Ahoy there! (Tomy Pop Up Pirate)

Member Name: yellowroses

Product:	Tomy Pop Up Pirate
Date:	18/02/09 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No skill involved

Disadvantages: Common sense

Ahoy all ye hearties!
My son now 5 is pirate mad so anything relating to pirates is going reach 5 stars in his book.
I bought this game when my son was 2 and a half but the guideline is age 4+. I think the age guideline has to do with the size of the plastic swords and the 'jumping' mechanism rather than difficulty so my opinion was as long as I was playing with my son and supervising him he would be fine. I picked this game up for around £5 in a sale. Looking today it retails for £9.77 at Amazon, and it was £8.67 in my local tesco yesterday.

****The Concept ****

A bright and cheerful yet incredibly simply game which provides hours of fun and giggles. The game is made up of a blue plastic disc decorated in stickers of sand and sea creatures, upon which you place a plastic barrel with slates in the sides. A pirate is placed in the barrel and turns are taken to insert plastic swords until the pirate 'pops' out.

There are four different colours of swords, namely blue, green, yellow and red. This allows up to four players to play, however we often just play it with two players using two colours each.

*****The Aim*****

The aim quite simply is to insert all your swords without the pirate 'popping'. The sword that make the pirate pop up is completely random and changes everytime you play. I guess you could compare it to the same principles of Buckaroo where you are trying to load the horse without him bucking.

*****Entertainment/ Enjoyment*****

My son has spent many hours on rainy days playing this game. It is one that sits in the cupboard for months and then played with for hours. A toy he always goes back to. There is absolutely no skill involved in this game, it is completely down to chance. In my opinion this is a good thing as like i said i got it for my son at 2 and a half and he could quite happily play with older friends and cousins without getting frustrated that he couldn't manage.

****Good Bits *****

* No Batteries needed
* No skill involved
*A game that will last for years
* Encourages 'turn taking' and sharing

***** Not so Good Bits ****

* There is a safety warning about not playing on tables or leaning over the pirate when playing because it does pop up with some speed but to be honest common sense should prevent any accidents

In summary a great toy for the pirate mad.

Summary: A good game