Board Games Galore!

Don’t mess with Texas. That’s what I found out this morning when I was on the KCRS Morning Show with Robert Hallmark and Kurt Verlei in Odessa. First we talked games from The Playmakers including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, and Mouse Trap, but then the callers started to dig deep into their memory banks. I was stumped on more than a few games (Gusher? who knew?) and like many interviews, we ran out of time before I could answer everyone’s questions. As promised, here’s the low down on a few of the gems we dusted off.

Pollyanna A variant of Parcheesi, “The Game of India” which was first produced in modern form by Selchow & Righter in the 1860s. After Selchow’s success with Parcheesi, other game manufacturers made similar competing games including Ludo in England and Pollyanna by Parker Brothers in the States. Interestingly, Parker Brothers would tweak the idea a bit further and introduce Sorry in 1934 with great success.

Jamboree Another Selchow & Richter game that was first produced around 1937. You would travel to cities all over the world in this “The Sky’s the Limit!” game. Not to be confused with…

Jubilee a tile game with numbers (like Dominoes) produced by Cadaco-Ellis in 1954

Pick Up Sticks A common game based on an earlier version called Jack Straws which was available in the 1900s by Milton Bradley. Early sets could contain “Straws” or “Sticks” made from ivory or bone and are very desirable to collectors. McLoughlin Brothers (an early American game manufacturer) made a game of Jack Straws around 1890 with pieces made of different shapes – not just straight sticks. The object in all versions was to remove certain pieces without disturbing any others.

Pente This game was invented by Gary Gabrel around 1974. The first commercial game he produced came out in 1977. He sold it on his own until 1983 when Parker Brothers bought it from him. It is a variant of the Japanese game of Go where the object is to get five stones in-a-row or to make five captures.

Gusher was produced by Carrom in 1946. It was a “strike oil” game and was subtitled “Win a Million!” In 1974 Milton Bradley seemed to update the game as King Oil.

Blockade was an early war game (1941) and was subtitled “A Game for Armchair Admirals” It had metal ships for tokens.

Green Ghost was a glow-in-the-dark game introduced by Transogram in 1965. You reached into dark “pits” containing rubber bands (snakes), plastic bones, feathers, and keys in the search for little green ghosts.

Winnie still Hot After 78 years

One of the best preschool lines this year is Fisher-Price’s Winnie the Pooh. As told in The Playmakers, we were introduced to Pooh and his friends in 1926 when the book Winnie-the-Pooh was written by author A. A. Milne.

The most popular teddy bear of all time, Pooh began his life with the name Edward Bear, named by Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne. The story is told that Christopher Robin became enamored with a black bear cub at the London Zoo named Winnie. The bear had belonged to a British soldier who had rescued her, named her after his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, and later donated her to the zoo. Christopher Robin renamed Edward Bear “Winnie.” The name Pooh came later, courtesy of Christopher’s famous father. The book Winnie-the-Pooh, first published in 1926, secured the popularity of the stuffed toy for generations.

Feeling nostalgic? Head over to Pooh Corner.

Ultimate Toy Awards Tonight on PAX

There’s Oscar, Emmy, Tony and now Uta! If you missed the The Ultimate Toy Awards last night, the first-of-its-kind show will air again tonight from 7-8pm on PAX.

Celebrating play, family entertainment and the toy industry, the Ultimate Toy Award winners were chosen by consumers and the American toy press. The star-studded event is a collaboration among Toy Wishes magazine, Dick Clark Productions, Inc. and DIC Entertainment and is hosted Keith Carradine. Celebrity appearances include Hilary Duff, Paula Abdul, Debbie Allen, and Kathy Ireland. More information is available a Business Wire.

The Wall Street Journal Delves into Playtime

Today’s article in The Wall Street Journal by Cynthia Crossen is terrific! Entitled “For Some, Playtime Never Ends,” it refers to many of the stories in The Playmakers and calls the book “…an illustrated compendium of America’s 20th-century favorites.”

The article is readable here if you have an on-line subscription.

About The Author

Game inventor and author Tim Walsh was born on Christmas Day, 1964 – a perfect prerequisite for a kid destined to become a play entrepreneur.

In 1990 he co-invented TriBond, a board game that has sold over 3 million copies in thirteen countries. TriBond was inducted into the Games Magazine Hall of Fame in 2000. In 1994 Tim invented the board game Blurt!, which went on to sell over 1 million copies. Blurt! is currently sold by Sababa Toys with the Bible version sold by Talicor/Aristoplay. In 1996 Tim co-developed Mad Gab, a million plus seller currently sold by Mattel.

For nine years Tim held the dual titles of Corporate VP of Product Development and Marketing for Patch Products in Beloit, Wisconsin. When Tim was hired in 1992, the company’s sales were aproximately $3 million. When he left the company in 2001 sales topped $25 million.

In 2004 Tim self-published his book, The Playmakers, which promptly won a 2004 Book of the Year Award from Foreword Magazine and the pretigious Grand Prize in the 2004 Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. Shortly thereafter, Tim licensed the book to publishing giant Andrews McMeel-Universal, who released it as Timeless Toys.

Tim just finished writing a new, retrospective book on WHAM-O in celebration of their 60th anniversary. Chronicle Books will publish the tentatively titled WHAM-O Super Book in 2008. Also in 2008 comes a feature-length documentary film on toy inventors for which Tim is Creative Consultant. He will also appear in the film as a toy and game inventor.

Tim is a 17-year veteran of the toy industry and a frequent speaker on toys and play. He has appeared on many national TV and radio programs, including CBS This Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered, Fox’s After Breakfast, The History Channel’s Our Generation, HGTV’s Games We Grew Up With, and CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch among others. He has moderated industry panels for the Chicago Toy and Game Fair and lectured at Toy Fair as a play entrepreneur.

Contact Tim via the publisher:

Keys Publishing Co., Inc.
PMB 180
5342 Clark Road
Sarasota, FL 34233-3227
P: (941) 926-8004
F: (941) 926-8054
info@theplaymakers.com