October 2012 Notable Toys — Family Games

Enjoy quality time with all members of the family by piecing together this puzzle of Garfield dressed up in outrageously humorous and colorful outfits featuring professions, historical characters and sports figures. There's more than 80 different Garfield characters to find and piece together in this 500 piece puzzle. With over 2 million Facebook fans online, Garfield continues to enjoy a devoted following all around the world. Launch date: September 2012.

Humor from The New Yorker magazine on a puzzle. Featuring an illustration of a disgruntled dog dressed up in a Santa outfit, this 500 piece puzzle is sure to liven up the holidays for all members of the family. Frame the puzzle when it's done for a great piece of wall art for the home. Made in the USA from recycled chipboard. Launch date: September 2012.

For the first time ever, piece together Jan Brett's beautiful illustrations at home. This 300 piece jigsaw puzzle makes a great holiday gift for children and adults alike. Read along with Jan Brett's wonderful story book "The Night Before Christmas" while piecing together this beautiful puzzle with the children. Made in the USA. Launch date: September 2012.

Crunch a Color Conversation Starters brings the whole family together at mealtime by inspiring creative thinking and healthy discussions. Chock-full of curious questions and delightful dilemmas, these 104 conversation starters help kids share their thoughts, grow their ideas, and make mealtime fun. Developed with teachers, parents and kids, Crunch a Color® Conversation Starters spark interesting, open-ended discussions that are engaging for kids (and adults) of all ages.
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy 100 Best Toys
— As of 1/17/2013 this product had 5 out of 5 stars from 22 reviews on Amazon.com.

This all new Wobble Deck is an electronic balance board that features four fun balance games that challenge the mind and body. Games include: Copy Wobble, Memory Wobble, Wobbly Statues, and Musical Wobble. Base detaches to become a portable handheld game. Fun for the whole family.
Awards: 2012 Dr. Toy 100 Best Toys

The latest Think-ets game from Think-a-lot Toys is like having a “party-in-a-pouch”™. This edition of our award-winning Think-ets game is geared for adults, teens and college kids who want their own, slightly more sophisticated version of the game. Get silly with stories, throw objects into glasses, or try to come up with categories, rhymes and names in speedy fashion. For 1 or more players. Includes 15 miniature trinkets from around the world and an instruction Booklet with 10 different games to play.

Begin a quest to settle the island of Catan. Guide brave settlers to victory by using clever trading and shrewd development. Use resources—grain, wool, ore, lumber, and brick—to build roads, settlements, cities and key cultural milestones. Get resources by rolling the dice or by trading with other players. Catan is a modern classic. It truly redefines social board games and been awarded with “Game of the Year” honors in Germany, the United States, and a host of other countries. This New edition features a six piece reversible board allowing for more replay value than the previous Gallery Edition. Launch date: 2012.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval

Easily recognizable animal faces are fun to find as players turn over pairs of tiles, searching for a matching pair. Children and adults alike enjoy this game of memory and observation skills. 24 pairs to match. Box is 9"X9".

The smiling faces of 24 children from countries all over the world are fun and sometimes challenging to match in this memory game. The back cover shows each child and identifies their home country. 24 pairs to match. Box is 9"X9".

Suspend comes with 24 notched, rubber-tipped wire pieces to hang from a tabletop stand. Sound easy? Try adding another piece! Each time a bar is added, the balance shifts, the difficulty changes and the incredible midair sculpture transforms. Can players add all their game pieces without making it fall? This tricky game for 1-4 players is a test of steady nerves and steady hands.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval, 2012 Best Toys Guide Best Games
— In a February 2014 survey, Joe Novak, owner of Kazoo Toys of Buckhead in Buckhead, Ga., told TDmonthly that Suspend was one of their stores top-3 best-selling games.

A timeless classic with a twist. Slide the windows as roadside attractions are spotted to complete a line or the entire card. Backseat Bingo engages kids for hours as they race to be the first to yell “Bingo”.

Another member of the Fun Slides family, Knee Hockey includes two 16” hockey sticks and one carpet puck.

Hilarity ensues in this fast-paced race to become the Laughing Stock™ of the group. Invent the funniest punch lines to over 3.4 million joke combinations and deliver friends’ gags with flair. Perfect for parties and family nights, this gut-busting game will have everyone laughing and learning at the same time. "Unlike traditional card games, this one has over 3.4 million possible joke combinations. The game will never get old," David Williams, president of Milliwik told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2012.
Awards: 2012 Game of the Year award

This game gives kids the opportunity to think about what makes COMMUNITY. From HOME players build the roads that will connect the special places players will select, creating, when they’re done, a bird’s eye view Of HOME and a whole village they made together. Players will have to think ahead and work together to successfully accomplish this endeavor. Community challenges players to build roads linking Home to other important locations in a community. "Children often rely on electronic games to construct and interact with realities. Now they can satisfy that intellectual drive and learn something along the way, all within a social activity that encourages cooperation and communication," Rosie Pohlmann from eeBoo told TDmonthly.

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.