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T.H.I.N.G.S. Wave 1
Manufacturer: Milton Bradley
Year: 1986
This review is going to be a little different than usual as I will be covering a collection of different small games. This line of small wind-up dexterity games sort of exists in the crossroads between my toy collecting and board gaming hobbies, for reasons you'll see pretty quickly I think.
This entry will focus on the first four games that were released under Milton Bradley's "T.H.I.N.G.S." line. After the success of Mattel's M.U.S.C.L.E. toy line the late 80's found itself awash in strange toy line acronyms. T.H.I.N.G.S. stands for Totally Hilarious Incredibly Neat Games of Skill. The four games listed below comprised the first wave, and are by far the most common of the line. I will show off the second and third series in another post next Wednesday.
All of my T.H.I.N.G.S. games are complete, and are in their original packaging. In most cases the packaging is pretty beat, but I'm not all that worried about obtaining "nicer" copies of the boxes. As far as price goes I'll mention it when I can remember, but for many of these, especially this first wave, I honestly don't remember.
Game: Sir Ring-a-lot
Personal History:
Sir Ring-a-lot was the only one of these games that I had as a kid, and I really have no idea how or why I got it. I seem to remember that these were reasonably popular when they came out, as I knew a few people that had them and I can remember seeing them at toy stores at the time. I remember playing with it a lot, and getting pretty good at it.
My original Sir Ring-a-lot is no longer in my possession. I've described on this blog before how sloppy my handling was with my toys as a kid, and this was no different. When I found my Sir Ring-a-lot as an adult it was missing all of the rings and had no box. Without the rings it's essentially useless, and it ended up getting sold in a lot of incomplete T.H.I.N.G.S. games that I had gradually accrued.
Gameplay:
The game features a knight holding a lance who, when a button is pressed, raises and lowers. When the game is wound two bats with magnets at their feet fly around the top of the game's tower. Each bat grabs a metal ring as it passes, dips slightly in its flight as it passes the knight, and then deposits the ring on a platform on the other side of the tower.
The goal of the game is to raise the knight just as a bat passes, hooking the metal ring it carries so that the ring slides down the lance.
Thoughts:
The mechanism of this game works very well, and it's possible with enough practice to get a pattern down that gets you every ring most of the time. Occasionally a ring will fall early or twist weirdly when the bat grabs it, making those rings impossible to grab, but that's a relatively rare hiccup in what is otherwise a winnable little game.
I also appreciate that you are a character in the game. Some of the games from this line have you interacting as you. That's fine, but I much prefer when I get to play "as" something, as it adds so much character to these little games.
Game: Flip-O-Potamus
Personal History:
Flip-O-Potamus seems to be the second most common one of these games behind Sir Ring-a-lot. It's pretty easy to find, and I've actually owned a few just because it's either come as a lot with something else, or because I found a nicer copy on the cheap. I imagine its visual similarity to "Hungry Hungry Hippos" probably helped sales.
Gameplay:
A tray on the bottom of the game opens up, revealing a set of blue marbles and a flicking device. When wound the hippo opens and closes its mouth. The player attempts to flick the marbles into the hippo's mouth before the timer winds down.
Thoughts:
I find that this game is one of the least functional. The dispensing device is supposed to allow the balls to roll one at a time onto the flicker, refilling automatically with every flick. This doesn't usually work as planned, instead just flicking extra balls out of the tray and making you scramble to grab them before they roll off the table. The flicker also does a horrible job of sending the balls straight. in a game that should be mostly about timing, it's actually 50% about whether the ball even travels in the direction it must to be successful.
What this game has that most of the others don't, however, is a wonderful little tray for the parts that holds them in place when you're done playing. The flicker segment slides into the base of the device, keeping all of the balls contained in the game for easy transport. I wish this was feature that all of the games had because it's very very easy to lose stuff from pretty much all of them.
Game: Grabbit
Personal History:
This was the T.H.I.N.G.S. game I wanted the most as a kid, and it was also the one my neighbor friend had, which of course made me a little jealous. This copy was easily purchased online, and fairly cheaply as part of a lot.
Gameplay:
You play as a frog which, when a button is pressed, "leaps" up. If the button is pressed quickly enough the mouth of the frog also closes when it jumps. When the mechanism is wound the tree at the center of the game rotates. As the tree rotates you attempt to leap up and "eat" the bugs which are hanging from the edge of the tree, attempting to eat as many as possible before the timer runs out and the tree pops off of the base of the game.
Thoughts:
I actually think that Grabbit stands as the best example of what this line of game toys is. The game is colorful and attractive, with plenty of cute little design elements. It plays well, with a mechanism that you can actually get better at and demands some amount of deterity. It explodes at the end, which is something that many of the games do. Really it's just an all around fun package and hard not to love.
This is also the only other game in the first wave where you are a character in the game, which as I said above I'm a big fan of.
Game: Eggzilla
Personal History:
Eggzilla is the only T.H.I.N.G.S. game I ever bought without a box. This was very early in my collecting of these. At the time Eggzilla didn't show up on Ebay all that often, although it's a little easier to find now. It was paired with another boxed T.H.I.N.G.S. game in the auction, so I was happy to pick it up.
As luck would have it a toy collecting buddy of mine found just the box for Eggzilla at a garage sale or something, and had the presence of mind to pick it up since I had just been talking about collecting these. It was one of those crazy moments where things align just so.
Gameplay:
Eggzilla is very different from pretty much any other T.H.I.N.G.S. game. you are given five pieces of eggshell. The pieces, when fit together properly, will form a shell with the base of the game. The Eggzilla figure is pushed onto the base of the game, and the game is wound. The player has until the timer runs out to completely construct the egg around Eggzilla. If he is able to do so a magnet at the top of the egg pulls the little spike out of the top of Eggzilla's head, and this stops the timer mechanism. If the player cannot build the egg in time Eggzilla shoots off of the game base, destroying the egg.
Thoughts:
I'm really bad at this one, so it's probably my least favorite, even though it's technically a better game than Flip-O-Potamus. The little magnet trick at the top of the eggs is really a great feature and works like magic. This game is unique in that it's the only one in the range which comes apart so completely and basically uses both of your hands for the action as opposed to pressing a button or flicking a lever or catapult. It's also just about the only one I ever find just one piece of for sale, and thats the little Eggzilla figure itself. It seems that more than a few people kept the little guy but discarded the rest of it, and as such you'll sometimes find just him in Ebay auctions.
Final Verdict:
I'm not going to scores these like I usually do the games I review, but I'll say that I love this first wave as a group. Besides having a nostalgic connection to a couple of them I think they're just great toys that ooze that simple 80's charm that so many products of that decade have. There are a number of other gimmicky plastic games that came out between the mid 70's to mid 90's, but T.H.I.N.G.S. is just about my favorite line of that type, and this opening assortment is more than enough to cement them in my mind.
Next week I'll show of the second and third waves. These games get a little weirder moving forward, and one is almost impossible to track down. Stay tuned!
