January 2012 Notable Toys — General Games

Players try to harvest the most tomatoes while defending their patch from a garden variety of intruders like weeds, varmints, and even the dastardly tomato The player to haul the most tomatoes to market by the end of the game wins. Launch date: Spring 2012.

Players must try to complete as many combo cards as possible by grabbing dice from the dish. The challenge is that they are only allowed to take one die per turn. If players wait to long, another player might snag the die they need. The highest scorer wins.

Players spill out the gold and then play cards to claim valuable coins or give the dregs to their no good opponents. With the variety of familiar pirate sayings on the cards, players’ll be yammerin’ like a professional hornswaggler before they know it. Beyond the fun phrases, players also bone up on some key pirate skills like sneaking, bluffing, and swapping, and even some elementary strategy.

Blindside is a game of pure strategy from every angle. Opponents battle one another with their army of hexes loaded with arrows. Each hex has a varying number of arrows which determine the mobility of each piece. Hexes can only move in the direction their arrow points and as many spaces loaded in the hex. But players must beware; as they battle and jump their opponent they remove their arrows thus changing the hex’s mobility. The puzzle like board and removable rotate spaces allows for endless battlefield scenarios.

PLayers must name an object that fits the attributes on their cards and then play them to the grid. The more cards played, the faster players score. For 2 or more players; game time is 20 minutes.

Players must quickly rid their hand of cards by playing numbers in order. Lay down a run, but don’t get caught ZZZ-ing or else Zap! – another player will steal the lead. The first player out of cards wins. Helps reinforce number sequencing, visual discrimination, and hand-eye coordination.

As kids help Emmet pack his trunks, they’ll reinforce such valuable early learning skills as color identification, pattern recognition, and fine motor development. Also, with every roll of the die, they’ll get a little taste of the anticipation they feel before leaving on vacation. Will players get a color and be able to pack their trunks, or will that pesky mouse mess up the plans? 2-4 players, playing time 15 minutes. Includes instructions in English and Spanish.

The Scrambled States of America Game is based on the book "The Scrambled States of America" by Laurie Keller. Kids learn learn the names, capitals, nicknames, shapes and positions of the states through a myriad of visual teasers, language riddles and geography challenges. Collect state cards by matching them to a Scramble challenge. Or “Go the Distance” and find a state’s closest neighbor. Collect the most cards to win. New deluxe edition features new art, new challenges, and a copy of The Scrambled States of America book.
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy Best Classic Toys, 2012 Dr.Toy Best 20 for $20
— In a February 2014 survey, Mark Rosenblum from Hobbytown in Fairfield, C.T., told TDmonthly that Scrambled States was one of their best-selling games.

Pharaoh is worried. His tomb at Giza is behind schedule and he fears it will not be done in time for his funeral. He is offering great rewards to the faction that contributes the most work on his pyramid in the next 10 years. The people who work the hardest and work the smartest shall earn Pharaoh’s favor. In Giza, the Great Pyramid™ players are the leader of one of four factions vying for Pharaoh’s favor. They have 10 years to outperform the other factions and contribute the most to his great pyramid, earning eternal gratitude and glory. But players shall need to balance their labor. Farm and fish to feed the people. Sweat and struggle with the back-breaking labor of moving the giant stone blocks into place. Task the local folk with the creation of exquisite artworks to beautify Pharaoh’s eternal rest. 3-4 players, 90+ minute playing time.

Welcome to the buzzing world of Speedeebee!

Are you the speediest bee in the hive? Then join in the fun with this ultimate word game! With 150 fun challenges and four alphabet dice, players race to find words containing or excluding the letters shown on the dice.

The variety of creative challenges and dice combinations make Speedeebee excitingly different every time you play. Launch date: May 2012.

Flapz is a pocket-sized game packed with giant-sized fun! With its 96 original challenges, Flapz has kids playing at what they love the most: storytelling, blinking contests, rhyming, memory challenges, goofy dancing. As the challenges change with the situations and the players, no two games of Flapz will ever be the same. Flapz is the perfect pocket game that will last forever! Its eco-friendly material is strong, light and waterproof. Launch date: May 2012.
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy Best Green Toys

Featuring the same great play as The Original LCR Left Center Right Dice Game, players flip over three LCR cards that are labeled with L's, C's, R's and dots, which determine where the flipper's chips will go. The last player with chips, wins the game. It's that simple!.Fast-paced, exciting and fun, it's a great game for kids to play along with adults providing hours of entertainment for the whole family. LCR Left Center Right Card Game includes 110 Playing Cards, 24 playing chips and Instructions. For 3 or more players.

Topsy Tower is game of strategy where players determine which size pieces will build the highest tower and match the role of the dice. The player who stacks their tower first without it toppling over wins the game. For two to four players. Launch date: 2012.

Kids like watching clouds and finding the “match” to things. Enter Cloud Matchmaker, a game that encourages matching of geometric shapes using a cloud theme. Children use a chain to create a cloud formation displayed on the card drawn and the audience guesses the match. The player who collects the most cloud cards wins the game. For two to six players. Launch date: 2012.

This game can be played with the whole family and lots of players, either with full trivia or just the colored dice and cup color for very young children. Watch the Tower grow and grow while answering questions correctly - but players will need a steady hand. Selecting the wrong cup when the tower is growing after answering the question could bring the Tower Tumbling down. All the trivia questions are built within the body of the game on round tower plates. Includes 300 question and answers.

By creating a path from Start to Finish, 2 to 4 players try to beat the Ogre to the treasure. Along the way they need to collect 3 keys to open the treasure’s lock before the Ogre gets there. Players strategize, cooperate and build the path as a team. If they make it down the path before you-know-who, they all win! By playing this game, children master math grid concepts, emotional development, shared decision making, strategy techniques and of course, have fun! Board game includes a pair of wooden dice, 37 game cards, 4 key tokens and an Ogre snack. Launch date: 2012.

Chirp, chirp! The baby birds are hungry. Players help Mama Bird by turning over cards one at a time and gathering seeds. But watch out. The squirrel with the bushy tail might take the seeds for his own supper. Gather more seeds for the birds than the squirrel and everyone wins! This game works for 2 to 4 players and includes a game board, 16 game cards and 15 seeds. When play is done, children will have learned shared decision-making, cooperation, counting, adding, number sets, taking turns and following directions.

Spin the spinner and find a matching bug. Then slip it under the rug. It’s okay, Moms, because it’s just a game! Everyone works together to get all the colorful bugs under the rug before the three stinkbugs release their smelliness around the room. Watch closely and make those matches. Each of the three levels of play adds a new challenge. The board game includes 24 bright bugs, three stink bugs, a die, instructions for three game levels and a game board with a built-in spinner. Once preschoolers complete the game they will have mastered visual discrimination, taking turns, rolling a die, recognizing colors and shapes, distinguishing big and little, and counting. The focus in Level 1 is with a roll of the die that determines which 1 bug attribute will be matched for the entire game—color, number or shape. Players try to find matches to that attribute. In Level 2, both a roll of the die and a spin on the spinner complicate players’ abilities to find a match. Level 3 requires players to match two attributes in matches. Launch date: 2012.

Child-safe scissors allow 2 to 4 players to cut all the little bugs free before Willy the Spider falls from the top of the web. But watch out because the web is well, wiggly. To get started, kids pick a card, follow the instructions to cut the web and pass the scissors either left or right. Work cooperatively to free all the bugs and everyone wins. Preschoolers master recognizing left from right, cutting with scissors, taking turns, counting, hand-eye coordination and working cooperatively. Game includes stand-up web posts and platform, 50 paper webs, child-safe scissors, 10 bugs, 1 Willy spider, 30 cards, and instructions for 3 levels of game play. Level 1 introduces cutting with scissors with the players passing the scissors in one direction only. Level 2 adds Left and Right passing and Level 3 challenges the players to get up and switch seats, moving themselves left and right accordingly. Launch date: 2012.

From the makers of UNO. Based on the on the best-selling phone app game, Angry Birds. The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Be the first person to strategically topple the structure cards by rolling the right bird on the die. Then knock out the pigs with the flick of a die to win in this quick-play game based on the popular phone app. Includes Angry Birds playing cards and Dice. For 2 to 5 players.
— As of 01/05/2012 this product had 4.4 out of 5 stars from 14 reviews on Amazon.com.

Build and expand groups of beautiful color sequences. Players mix and match their own and other players’ cards into strategic groups to be the first to play their entire hand. It’s not as easy as it seems. Complete and collapse a spectrum into “white light” to increase their chances of winning.

Visual illusion leads to confusion as players try to follow number and color sequences. Players must watch out for the action cards that could completely disrupt their turn. The player to get to 100 points before the rest wins the CUBU challenge. Players can also play Speed CUBU to really test their visual perception.

Players connect the cards to build a beautiful array of colors. Add a little splice and slice to make the array explode. Array can be played on a table – but for even more fun play it on the floor and see how big the array can grow. The last person in the game is the player who builds the largest array of color.

The latest Pentago utilizes the sleek design style of the Multi-Player version in the compact ready to go, two-player version. Pentago is a two-player game in which the object is to create a row of five markers, in any direction, before your opponent does, but with a twist. Each move consists of placing a marker and then twisting one of the four game blocks; simple yet ingenious.