May 2009 New Specialty Toys — General Games

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.

Game play starts by removing the towers from the base. The goal is to place the towers following two simple rules: there must be only one of each colored tower in every row and column, and the towers must fit into the base to form a perfect cube, with all the towers being the same height. Launch date: November 19, 2008.

Requiring no reading from its players, Qwirkle is a simple-to-learn but stimulating game based around matching the attributes of the game play tiles. Players build rows and columns by placing tiles adjacent to tiles they share an attribute with (shape or color), and score bonus points if they can think ahead and put a tile down touching multiple other tiles. While the game is easy to understand, a good eye and quick thinking make Qwirkle challenging enough for a wide range of ages to play together.
Awards: 2011 Speiele des Jahres (German game of the year).
― “We sell a lot of Qwirkle,” Sue Banducci said of popular games in her Danville, Calif., store, Games Unlimited. “Qwirkle was best-selling over Christmas,” said Shirley Reilly, owner of Let's Play in Hillsboro, Ore., in January 2009.
― When asked about his top-selling games in early 2009, Tye Steinbach of Thinker Toys in Portland, Ore. told TDmonthly, “It was probably Qwirkle. We're not huge gamers in our family, but it's really fun.”
— Four of 44 specialty retailers named Qwirkle as a best seller in late fall 2009. Ages & Stages Toy Box in Golden, Colo., sells about 10 Qwirkle games per month, Manager Holly Anvers told TDmonthly.
— As of 12/17/2012 this product had 4.8 out of 5 stars from 483 reviews on Amazon.com and was No. 6 on the top 100 bestselling toys and games. Pros: Exciting; intellectually stimulating, easy to learn. Cons: Some said it took too long to play; only had 3 reviews less than 3 stars, however.

The fast-moving rummy game hits the big time with a new edition featuring bright, oversized numbers. Players still create “runs” and “groups” with their numbered tiles, but now the tiles are easier to read. Orange tiles have been switched with green to make it even clearer. It is for two to four players.

Two of Around the Table's award winning games in one tin. Family Talk and Grandparent Talk cards,  each with 100 cards per deck, connect generations through fun and diverse conversations.  Available March 2009.