10 Board Games You Shouldn’t Miss Before Stepping to Adulthood

June 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by Pam Johnson

The great journey of adulthood will happen to us all. However, before you get there, it’s time to enjoy these fun and amusing board games.

Candy Land

Don’t even try to get to adulthood without playing Candy Land! This amusing game has been entertaining children of all ages for decades and decades, and you simply cannot miss it.

Monopoly Jr.

While one of the games can still take hours to complete, Monopoly Jr. is more suitable for a younger crowd than the standard version. Youngsters can certainly learn some basic counting skills while having a lot of fun.

Real Monopoly

Before making that final leap into the world of adults, it’s time to get out the board and play some real Monopoly. You’ll get a chance to see what it’s like to own some real estate and handle some seriously large amounts of money in your own hands! [Read more...]

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COMMENTARY: Fun in a Flash: Quick Games for Families

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Flash_Pack_3DOn rainy days, classic favorites such as Scrabble and Monopoly are perfect to entertain kids. But some busy families might not have hours to devote to board games. There are great new games on the market that take only a few minutes to play, but will keep kids entertained when they are in the mood for a game or two.

In Flash!, from Blue Orange Games, players race to complete eight challenges of dice combinations as they try to rack up the most points. Combinations include six of a kind, a straight, all odd numbers, all even numbers, and two sets of three. The first player to complete the challenge picks up the chip worth the most points. Players continue rolling until all players earn a chip. Straight-forward and easy to learn, game play only takes about 10 minutes. There are enough sets of brightly-colored dice for up to six players ages 7 and up. [Read more...]

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New Acquisition Makes The Strong’s Monopoly Collection World’s Largest

March 22, 2013 By

With the recent acquisition of the Philip E. Orbanes Collection, The Strong in Rochester, N.Y.—home to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of dolls, toys, and play-related artifacts—now holds the distinction of housing the world’s largest and most comprehensive assemblage of classic Monopoly games.

Orbanes spent more than a decade leading research and development teams at Parker Brothers and is widely recognized as the foremost scholar and author on the subjects of Monopoly and Parker Brothers. Through acquisition of Orbanes’s collection of Monopoly and early Parker Brother games and related archival material, The Strong gains not only rare examples of historic games, but also detailed files related to their manufacture, and Orbanes’s own research and experiences as an industry insider. [Read more...]

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Iron Gets Flattened After Fans Fail to Save the Classic Token

February 7, 2013 By

The next Monopoly game token to Pass GO! and collect $200 will be…the cat! After a month of voting on Facebook, and an overwhelming response from fans and organizations from 185 countries around the world, the cat has been chosen and will become the newest addition to the classic game from Hasbro. The cat was able to scratch past the toy robot, guitar, helicopter, and diamond ring in the Monopoly “Save Your Token” campaign by receiving 31 percent of the fan vote. [Read more...]

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Worldwide Online Vote Asks Fans to Decide Which Game Piece Will Go To Jail, Which New Token Will Pass Go!

January 15, 2013 By

The fate of the Scottie dog, race car, top hat, and the five other beloved tokens in the classic Monopoly game is in the hands of fans through a worldwide vote that will determine which token will be eliminated from the game. Will the shoe outpace the racecar? Will the battleship cruise past the wheelbarrow? Will fans be pressed if the iron is removed? Don’t leave this one to “chance” – it’s up to fans to make sure that their favorite token will pass “GO!” and not “go directly to jail” by voting every day at Facebook.com/Monopoly, now through February 5.

[Read more...]

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Top 20 Chosen by Children’s Museum Visitors and Fans

August 23, 2012 By

The results are in and more than 20,000 Children’s Museum of Indianapolis online visitors and fans have voted for their favorite toys from the last century. It is all part of the “100 Toys (& their Stories) that Define Our Childhood” interactive in which the museum asked people to choose the top 20 toys to represent the last 100 years. This list of 20 iconic toys includes: G.I. Joe, Transformers, Lego Toys, Barbie, View-Master, Bicycle, Play-Doh, Crayons, Cabbage Patch Kids, Monopoly, Etch a Sketch, Spirograph, Hot Wheels, Candy Land, Lincoln Logs, Raggedy Ann, Little Golden Books, Mr. Potato Head, Roller Skates, and Silly Putty.

The public is once again invited to vote for their favorites among the top 20 to rank the toys, which will ultimately determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners.

Voting to determine the final order for the top 20 runs through Sept. 7, and results will be announced to the public on September 11. To view the top 20 list of toys, vote, and share your own toy story, visit The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis online at www.childrensmuseum.org/100toys.

This post was originally written by Sierra McCleary-Harris and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.

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Hasbro Games Go LIVE

February 23, 2011 By

This fall, Hasbro will introduce a new way to play some of its most popular games—LIVE. The first games to go LIVE are Hasbro’s Battleship and Monopoly, which were showcased during American International Toy Fair in New York City last week.

Each LIVE game features Motion Vision Play technology via the game’s electronic tower. The tower contains an infrared camera that scans the game board and pieces in order to keep track of the game play such as rules and score.

In Battleship LIVE, the tower detects all ship, cannon, and hand movements during the game. In Monopoly LIVE, the tower is the centerpiece of the game and identifies players, watches hand movements, tracks bank balances, and introduces unexpected events during the game. Other features of the games include the sound of missiles flying through the air in Battleship LIVE and the opportunity to earn tax breaks for “green” utilities in Monopoly LIVE.

Both games are recommended for ages 8 and up and will retail for approximately $49.99.

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Monopoly Gives Away the Bank

August 30, 2010 By

This summer, Hasbro is celebrating the 75th anniversary of Monopoly by giving away the bank, which totals $20,580. The contest, Monopoly “Money Makes it Real,” started on July 15 and runs through September 3. Fans can visit www.Monopoly.com and describe what they would do if the money in their Monopoly game were real. Entries are limited to 75 words or less and will be based on how they “demonstrate a commitment o the spirit of Monopoly, such as travel, home repair or any other activity inspired by the history of the game, the Community Chest and Chance cards, the tokens, or the game play.” After the entries are collected, participants invite friends and family to vote for their entry to be picked as one out of the 75 entrants with the most votes. The final 75 participants, picked on September 27, will be considered for the grand prize.

Additionally, Monopoly is giving away the bank to S.O.S. Children’s Villages, a charity organization that builds houses for abandoned and at risk children. For 75 hours starting at midnight GMT on September 27, fans can vote for which project they want to see funded. Projects include daycare, medical supplies, school fees, seeds for family farms, soccer balls, and more.

For more information, visit www.Monopoly.com.

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Strong Museum of Play Acquires Second-Oldest Known Monopoly Game

July 1, 2010 By

Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y., home of the National Toy Hall of Fame, has acquired an early version of Monopoly that was used as evidence in a 10-year legal copyright battle regarding the actual inventor of the game.

The folk-art Monopoly board game, created by a member of the Heap family between 1910 and 1917 in Pennsylvania, is the second-oldest known version of the game, and the oldest version with all of its pieces intact. This version was one of the games used in the defense of Ralph Anspach in a trademark infringement case that went to the Supreme Court. Anspach challenged the lawsuit brought against him by General Mills Fun Group by producing early versions of the game that proved that Charles Darrow, the credited inventor who originally sold the rights to the game, was not the actual inventor. Anspach won the case on this evidence.

Strong Museum of Play owns 65 Monopoly sets and related games, including an additional early version of the game by Charles Darrow. The museum is considering a special display of both the Heap and Darrow games during the National Toy Hall of Fame induction on November 4.

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Hasbro Revs Up Its Licensing Programs

June 9, 2010 By

The Entertainment & Licensing (E&L) division of Hasbro, Inc. has announced a slate of licensing programs to support its brands, including Transformers, Nerf, Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony, Monopoly, and Playskool.

Hasbro, in association with DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, will debut Transformers 3 on July 1, 2011. The company’s licensees for the Transformers brand include comic books from IDW (U.S.), digital games from Activision (worldwide), and more.

Hasbro is also teaming up with Universal Pictures to bring Stretch Armstrong and Battleship to the big screen in summer 2012. Universal will also produce films based on Hasbro’s Monopoly, Candy Land, and Ouija. Theater release dates have not been announced.

Hasbro recently reached an agreement with The Sports Licensed Division of the adidas Group for a NERF-inspired apparel and footwear line (deal is still subject to the companies negotiating and has yet to be signed into a binding license agreement). Additionally, Electronic Arts has signed on for NERF digital gaming (worldwide), SDI Technologies has inked a deal for NERF electronics (U.S.), and Performance Design Products will create NERF digital gaming hardware accessories (worldwide).

[Read more...]

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