TOYOLOGY Toyology-The Action Men of the batteries not included industry
Related Articles
Apparently one if five folk pretend not to be indoors at Halloween to avoid the Belsnikeler’s, yes, the German tradition that led to Trick or Treating. This All Hallows Eve pursuit from the Europeans involved kids knocking on doors dressed up and the person at the door had to try and guess who was under the costume. Love it or exactly the opposite just get involved and stop being such a Scrooge this far ahead of Xmas, grab one of these titles and sit about after apple-bobbing in your simple white sheets or OTT Halloween get-up and play :
EXIT Titles – Thames and Kosmos, kings of the Escape Rooms in a box genre have this pair that are event appropriate. Rollercoaster one is easier to play than the Orient Express experience but both spot on for a few hours entertainment. One promising bone-shilling monsters and the other to solve a perplexing grisly murder – Check them out HERE
What about a new card play from Hachette or indeed their Pacman take on the globally dominant Quoridor game that is one of the most shelf-worthy titles we’ve had our hands on this year. Wednesday is a £15 game for 2-6 players, takes about half-hour and isn’t bad at all. The other title, sells out when it arrives in stock almost immediately, a tad spendy at around £35 but, as mentioned, it is a top-quality creation, playing pieces of note, just add your won WokeWoka.
Villainous from Ravensburger adds further to their ghoulish titles including Scream and Horrified, a trio of terrifyingly fine games.
Ghosted is a deduction game, a tad tongue-in-cheek as you try and solve your own demise from beyond the grave. We applaud the packaging people for their fabulous logo and describing it as a game of “boo-dunnit” – Geddit? Contents and play pieces a tad underwhelming compared to the others in the line-up but it is cheaper at £20.
And then we’ve the latest from Big Potato, Ghosts Can’t Draw. We started out super-skeptical, oh another drawing game where you doodle your worst whilst others figure out what your “not-so-fin-art” efforts are trying to replicate. This is much Much more than that, a right scream in fact, so, just grab one. Decorate the included ghost with a Santa hat and get it out for Xmas playtime too.
In the “play-o-sphere” things that can be constructed and controlled we’ve some rather fancy ranges from the Danish outfit Plus Plus, a tube of Halloween characters in one and a bunch of glow-in-the-dark characters in the other. These buildable jigsaw style type bricks are much more LEGO in terms of constructability, the amount of sets on offer is mind-boggling yet, with a box of “freestyle” pieces which we were treated to recently the possibilities are, well, here the cliche, endless. We’re fans of this new buildable toy, it’s highly tactile, pieces stay together well, 2D and 3d builds are easy to get done, mastery takes a tad longer and, they don’t hurt too much under foot, not like them other Danish bricks and don’t carry the persil of Matchbox motors strewn around the place.
And lets finish up with the R/C hand, licenced from the currently Wednesday show, she of direct descendancy of the marvellous monsters of Addams Family of 0001 Cemetery Lane. It has sound FX, costs about £35 and, well, you should get one is all – We love it, but remember, a R/C hand isn’t just for Halloween.
Also, whilst slime based stuff for us always seemed a bit of a cop-out, well, stick a bit of slime in a tub, make it glow or something and it’d simply sell. These Gooblins have altered our thinking a little, they’re actually alright, and have a fair bit of play value and storytelling too.
