mr. Bingley looked at Netherfield before letting it? If you do, wish you did, or know someone who might, this is the perfect gift. Launch date: May 2010.

EXIM Games is introducing the world's first and only board game with integrated game play through the use of an Apple iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, patent pending. Only EXIM Games can give kids the ability to use the unique xPirate board game with multiple Apps and mobile platforms. Welcome to xPirate. Players have been recruited as Captains of their own xPirate ship. In this strategic pirate quest for hidden treasure, victory is awarded to the xPirate ship that finds all its hidden treasures and returns home first. Launch date: November 2011.
Awards: 2012 - 2012 Creative Child Awards Program, 2012  Game of the Year Award

It’s a busy day in Crazy Cake Café. Baker Bernie needs kids' help getting cakes stacked as quickly as possible so they can be delivered. The first player to finish stacking one of Baker Bernie’s famous twelve layer cakes wins a recipe card. Collect ten recipe cards and winning the game will be the icing on the cake. This fast-moving game is a delectable visual-spatial, brain-teasing treat. 2 to 4 players. Launch date: August 2012.

In the Old West, the sly snake oil salesman had a special talent: he could get the most skeptical customer to buy the most dubious product. Now players can have their turn, inventing their own crazy two-word products and selling them to all types of customers. If the customer buys a product, the player wins. With over 280 wild words and 70 oddball customers, players will never run out of new combinations. Launch date: November 2010.
Awards: 2012 Mensa Select; 2012 Dr. Toy; 2012 Toy Man Seal of Excellence
— In a late Summer 2012 survey, Charles from Miller's Toys in Mamoronec, N.Y., told TDmonthly that Snake Oil is one of their top-2 best selling card games. They sell about 2 dozen copies a month.
— As of 12/6/2012 this product had 5 out of 5 stars from 2 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Fun for all ages.
— Gary Green, owner of Toy Box of Asheville Inc in Asheville, N.C., told TDmonthly in a February 2015 survey that Snake Oil was his store's best-selling game.

Robbin’ Eggs is the eggciting game of math, memory, and luck. Each egg has a number on the bottom - some positive, some negative. Players turn over eggs trying to get the sum as close to the rolled number on the die, all while following sometimes silly rules on the cards. Meanwhile, opponents might have a “rob” card and can steal the egg other players need.  Players try to remember the location of numbers as the game progresses…that is, until another player scrambles the locations with a drawn card. The player with the lowest score at the end wins the game. "This game is much more than just an educational math game or a memory game.  Because it adds these components together along with the uniqueness of the nest and eggs, and the randomness of the action cards, this game becomes an entertaining family game that happens to help players hone their math skills," Tami Murphy, marketing manager at The Haywire Group, told TDmonthly. Launch date: June 2012.

Bowl, Spell and Score is a wacky word bowling game in which bowlers roll a unique wooden character ball to determine the amount and location of bowling pin letter tiles to flip over in an attempt to spell words for points each frame. Launch date: 2011.
Awards: December 2011 Toyman Award

Roll-a-chore is a dry erase chore, rewards, message chart game. In the bag: 10"x13" themed game board, dry erase marker, dice, spinner, draw string bag, suction cup and adhesive magnets. This game takes the "chore" out of assigning chores in a fast, fair, fun way. There are countless benefits when using this product: math, writing, reasoning, teaching responsibility. Themes available include: Basketball game board, Baseball game board, Policeman game board, Jake (one of roll-a-chore's characters) surfing game board, Molly (one of roll-a-chore's characters) surfing game board, Flowerpower game board, Blue Hearts game board, Molly Soccer game board, color-a-chore (for the little tikes learning their colors) themed game board, and Handy Helpers 2 & 3 (a general family theme look) game board, with more themes to be available later in the year. Launch date: February 2005.

In Tsuro of the Seas players will sail the treacherous waters of the Mystic Seas in an engaging game of adventure and suspense. As the captain of one of the Emperor’s mighty Red Seal ships, players navigate the seas by placing Tsuro wake tiles to direct their vessel. Players must take great caution to avoid opponents’ ships...and those mysteries lurking on the horizon and under the sea. The last captain sailing to survive the mystic seas wins. For 2 to 8 players ages 8 and up; plays in 20-40 minutes. Launch date: August 2012.

Now the whole family can play a fast paced hidden object game with the Deluxe Find It Game containing over 70 hidden items. The Deluxe Find It hidden object game includes a deck of cards, a spinner, a timer, the check off pad, and instructions for 6 ways to play and variations to adapt to younger players. The basic play starts with each player being dealt seven cards that vary in point value. At the beginning of each turn use the spinner to determine the action required prior to play (add points, miss a turn, trade hands etc.) Look fast! Players will have 30 seconds to try to find a many items as possible. Play continues until someone finds all of their items and runs out of cards.
Awards: 2010 Creative Child Magazine Seal of Excellence; Tillywig Sterling Fun Award Winner

This 65-piece set features five game ideas that introduce and teach shapes and objects with unique tactile game play. Little pirates will be ready for games like "The Sneaky Seeker", "The Blindfold Grab", matching games, and more. For a traditional favorite, flip the game board over and play a classic game of Checkers. Clean up is easy as the 18"x18" game board has a Velcro pocket for storage and play. The gameboard is also a great map for role play adventures. BeginAgain uses plant-based and recycled materials whenever possible. The treasure map game board is made from natural (unbleached, unprocessed) cotton and the 20 game cards and 20 matching game pieces are made from recycled paperboard and colored with water-based inks. The 24 treasure coins are made from natural rubber (from rubber tree).
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy Best Green Toys

1000 pc puzzle features artwork by Donald Zolan. A good family activity, or for older children to complete alone.

Flingin’ Frogs is for one or more players, and play involves catapulting 12 miniature frogs onto five tiers of lily pads, worth varying levels of points. Children can play by themselves or challenge their friends. The lily pad play piece conveniently turns into a storage and travel case too. Big Little Games are available in three titles: Flingin’ Frogs™, Spurtle Turtle™ and Super Shooter Basketball™. The games’ small size makes them perfect for birthday gifts, Easter basket stuffers and small rewards. Launch date: May 2012.

BINGO on the go. Choose an appropriate theme among the eight provided, slide a card into each game boards and pay attention to the passing scenery. Includes two game boards and four double-sided game cards. There are no loose pieces and everything stores conveniently in the board. Great for travel.
— Laura Turman, owner of One Two Kangaroo in Shepherdstown, W.Va., told TDmonthly in an April 2012 survey that Travel Bingo is her best selling travel toy.
— In a late Summer 2012 survey, Mike Castor, owner of Pentwater Toybox in Pentwater, Mich., told TDmonthly that they sold 71 travel bingo sets in the past three months.
— In an April 2013 survey, two out of 12 retailers told TDmonthly that Travel Bingo from Melissa & Doug is their bestselling travel toy.