Gobblet

Gobblet is a simple looking game that is part tic-tac-toe and part connect four, but has three dimensions. The game board is a 4x4 grid, and each player has twelve black or white playing pieces. Each player plays one piece at a time to try to get four in a row. Easy huh? Oh, did I mention that your twelve pieces come in four different sizes? And that bigger pieces can "gobble" up the smaller pieces on the game board? This is no hungry-hungry hippos though, it is a tricky game of strategy.

Cole is 4 1/2 and even though we need to throw a few games his way now and then to keep him interested, he gets it. He is starting to understand that you need to balance your own objective of getting four in a row with stopping your opponent who has a similar objective. Looking ahead more than one play is a critical thinking skill that we look forward to him mastering.

The real fun happens after Cole goes to bed and Mom and I get the game back out. Like Triominos, it is one of the few games that we play with and without the kids around. The playing board sits atop a carrying box, all made of wood (like the playing pieces) and is felt lined. This game was built to last for awhile, which is a good thing, because we plan on playing it a lot.

Playmobil Romans

This is the first in a series of Playmobil posts. I don't want anyone to think the security screening playset in the previous post is typical for Playmobil. As you can see, Playmobil makes action figures, usually based around a particular theme such as Romans, knights, vikings, construction workers, and pirates. The people are almost 3" high, the body can bend or sit, the head can turn, and the arms and legs have a limited range of motion as well. Hands can grasp items like swords, torches, steering wheels, etc. The action figures encourage imaginative play. the fact that they are not based on any movie or television show means that the world is wide open.

One of the best parts of Playmobil action figures are the amount of detail included in the clothing, weapons, and other accessories that come with each figure. Parts are interchangeable with other sets too, so making a viking/policeman or a knight/zookeeper is possible, in fact, making silly characters is a lot of fun.

Another great aspect of Playmobil is that while there are a few large sets that you can buy (like the Colosseum above) most of the figures can be bought separately usually for less than $10. Cole has a Playmobil pirate ship that we have continued to buy him additional figures for stocking stuffers and occasional treats.

There is one other possibility for play, while the figures are far from realistic, the wealth and detail of accessories and settings make them attractive to people interested in taking diorama pictures and stop motion movies. This would obviously involve the participation of an adult, but just imagine how rewarding it would be for your child to come up with a plot and dialogue, and to control the cinematography and editing of a short movie.

One thing to be aware of, there are lots (and I mean LOTS) of small pieces with these toys. In the picture of the roman senator, the grapes, goblet, laurel crown, fire brazier, column, scroll, and table are all separate pieces that can potentially be scattered. This is an important consideration if you have a baby in the house or have a vacuum cleaner on it's last legs.

Playmobil successfully encourages imaginative play and comes in a range of prices, they are definitely worth purchasing.

Playmobil Roman Warriors at amazon.com
Playmobil Roman Senator at amazon.com
Playmobil Roman Arena at amazon.com
Playmobil at ebay.com

Related posts: Playmobil Oddities and Battlestar Galactica Action Figures

Zingo Game Review

Zingo is a variant of Bingo (with a zing!). Zingo involves matching an image and word on a tile with a number of images on the zingo card. Image and vocabulary recognition, matching, memory, concentration, and social interaction are the skills promised to be improved. On most of these points Zingo is successful.

The zingo cards have images like a foot, cat, bat, and a cake in a 3 x 3 grid. The game comes with 8 double sided cards. There are two levels of play (red and green), one on each side of card. The "zinger" is a pre-loaded tile dispenser that is slid forward to reveal two tiles at a time. The first to call out the word on the desired tile gets to place that tile on their card, when the card is filled with tiles the game ends. One positive aspect of this game is that on each tile there is a picture of an object and the printed word, this helps associate the word with the picture for early readers. I also like the fact that all of the pieces fit into a fairly small box neatly and can be pretty portable. The length of time to play a full game is fairly short, 5-10 minutes. One unfavorable aspect of the game is that after you've played it a few times there is not a lot more to learn, and the amount of variation between games is low. The two game levels have more to do with how often the players are fighting to get the same pieces so this increases social difficulty rather than added game play difficulty. Reloading the zinger is also not a very fun process for kids, although it only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

To summarize, Zingo is a good game, especially for 3-5 year olds. The manufacturer's age recommendation is 4-8, but I think that kids beyond 6 will find the game boring. To deal with the wearisome aspects of the game when played too often, I recommend you play the game some, then put it away for awhile so it feels fresh again when you bring it back out. Considering the low price ($10-$11 range), it is definitely worth it to add it to your game closet.

Zingo at amazon.com

Zingo at ebay.com