Games may be the most reliable category in specialty toy stores right now. And there certainly is no dearth of offerings. Here, TDmonthly Magazine shows you some of the latest ways to play with kids of all ages. Check back weekly; the article will be updated as new products arrive.
Pick Up Pete: The Self-Driving Chair Stacking Family Game by FOTORAMA STACK THE CHAIRS WHILE PETE GOES AROUND - Whoever can stack the most chairs is eligible for a grand prize! The current record is 48 chairs TAKE TURNS STACKING - Stack your chairs in the back of Pete as he drives around in a circle, and whoever stacks all of their chairs first wins!!! FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY - Pick Up Pete is the perfect game for game night, it is perfect for 1-4 players! HOURS OF PLAY - Pick Up Pete runs off of 2 AA batteries with a full 24 hour run time. INCLUDES - Motorized Pick Up Pete and 24 colored chairs (4 different colors)
AGES: 4+ PLAYERS: 2+ CONTENT: 1 PICK UP PETE, 24 COLOR CHAIRS
8/17/2020
Schmovie by GALACTIC SNEEZE The object of Schmovie is to come up with funny titles for made-up movies based on a film genre (determined by the roll of a die) combined with an outlandish premise (generated by flipping two cards). Schmovie is all about creativity, humor and laugh-out-loud fun for the whole family. What would you call an action film about a killer sandwich? Rye Hard … Beauty and the Beef … Despicable Meatballs … you get the point. Collect Schquid trophies for winning titles as you laugh yourself silly. Inside each box of Schmovie Family Edition: 85 What cards, 85 Who cards, 19 Schquid trophies, 1 genre die, 5 erasable title boards, 1 rule sheet, 5 erasable markers, 19 trophy bases and unlimited awesomeness. 11/24/2015 (Price: $19.95; Age: 8 and up)
Pie Face Game by HASBRO INC. The exciting Pie Face game is filled with fun and suspense, and somebody’s bound to get splatted! Just put some delicious whipped cream from home or the wet sponge on the “hand” of this hilarious game unit and start turning the handles. It could go off at any time, so keep your fingers crossed and hope you’re not the one who gets a splat in the face! You score a point for every time you turn the handle without getting pie-faced, and the one who scores 25 points wins. Take some risks and hope for the best in this hilarious Pie Face game! Pie Face, Rocket Games and logo are trademarks of Rocket Games. 2014 Rocket Games. Hasbro and all related terms are trademarks of Hasbro. 10/26/2015 (Price: $19.99)
Armadora by BLUE ORANGE GAMES Armadora is a 2-4 player area control game. Your objective is to claim the biggest portion of the dwarven gold mines. Each turn, you will choose to either place one of your tokens facedown to claim territory, or place a palisade to divide existing territories in two. The player with the highest strength in each territory wins its gold at the end of the game. The player with the most gold wins. 9/30/2015
Stack Attack by PATCH PRODUCTS INC. Play it risky or play it safe. Either way you just gotta stack it! Roll your dice and stack matching numbers on the dice tower. Just don't be the player who knocks down the tower because you'll score a big fat zero! But if you get all of your dice on the tower before it falls, everyone else loses out! For 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up. 9/30/2015 (Age: 8 and up)
Pickles to Penquins by OUTSET MEDIA Pickles to Penguins is the quick-thinking picture-linking party game! Don't fret if the party gets frantic - the guests are probably just having a blast playing Pickles to Penguins - the frantic party game where you link the pictures to win. Get rid of your cards the quickest by figuring out what your cards and the cards in play have in common. Do they share a colour? Are they both things you find in a salad or bring to a party? Exercise your lateral thinking abilities, but don’t be too hasty or you may have to pick up penalty cards for stretching a connection too far. Take a deep breath and let the chaos begin! Hundreds of pictures, but how many can you link together? 7/29/2015 (Price: $27.00; Age: 8 and up)
Crazy City by MINILAND EDUCATIONAL CORP This is a fun magnetic game and part of Miniland’s new 2015 On-The-Go collection. With Crazy City you use your memory to combine the pieces on the city streets, and then check that the models are the same as those on the outer board. This new collection comprises 6 crazy magnetic games. These are games of association with a large dose of imagination and excitement. Their format and design make them ideal for taking them wherever you go and for playing without limits. Made for children 3-7 years old. 4/28/2015 (Age: 3 to 7)
Beardos Name That Beard Game by HAYWIRE GROUP Are you a facial hair aficionado? Do you think you know famous beards? Well then, this is your chance to impress! Players are given clues, one at a time, from the player wearing the beard card. The quicker you guess the famous beard, the more points you'll score. Can you Name That Beard? For 2+ players. 3/18/2015 (Price: $9.99; Age: 14 and up)
Cup-A-Cup by R&R GAMES INC. This game requires fast hands and fast reflexes. Roll the dice, quickly identify the missing colored shape and grab the matching cup. You will have to move fast since they are all up for grabs and the first to collect three cups wins the game. The game is for 2-8 players, ages 6+ and plays in 10-20 minutes.
2/19/2015 (Age: 6 and up)
Seagull Splat by GOLIATH GAMES Split before he splats on you! Players squeeze the seagull's tail as he flies over the sunbathers below. The kid-powered pump on the seagull's tail randomly squirts bubble solutions; if he splats on your sunbather you lose a playing piece. This unique games provides hours of foamy fun for all ages! 2-4 players. 2/14/2015 (Price: $31.99; Age: 4 and up)
SPECTRACUBE™ Game by FUNNYBONE TOYS LLC SPECTACULAR, QUICK, KALEIDOSCOPIC ROLLING CUBE GAMES 30 COLOR CUBES – 6 COLORFUL GAMES! Imagine 30 of the most beautiful, multi-colored cubes you’ve ever seen. Fun to hold, fun to ROLL, and Spectracube includes rules for SIX different games, from fast to strategic, to satisfy all fans of rolling dice game action!
2/4/2015 (Price: $19.99; Age: 6 and up)
IDEAL® Word Speed Dice SlideTM by ALEX BRANDS Spell words that combine the consonant cards in your hand with the vowel dice. The first person to shout out their word wins the hand. Includes 6 vowel dice, 53 cards, Dice Slide and easy-to-understand instructions. For 2-4 players. Part of a collection of games that include the storage and gameboard in one. Patented design allows you to take and play dice anywhere. Each game sold separately. 2/3/2015 (Price: $11.00; Age: 8 and up)
Kobayakawa by IELLO IELLO's Kobayakawa is a quick and fun betting and bluffing game with a poker-like feel. In feudal Japan, powerful samurai clans battle for dominion over the land. But just being the strongest isn’t enough. The powerful Kobayakawa clan shifts allegiance like the wind, bringing victory to the weak. Do you have what it takes to outsmart them? Kobayakawa is a simple card game for 3-6 players. Using just 15 cards, bluff and bet your way to victory over seven rounds. 2/3/2015
Camera Roll by ENDLESS GAMES CAMERA ROLL...where YOUR pictures tell the story of YOUR life! Lets face it, YOU have photos on your phone… maybe LOTS of photos! Do you have a snapshot from a BIRTHDAY PARTY? How about a picture from your VACATION? You have 30 seconds. Can you find SOMETHING HOT or a BIG MISTAKE in your photo library? Maybe now you’ll find a reason to show off that SUNSET pic you took 6 months ago! Every player is involved in every round! Just find a photo with whatever the card says. Will YOUR picture best fit the card description? Will you have the winning CAMERA ROLL?!
Ramps & Rails by MINDTWISTER USA 6 TIME X-GAMES GOLD MEDALIST CREATES A BOARD GAME INSPIRED BY DAUGHTER! Bucky Lasek’s Ramps and Rails game play is mix between a fun chute and ladders race and an educational tool, which helps children better understand the relationship between numbers and spaces. Recent trends in accelerated learning of science and technology have shown the "count-on" method of play yields real benefits for children with their ability to use numbers.
12/18/2014 (Age: 4 and up)
Bellz by WIGGLES 3D Bellz is deceptively simple and yet supremely challenging at the same time. Just open the travel pouch and you’re ready to play! The pouch opens to become the game arena. Inside there are 40 custom bells in 4 colors and 3 different sizes. Players use the magnet wand to pick up bells of only one color. Make a string off the end of the magnet wand, or create a cluster — just don’t pick up bells of any other color or the turn is over. Each player must decide how far to push their luck on every turn. The first player to collect all 10 bells of one color wins! The magnet wand can be used two ways: Use the small end for precision grabs, or try the larger, more powerful end to make really long chains. You choose which end to use each turn. 12/17/2014 (Price: $19.99; Age: 2 to 4)
Blurble by BERNARD GAMES Blurble is a hilarious, fast-paced card game that is great for nearly all ages and group sizes. Flip over a card and be the first to say a word that starts with the same letter as the image on the card. Proper nouns, numbers, and words with fewer than three letters are not allowed. The winner of each card moves on to challenge another player, and the player with the most cards at the end is the winner. Aside from the hilarious gameplay, Blurble is also a great educational tool for children. 12/11/2014
Press Here Game by CHRONICLE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN The magic of the New York Times bestseller Press Here is now available in game form! Hervé Tullet has reimagined his groundbreaking book in an entirely new dimension. Players take turns completing color sequences by placing red, blue, and yellow playing pieces on one of twenty-five fabulously designed game boards. What seems like a simple choice is likely to lead to animated discussion as players come to understand the visual logic at the heart of the game. With two levels of play to choose from—so that it's easy enough for a toddler to grasp, but also complex enough to challenge older siblings and adults—this engaging game delivers hours of entertainment for the whole family. 11/14/2014 (Price: $20.00)
Kanoodle Genius by EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS INC. Solve 2-D and 3-D puzzles by rearranging game pieces. Pick a puzzle from the book, set up the challenge and then place the remaining game pieces to solve the puzzle. Kanoodle Genius offers 200+ brain-busting puzzles for you to solve all on your own. If you've completed the puzzles of the original Kanoodle, you'll love the even more challenging Kanoodle Genius. You'll feel yourself getting smarter. 11/13/2014
Balanstix by CREATIVE CONCEPTS LLC Balanstix is a game of skill! Everyone at one time in their life has balanced something, whether it was a book on their head or a tennis racket in their hand. This game has two distinct levels of competition and is great for Parties, Holidays, or just for fun. Looking for a way to increase your Balance skills, try Balanstix.
Clumsy Thief by MELON RIND Can you make money stacks that equal $100? If you can, you take the money. Big money's up for grabs and every player joins the fun. This game requires addition skills, strategy, luck and a great sense of humor!
How To Play: Players make $100 money stacks from their dealt cards. Steal a stack if you have a card equaling $100 when added to the top card of your opponents' stack. But that's just the beginning! Thief cards steal money cards. Jail cards stop thief cards. In the end the player with the most money wins. Contents: 94 cards and game rules. Playing time: 15 minutes. Ages: 8+. Players: 2-6. 10/2/2014 (Price: $13.50; Age: 8 and up)
Drop Shot by PLASMART INC. It's a race to the top but beware of the drop! Roll the die and strategically move past the gates. Be the first to reach the top and survive the LAST CHANCE DROP! 2 - 4 players. 9/24/2014 (Price: $14.99; Age: 6 and up)
Arachnarok Spider by GAMES WORKSHOP In the darkest depths of the most sinister forests, even Giants and Cygors can fall prey to the colossal Arachnarok Spider. Towering over houses and settlements alike, this gargantuan creature can be goaded into battle by Forest Goblins who worship it as a living god. Bedecked with shanty towers, altars to the Spider-god or even crude catapults, the Arachnarok Spider will terrorise the Warhammer world. This 95-piece, all-plastic kit comes complete with all the options available to make your Arachnarok Spider truly unique, including a Flinger and a Catchweb Spidershrine. There are also eight Forest Goblin crew for the howdah, many tiny spiders to adorn the base and a Goblin Great Shaman if you choose to use the Arachnarok Spider as a monstrous mount. 7/31/2014 (Price: $57.75)
Quack-a-doodle-Moo by OUT OF THE BOX PUBLISHING The party game where everyone is an animal...or at least sounds like one! In Quack-a-doodle-Moo each player gets a Barn Card with a random farm animal and the fun begins. As cards are quickly flipped over toungue-tied players stumble and stutter to blurt out the animal sounds of other players. 6/2/2014 (Price: $19.99; Age: 7 and up)
Matching Game Who Lives Where? by HABA USA/HABERMAASS CORP. An excellent addition to the My First Play World series from HABA, the Who Lives Where? Matching Game will be both fun and educational for your little one! The animals are searching for their houses. Who will show them where they live? The charmingly detailed illustrations will help make the matching game easier. Also excellent in free play, the houses can be arranged to form a zoo. Stack the houses to put together an additional fun illustration or use the dots on the sides to introduce counting! The contents include 1 elephant (3" tall), 1 giraffe, 1 zebra, 1 lion, 1 hippo, 1 monkey, 6 animal houses (largest house is 4.75" x 5.00" x 3.00"). Perfect for children ages 18 months and up. 5/14/2014 (Price: $37.99; Age: 1 and up)
Splendor by ASMODEE EDITIONS As a wealthy Renaissance merchant, acquire mines and transportation, hire artisans and woo the nobility. Create the most fantastic jewelry to become the best-known merchant of them all! Players will acquire precious stones to trade them for development cards. Use development cards to acquire more gem stones. Use your gems and gold to create the most fantastic jewelry, and appeal to the nobles to gain the prestige you need to win. 4/29/2014 (Price: $39.95; Age: 10 and up)
Writer's Bio: ALISON MAREK is an award-winning writer, director and cartoonist whose work has been published by Fairchild Publications and DC Comics (Piranha Press), broadcast on Showtime and other cable networks, and viewed worldwide in film festivals. See her short films and print work on www.alisonmarek.com. Watch her nefarious villains in the web series www.MuggsMovers.com. Get inspired by her cartoons "Daily ARFFirmations to Unleash Your Inner Fido" at www.ARFFirmations.com. Phew! And then ... Read more articles by this author
The object of Schmovie is to come up with funny titles for made-up movies based on a film genre (determined by the roll of a die) combined with an outlandish premise (generated by flipping two cards). Schmovie is all about creativity, humor and laugh-out-loud fun for the whole family. What would you call an action film about a killer sandwich? Rye Hard … Beauty and the Beef … Despicable Meatballs … you get the point. Collect Schquid trophies for winning titles as you laugh yourself silly. Inside each box of Schmovie Family Edition: 85 What cards, 85 Who cards, 19 Schquid trophies, 1 genre die, 5 erasable title boards, 1 rule sheet, 5 erasable markers, 19 trophy bases and unlimited awesomeness. 11/24/2015 (Price: $19.95; Age: 8 and up)
The exciting Pie Face game is filled with fun and suspense, and somebody’s bound to get splatted! Just put some delicious whipped cream from home or the wet sponge on the “hand” of this hilarious game unit and start turning the handles. It could go off at any time, so keep your fingers crossed and hope you’re not the one who gets a splat in the face! You score a point for every time you turn the handle without getting pie-faced, and the one who scores 25 points wins. Take some risks and hope for the best in this hilarious Pie Face game! Pie Face, Rocket Games and logo are trademarks of Rocket Games. 2014 Rocket Games. Hasbro and all related terms are trademarks of Hasbro. 10/26/2015 (Price: $19.99)
Play it risky or play it safe. Either way you just gotta stack it! Roll your dice and stack matching numbers on the dice tower. Just don't be the player who knocks down the tower because you'll score a big fat zero! But if you get all of your dice on the tower before it falls, everyone else loses out! For 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up. 9/30/2015 (Age: 8 and up)
This game requires fast hands and fast reflexes. Roll the dice, quickly identify the missing colored shape and grab the matching cup. You will have to move fast since they are all up for grabs and the first to collect three cups wins the game. The game is for 2-8 players, ages 6+ and plays in 10-20 minutes.
Blurble is a hilarious, fast-paced card game that is great for nearly all ages and group sizes. Flip over a card and be the first to say a word that starts with the same letter as the image on the card. Proper nouns, numbers, and words with fewer than three letters are not allowed. The winner of each card moves on to challenge another player, and the player with the most cards at the end is the winner. Aside from the hilarious gameplay, Blurble is also a great educational tool for children. 12/11/2014
The magic of the New York Times bestseller Press Here is now available in game form! Hervé Tullet has reimagined his groundbreaking book in an entirely new dimension. Players take turns completing color sequences by placing red, blue, and yellow playing pieces on one of twenty-five fabulously designed game boards. What seems like a simple choice is likely to lead to animated discussion as players come to understand the visual logic at the heart of the game. With two levels of play to choose from—so that it's easy enough for a toddler to grasp, but also complex enough to challenge older siblings and adults—this engaging game delivers hours of entertainment for the whole family. 11/14/2014 (Price: $20.00)
Solve 2-D and 3-D puzzles by rearranging game pieces. Pick a puzzle from the book, set up the challenge and then place the remaining game pieces to solve the puzzle. Kanoodle Genius offers 200+ brain-busting puzzles for you to solve all on your own. If you've completed the puzzles of the original Kanoodle, you'll love the even more challenging Kanoodle Genius. You'll feel yourself getting smarter. 11/13/2014
Can you make money stacks that equal $100? If you can, you take the money. Big money's up for grabs and every player joins the fun. This game requires addition skills, strategy, luck and a great sense of humor!
The party game where everyone is an animal...or at least sounds like one! In Quack-a-doodle-Moo each player gets a Barn Card with a random farm animal and the fun begins. As cards are quickly flipped over toungue-tied players stumble and stutter to blurt out the animal sounds of other players. 6/2/2014 (Price: $19.99; Age: 7 and up)
As a wealthy Renaissance merchant, acquire mines and transportation, hire artisans and woo the nobility. Create the most fantastic jewelry to become the best-known merchant of them all! Players will acquire precious stones to trade them for development cards. Use development cards to acquire more gem stones. Use your gems and gold to create the most fantastic jewelry, and appeal to the nobles to gain the prestige you need to win. 4/29/2014 (Price: $39.95; Age: 10 and up)
Writer's Bio: ALISON MAREK is an award-winning writer, director and cartoonist whose work has been published by Fairchild Publications and DC Comics (Piranha Press), broadcast on Showtime and other cable networks, and viewed worldwide in film festivals. See her short films and print work on www.alisonmarek.com. Watch her nefarious villains in the web series www.MuggsMovers.com. Get inspired by her cartoons "Daily ARFFirmations to Unleash Your Inner Fido" at www.ARFFirmations.com. Phew! And then ... 
