Appletters
Age: 5 and up
Category: General Games

ToyDirectory Product ID#: 25172

This apple-shaped pouched with a soft, zip-closed top includes 110 tiles with red capital letters that may be used to play three different games. In Appleletters, for two to six players ages 5 and up, players alternately add tiles to the first or last letter of a word in the middle of the table, creating a continuous "snake" of new words. Apple Turnover, for two to four players ages 7 and up, is similar to Appleletters. However, each player begins with 21 tiles instead of nine, and may actually replace an opponent's word with a longer word. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of tiles. In Applescore, for two to four players ages 7 and up, players build words as long as possible in crossword-like fashion and get bonus points for length, palindromes and going out first. Launch date: 2009. 8/28/2009 [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Pairs in Pears
Category: General Games
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ToyDirectory Product ID#: 22522

Complete with capital letter tiles featuring various designs (dots, lines, blank and solid), this game comes packaged in a zip-open, pear-shaped pouch with a hanging rope (stem) at the top. It is designed to help kids work on cognitive skills and memory, as well as the order of the alphabet, vocabulary and rhyming as they practice forming words. Launch date: February 2009. 2/17/2009 [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Bananagrams
MSRP: $14.99
Age: 7 and up
Category: General Games
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ToyDirectory Product ID#: 8301

The fast-moving word game consists of 144 ivory-like letter tiles in a funky, zippered banana pouch. Players place the tiles face down on the table and randomly select 21 tiles. The players turn their letters right-side up simultaneously and proceed to form as many intersecting and interconnecting words as possible from their own letters, which can be rearranged as many times as desired throughout the game. This product received the 2009 TOTY Game of the YEAR award, 2006 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award and earned the following in 2007: iParenting Media Award, Parents' Choice Recommended Award and Dr. Toy Best Products Award. (Read Review) (Watch Games Expo Video)
― The folks at Bananagrams transformed great-auntie’s game night into fast-playing, fruity-colored fun in a banana sack. The irresistible display of hanging Bananagrams bunches makes it an easy sell, and a natural winner of a TDmonthly Top Seller 2007 award.
— In terms of 2007 holiday stocking stuffers, “Bananagrams [were] selling immediately,” Rick Henry of Stellabella Toys in Cambridge, Mass., told TDmonthly. Eight of 66 retailers vouched for its best-selling status in May 2008; seven of 63 did in September 2008. Shani Watmough of Planet Toys in Rockland, Maine, said her store sells about 60 per month. Six of 64 retailers named Bananagrams as a best-selling travel toy in March 2009.
— “People have really found a way to use it as an extension of language skills,” Lori Lind of Brainwaves Toy Shop in Narragansett, R.I., said in mid-2008, citing alternative rules her customers have adopted. 6/19/2006 [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]