TDmonthly's Toy Fair 2007 Preview
Category: Family Games

Wacky Wacky West™ by MAYFAIR GAMES INC.

In Wacky Wacky West, players are townfolk who place track tiles, street tiles, and river tiles hoping to destroy their rivals’ buildings. Every time someone tries to build over a precious outhouse, the town votes. Players try to enlist their supporters, represented by cards, to vote with them to stop or encourage the play of certain tiles in order to save some of their buildings or take out those of their opponents. This two to four player game can be completed in about 45 minutes. The game contains a game board, four work gang figures, six goal cards, 32 vote cards, 60 tiles and rules. 9/7/2010 (Price: $35.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Square Shooters® Deluxe Set by HEARTLAND CONSUMER PRODUCTS, LLC

The 9 Square Shooters dice are printed with a full deck of 52 cards plus 2 jokers – you can use them to play almost any card game!  The patent-pending dice are designed so you can roll hands for rummy, poker, twenty-one and many more games. Includes Dice, Playing cards, Game cards, Scorekeeping chips, Dice cup and Instructions. ( Watch Video) 8/25/2010 (Price: $19.99) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Think-ets Fairy Collection by THINK-A-LOT TOYS

This fairy-themed Think-ets collection includes an assortment of 15 miniature trinkets that can be used to tell stories, and play memory and strategy games. Think-ets is designed to be an ideal travel game for use in restaurants, waiting rooms, poolsides or anywhere on the go. 8/24/2010 (Price: $9.99) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Untrivia by FAMILY PASTIMES

This question and answer game comes with two special features. First, the questions are practical, not trivial, for hours of conversation about topics such as child-rearing, gardening, everyday law, travel, health, cooking, car and home care and more. Second, Untrivia is cooperative. Players share ideas, discuss the possible answers, and decide on the best choice. A snakes and ladders type of board provides some pitfalls and surprises. 8/24/2010 (Price: $25.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Power Blackout by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, players are CEOs in control of their own power grids on the continent. Each is responsible for bringing and maintaining full electrical service to a Populated Center. There are bonus revenues and other perks for fully servicing one’s own area. However, each grid is interdependent with other grids, so CEOs must work together for the survival of the Continental Power System. 8/24/2010 (Price: $31.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Stop the Presses by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, players need to bring in enough stories, photos, cartoons and advertising contracts to meet the printing costs and staff payroll of a newspaper. If they can’t meet these combined costs, then it is a case of "Stop the Presses." Each player takes on a different staff role to maintain the paper's publication. The game includes a 17" x 17" board, a reporter mover, a press time marker, one die, 55 cards consisting of 10 staff, two cartoons, one comic page, six photos, six issues, 12 ad contracts, 18 assorted stories and rules. 8/24/2010 (Price: $24.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

New America by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, players act as research and development teams trying to redesign North America's social-economic system before it's too late. The focus is on energy and resources, but many fields are explored. Designed for thinking friends and for high school and college classes, the game aims to provoke discussion among mature, thinking people. 8/24/2010 (Price: $31.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Good Ship Freedom by FAMILY PASTIMES

This game is a Kafkaesque metaphor about seekers trying to escape the political, religious, economic and other illusions that entrap them, preventing freedom of mind and spirit. Captain K sails to a dark but enticing land to look for crew to help cross the dangerous seas to Freedom Island. Constant patrols make it difficult for the crew to gather documents and gear needed to make a boarding at any dock. Players are the crew, seekers after freedom, helping each other round up credentials which entitle them to board the Good Ship Freedom and avoid those feverish patrols, who never tire of vying for their very being. 8/24/2010 (Price: $35.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Eagle Eye Agency by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game players are private investigators, all working for Eagle Eye Agency, gathering clues in a big city to solve the mysteries. They shadow suspects, do legwork and gradually work up a case. Everyone plays a key part. It's not who wins, but rather whether players can all solve the mystery. Thirty-nine original cases are provided. When these cases are exhausted, the game can be extended with the Mystery Maker Kit included to create more cases. 8/24/2010 (Price: $39.50) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

S.O.S. by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, the cruise ship is sinking fast, and players manage to launch a lifeboat. They form a rescue team, working together to save themselves and as many of the survivors as they can. There are many variations on how the game can end. S.O.S. includes a 17" x 22.5" board, special dice, a lifeboat, charts (captain's marine forecasts, food supply, fuel/speed) and diecut cards (drifting currents, food marker, fuel marker, sharks, rocks, food and fuel packets, an assortment of survivors, rules for regular and nasty versions). 8/24/2010 (Price: $28) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Wordquest Expansion by GOLIATH GAMES

This expansion pack for the wordsearch game Wordquest Goliath comes with 20 additional topics to choose from on 10 circle board cards with topics on the front and back side. 8/24/2010 (Price: $12.99) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Ice Breakers To the Rescue by FAMILY PASTIMES

This strategy game is about operating Coast Guard Ice Breakers in the Arctic. Players' job is to open up frozen waterways for freighters, supply ships, tankers and military craft. They succeed if they get all 12 ships to their respective destinations before the ice becomes too thick and widespread.
Awards: 2003 Dr. Toy Best Game 8/24/2010 (Price: $26.50) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Sky Travelers by FAMILY PASTIMES

Players are visitors from outer space whose scout craft has crashed on an island. Their mission is to search the island, the shore, the sea, nearby forests and even mountains for the elements to repair their craft, before the mothership comes to pick up the scout craft. On Earth, players meet UTOCs (Ugly Things Out of Control) and use powers to deal with them. However, the aliens' world is without violence and is filled with people so deeply peaceful that they cannot harm anyone. If a player uses a special power in a violent way, his or her Being disintegrates. The game includes a 13" x 18" board, movers, a traveler chart, travel cards and dice. 8/19/2010 (Price: $22.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Jigsaw Mystery Pack by FAMILY PASTIMES

Players use the detective card game to put the jigsaw together, and then have a picture mystery case to solve. Each case has 40 Clues and measures 8” x 14.” The sealed envelope contains the solutions, and a secret coded message. Rules are included for a group co-op game for 12 to 36 players, using all four cases together. 8/19/2010 (Price: $25.50) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Investigators by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, players are a team of private detectives solving such cases as theft, smuggling and blackmail. They move around a city looking for clues, while trying to avoid locked doors, guard dogs, getting tied up, secret codes, even mobsters — and using disguises, fast moves, a special tool kit, and their quick wits to get out of tight corners. If players pool strategies, use some intuition and help each other out of tough spots, they can get their client out of trouble. Investigators is a quick-moving game with lots of opportunity for sharing, consultation and decision making. It includes a 13" x 18" board, cue cards, "big bucks," a solution envelope, dice and movers.
Awards: 1989 Canadian Toy Testing, Top Rating 8/19/2010 (Price: $22.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Zucchini by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, players try to gather the ingredients to fill various shopping lists. They must do this before the ingredients spoil and go to the green bins and the recycle truck, and are carted off to the Recycle Compost Depot. The set includes a game board, 10 spoiled stuff signs, 20 ingredients, six shopping lists, a shopping cart, a recycle truck and rules. 8/19/2010 (Price: $15.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Spies & Alibis by FAMILY PASTIMES

Spies & Alibis is a cooperative mystery game in which players act as a team of special unit detectives working together to discover which of the suspects has taken the government’s top secrets. Players must solve the case before the Spies board the Airplane and get away. The game includes a full color 12” x 12”board, 10 time flies cards, 22 eye witness cards, a government building card and three pairs of handcuffs for making arrests. 8/19/2010 (Price: $15.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Flowers Are Forever by FAMILY PASTIMES

In these four mathematical games, players are partners, forming as many good flower gardens as they can using their trowels to dig up the weeds that threaten to choke off the flowers. The basic mathematical skills of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing are all practiced in gameplay. 20 tiles, 12 garden trowels and rules are included. 8/19/2010 (Price: $8.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Skunk!!! by FAMILY PASTIMES

In this game, gardeners work hard to grow beautiful, fresh, organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. But sometimes garden pests eat those good things before people can. Players must keep the garden safe by catching all six pests and taking them to the forest where they belong. The game includes a 12 x 12" board, two dice, seven pest movers, one "havahart" trap, one electric fence chart and rules. "Play as friends, not as enemies! Our games foster the spirit of cooperation," Jim Deacove, president of Family Pastimes, told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2010 Creative Child Seal of Excellence, CREATIVE CHILD MAGAZINE. 8/16/2010 (Price: $15.00) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Fill in the BLEEP by TALICOR / ARISTOPLAY

"Fill in the BLEEP" is the single answer card game that creates a thousand laughs. Players are dealt BLEEP cards and are presented a sentence with a missing word. Players then fill in the blank with their best BLEEP card based on the die roll, (Funniest, Quirkiest, Choice). The dealer will then "fill in the BLEEP" with the best submission. But beware of action cards that can change the game in an instant. The first to get rid of all of his or her BLEEP cards wins. "This is a game that is different every time you play. It can be enjoyed by both teenagers and adult game players. It is set apart by the unique images included on the game cards," Talicor Inc. Vice President Todd Jacobs told TDmonthly. 8/16/2010 (Price: $24.99) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Drakon by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

The old dragon Drakon has captured a brave band of adventurers who have sneaked into her lair to steal her gold. In Drakon, players each control one of the heroes trapped in Drakon’s lair. The first player to collect enough coins for a total value of at least 10 gold immediately wins the game. On each turn, a player either places a tile (then draws another), or moves his of her figure one space. Rick Nauertz, Sales Associate for Fantasy Flight Games, told TDmonthly, "Drakon is cutthroat fun for the entire family. After all, you don’t have to outrun the dragon, you just have to outrun your opponents!" 7/28/2010 (Price: $34.95) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Micro Mutants: Evolution by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

Created by Nexus Games, known for War of the Ring, Moto GP, Wings of War and Age of Conan, Micro Mutants is a game of strategy and dexterity that’s fun for players of all ages and experience levels. Micro Mutants: Evolution is the first Micro Mutants game and includes everything up to four players need to do microscopic battle in 30 to 60 minutes, including the Usarthopod, Flyborg, Sovietopter and Chitinian armies. Fantasy Flight Games Sales Associate Rick Nauertz told TDmonthly, "Micro Mutants is surprisingly simple to pick up and learn." 7/28/2010 (Price: $39.95) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Ingenious by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

Ingenious is the new abstract placement game from internationally-renowned game designer Reiner Knizia. Ingenious offers players a new way to train their brains by combining the simplicity of dominoes with the strategy Knizia is known for. Players place colored tiles on the hexagonal board, scoring points, blocking opponents’ tile placement, and trying to protect themselves from being blocked by their opponents. Ingenious is suitable for up to four players, as well as for solo play. Rick Nauertz, Sales Associate for Fantasy Flight Games, told TDmonthly, "Marvelously elegant and compulsively replayable, Ingenious is an excellent introduction to German-style abstract board games. It’s ingeniously simple, and simply ingenious!" 7/28/2010 (Price: $39.95) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Colossal Arena by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

This edition of Colossal Arena features updated components and a more portable format. Colossal Arena is a game of titanic battles and high stakes for two to five players. Designed by the legendary Reiner Knizia, this Silver Line classic is a new version of Titan: the Arena originally published by Avalon Hill. Features include 12 creature cards, 132 combat cards, 11 spectator cards, three referee cards, 25 bet tokens and a rulebook. Rick Nauertz, sales associate for Fantasy Flight Games, told TDmonthly, "A game as comfortable in your family’s closet as on a table at a gaming convention, Colossal Arena is must buy for all gamers!" 7/28/2010 (Price: $24.95) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]

Through the Desert by FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

In Through the Desert, two to five players each control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. By establishing caravans and taking over oases, the players gain points as their tribes increase in power. Game play is designed to be under an hour. Fantasy Flight Games Sales Associate Rick Nauertz told TDmonthly, "From the award-winning game designer Reiner Knizia comes a game of strategy, patience and cool plastic camels!" 7/28/2010 (Price: $34.95) [Add to my Inquiry Basket][?]