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Mattel Scrabble Original
by ajp4ever
Good old scrabble! Toys come and toys go, various new fads appear then disappear every Christmas but one thing is for sure. When the family settle down later on during Christmas day, the chances are that two things will remain, year after year. Number one is lego and number two is of course that old family favourite, ... Scrabble.
It's almost a tradition in our household (and no doubt many others) that I try to beat my mother in law (who is an ex teacher) at scrabble every year and up and down the country, similar challenges will be taking place. No matter your age or ability, scrabble truly is a fun game for all the family and my eight year old daughter is now old enough to hold her own as well.
This humble little word game takes on a life of its own as you frantically find yourself trying to fit in the word "quiz" in a triple word score as you know that this will effectively win you the game. The palpable sense of disappoint you feel when someone "blocks" a high scoring word that, "I was going to put there!" is plain for all to see, as is the sense of satisfaction in that game changing 70 pointer that has taken you ages to set up!
All in all, scrabble has stood the test of time admirably and will no doubt remain as popular as ever so if by some miracle you don't have scrabble in your board game collection, get it now!
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Angry Birds On Thin Ice
by broxi3781
My sons loved their Lujex(TM) Angry Birds Knock On Wood Board Game Sound but it does appear to be a knock off and it is made by a brand name I am unfamiliar with, where this set is made by well known toy manufacturers Mattel. The funny thing is - the cheaper set was far better. A friend of ours was in a generous mood after striking ... lucky with the bookies and gave the boys a few £ - and they had their own pocket money saved up so they pooled their resources and bought this. They were expecting something like the first set though, and while they do like this, and it makes a decent add on it does seem a bit small for the money.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
2 birds - much smaller than the other set.
3 pigs but rather than being molded out of plastic like the knock off set - these are plastic lumps with pig face stickers.
5 ice blocks - 3 of which separate into two parts.
2 tiny ice cubes
5 "wooden girders" or plastic blocks which look like wood 3 large - 2 small.
2 plastic helmets
A TNT Box
A launcher or catapult to shoot your birds.
40 mission cards and 16 points cards.
GAMEPLAY:
You are meant to draw a mission card, and build the structure exactly as shown for the first 3 levels with the final level allowing some creativity - as long as you follow the guidelines. I say meant to - because we don't play by the rules. After you build your "castle", you use the launcher to shoot the birds at it and knock down, scoring points as dictated by the cards. The first person to reach 1,000 points wins.
OUR GAMEPLAY:
We do own another set - with a more blocks and better pieces. We simply combined the two sets so we can build better structures. We play buy having one person build the best structure they can to protect their pigs. The other player uses the birds to knock it down. Once you have used up all of your birds the roles are reversed. We score one point for each pig knocked down or hit with a block. The winner is the player who has taken out the most pigs at the end of the game. Sometimes we add Jenga blocks, dominoes, even marbles to create more exciting structures. In addition to knock em down the games, the boys do play with the figures for creative play as well, and we are planning to do some stop motion animation with them at some point. this is really fun as a family game, taking turns building and wrecking, but it can also be played alone. My son used this quite a bit at the caravan when he would grow bored - building massive towers and knocking them over. I do like the fact that this game has the flexibility to make a good family game or single player game - as there are not many board games you can play on your own.
OVERALL:
My sons do enjoy this, but they both said the cheaper set was better. My oldest is more aware of prices and he knew this cost more than the other set. He felt since it cost more money - it should have more or better pieces - so he did realise this wasn't the best value for money. He was happy enough to have it as an addition to his other set. He did not want to part with any more of his own money for Mattel sets as he felt they were not a good buy - but he says he would still have them if I want to buy them - typical child. His biggest issue with this was the TNT box though. It is meant to pop apart when hit - but it doesn't really work and that was another disappointment with this set. I also wanted this set so each child would have their own catapult, and while this one does work well enough, the Lujex one is slightly better and both boys prefer that one. On the plus side though - this one does not take batteries or make horrible noises.
My own opinion of this set is that it can be a fun game - but there really are not enough pieces to do much with this. If we had only this set - I don't think it would get much use. Combined with another set - it does add to the fun, and we really do have a lot of fun playing with these. But I really don't see this as value for money. I paid roughly £16 for this. The price has dropped to £12.37 with Amazon. I think if you can afford a couple of sets, it does make an exciting family game - or you could make do with other toys - like Jenga block as as we do. But I also feel that for the price of this - they could have included a few more pieces, and made the TNT box work. This ends up with a wishy washy 3 star rating from me. I'm still happy enough to have the set as it does add to our fun. But I have to recommend the Lujex set above this one as far better value. If you can afford 2 or more sets I would feel a bit more comfortable in recommending this as it is more likely to be played with frequently.
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Mattel Scrabble Original
by rji0907
My parents were having a clear out at home a few months back and found their game of scrabble. I'd loved this game for years and since they don't really get time to play it, I took it off their hands.
I have played this a few times since acquiring it recently and I still love the game as much now as I did all those years ago. ... This game isn't generally about fun (though it can be depending on what words you come up with!), it is a game of strategy and skill.
I'm sure there isn't anybody who doesn't know the game Scrabble, but just in case there are people out there who have never played the game before, it is a word game. The game can be played with 2-4 players, but with four players the game is more interesting. Within the box you get the square playing board, four letter holders and the letters. Each letter has a number on it and the idea is that you try and score as many points as you can making words from the letters you have. The more difficult letters are worth more than the easier letters. To aid scoring, the board contains some helpers such as double word, triple word, double letter and triple letter so if you place your letters on these squares, you get the added bonuses stated. The rules are quite simple in that it has to be a proper word and the word you place down has to join onto a word already on the board, you can't just place your letters anywhere. Each player picks 7 letters to start at random and replaces their tiles to make seven again after making a word. The game carries on until all tiles have been used and the player that has the highest score at the end wins. You can also play with the winner being the one who gets rid of their tiles first if you don't want to score the game.
I love this type of game as it involves a bit of brain power but some that struggle with spelling etc may not find it particularly fun and could get a little frustrated by it. I tried playing it with my 8 year old son as I thought it might aid him with spelling etc at school. He was reasonably good at it but soon got bored and his mind started wandering just because it wasn't a game he found fun to play so I would say it is definitely more a game for adults than for children.
As said, the gameplay itself is simple and the only grey area may be the legality of the word. Some people may think their word is a legal word whereas others may disagree so if you are going to take it seriously, you could have a dictionary next to you to go by, but if the game is only being played for fun, it isn't really worth going to those kind of lengths to settle the disagreement!
As with many games, the original is always the best but unfortunately Scrabble has jumped on the modern bandwagon too and it now has many versions available if the original is seen as too boring for you. You can get a junior scrabble, Simpsons scrabble, Disney scrabble, travel scrabble and Toy Story scrabble to name but a few. Personally though, I prefer the original one and I'm pleased that they still offer the original one and it hasn't changed a bit!
As I didn't pay for this one, I have looked the price up on Amazon and was amazed to find it still retails at £13.00 which to me proves it hasn't lost its popularity and is still as popular now as it was many years ago.
Overall, although this game wouldn't be to everyone's tastes, I personally love this game. I do love games that are fun, but require a bit of skill and brain power too and this game is perfect for me. I have even downloaded the Scrabble App on my iphone! The game doesn't take too long to play and can be fun too. Recommended.
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