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Showing posts with label board games. Show all posts

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Barbie Board Games: A Discussion and List

Here's a collection and a list of new, used and vintage Barbie board games complete with a list.

Anyone who loves Barbie and board games might find themselves wondering, as I did, what Barbie-themed board games are available. A simple search revealed the short list of Barbie-themed games that I review here on this page. However, the more I looked the more games I found and so you will also find on this page a longer list of games at the bottom of this page. This list may help you if you are seeking a particular game from a specific time period. Most of the games on this page (including on the list) are vintage but there are a couple of new games that were released along with the hit Barbie movie in 2023.

THE BARBIE GAME QUEEN OF THE PROM (1961 and 1994)

First up is the game with a blue cover shown above called simply, The Barbie Game. It was released by Mattel in 1960 and could well be the first game ever made. Beware that there are two versions of Queen of the Prom as it was re-released in 1994. Both are vintage games but have a decidedly different appearance.

The description of the game on the box of the newer version reads, “You are Barbie. Win if you are the first crowned Queen of the Prom. To win you must have a steady boyfriend, a prom dress and be elected president of a school club. Midge, Skipper and Ken share the fun.”

What fun it is to see the original game in this 1960s television commercial:

TAKE A PERSONAL APPEARANCE TOUR WITH BARBIE GAME (1980)

This vintage 1980 game was released by Whitman. The description on the back of the box reads, “Travel with Barbie by car and plane on her tour and visit movie studios, grand openings, charity telethons and more. If you are first to appear three times and then reach the awards presentation, you win.” It evokes all of the excitement of a glamorous life in the 1980s.

DREAM DATE (1992)

The Barbie Dream Date game was released by Golden in 1992. In this game, “…girls play the Dream Date Game with Barbie and Ken! Ken picks out beautiful gifts for Barbie and might take her horseback riding, snow skiing or maybe even to a ball! Players collect gifts for Barbie, moving around the board and taking photos of their dates. At midnight, the individual with the most gift and date cards wins!” The cover definitely reminds me of the 1990s.

BARBIE DRESS UP GAME (1993)

Another Golden release, this game was created in 1993. In this one you “play with a Barbie doll trying to be the first player to collect all of Barbie’s fashion accessories without getting a broken heart.” This game would be especially fun for anyone who loves fashion.

MONOPOLY BOUTIQUE AND MONOPOLY MOVIE (2007 AND 2003)

Monopoly has released hundreds or more likely thousands of board games on every theme you can possibly think of. Monopolyland says estimates range between 300 and 7,000 games and that the largest known collection of Monopoly games claims to have 3,500 games. Anyway, when I looked, I could find two Barbie versions.

This is the official Barbie Monopoly board game that was released in conjunction with the 2023 movie, Barbie.

The first version was the Barbie Boutique Edition from 2007, which was packed in a pretty pink box. Finding a description of it proved difficult though pictures show that it was beautifully presented in a jewelry-style box.

The second version was official movie merchandise that was released in tandem with the movie Barbie. It is widely available and the box reads, “You can be anything with Barbie…Follow your dreams around the board. Buy famous streets, build DreamHouses and draw Dream Closet and Dream Career cards for extra twists. Flex your unique skills, dream a bit, own it all and be anything!” I expect a lot of people received this version of the game for Christmas in 2023. If you are interested, you can find Barbie Monopoly on Amazon by clicking here.

A LIST OF BARBIE BOARD GAMES

As I was reading about the games mentioned above, I kept discovering more new, used and vintage Barbie-themed games. I guess that is not really surprising given the length of time that Barbie has been around. The gaps in years tells me that this list is not likely complete but here’s my list, not definitive, but definitely long, arranged in chronological order:

Queen of the Prom Game (1960)
Keys to Fame Game (1963)
Skipper: Barbie's Little Sister (1964)
The Barbie World of Fashion game (1967)
Miss Lively Livin’ (1970)
Take a Personal Appearance Tour with Barbie. (1980)

Charms the World (1985)
Barbie Meets Ken in the Game of Their Dreams! (1987)
Just Us Girls (1989)
Shopping Spree Card Game (1991)
We Girls Can Do Anything (1991)
Dream Date (1992)
Fun Fashions Memory Game (1992)
Butterfly Princess (1995)
Dress Up Game (1995)
Sparkle Kingdom Game (1996)
Go Shopping! (1999)
Enchanted 3-D Game (2001)
Barbie Says (2002)
UNO: Barbie (2002)
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Rapunzel (2003)
The Nutcracker Playset Game (2003)
UNO: Barbie California Girl (2004)
The Princess and the Pauper Game (2004)
Guess the Look! (2004)
Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006)
Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (2005)
World of Models (2008)
Race to the Party Game (2010)
Shopping Day (2011)
Charmed Travels (2011)
Fashion City (2011)
Gems! (2012)
Bring The Bling Game (2012)
Shop with Barbie (2013)
UNO: Barbie The Movie (2023)
Monopoly: Barbie Movie (2023)

WHERE TO BUY VINTAGE BARBIE GAMES?

If you are searching for any of these games, new, used or vintage, I suggest following this link to eBay's collection of new, used and vintage Barbie board games. There you will find many of these games in assorted condition. New games that are out of production will likely cost more. However, if you shop carefully, you can likely find a used game that is in good condition.

Have I missed a Barbie game that you used to play?

See you
At the toy store!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Merry Christmas from Review This Reviews

Merry Christmas to everyone from all of us here at Review This Reviews.

For me, Christmas is a time to be spent with the people you love and a wonderful time to create memories. Everyone celebrates Christmas differently and has different Christmas traditions, one such tradition is the Christmas Tree.

Some people put the tree up as soon as Halloween is over and others on December 1st, when I was a child it was Christmas Eve in our household. My brother and I tried to talk my parents into putting it up earlier and one year we thought victory was ours as mum relented and said okay we'll put it up on the Saturday before Christmas.

As it got closer to Christmas we realized that Christmas was on a Sunday which meant the Saturday before Christmas was, in fact, Christmas Eve! When my daughter was younger we would put our tree up on the 1st Saturday of the school holidays. This leads us to how you decorate your Christmas tree, there are lots of ideas that can be found on this Christmas Facebook page. We used to have special ornaments that we put up every year, but some people like to create a new theme every year.

My brother and his family have a tradition of giving their children a present every Christmas Eve which is a pair of pajamas for them to wear that night. They used to open the presents while still in PJs so it meant all the photos always looked good!

Growing up we would use pillowcases in lieu of stockings and when talking to some other ex-pats from the UK a few years ago we found that we had very similar things placed in our stockings each year! There would always be an orange, a toffee dime from the Quality Street tin(how strange that this was the one that my parents didn't like from Quality Street - a must-have for any English household over the holiday season at that time!). There would also be a book and/or a little game to entertain us and a nice outfit to wear.

After waking our parents up at whatever time in the morning it was that we discovered Santa had been we had to go back to bed and weren't allowed up until 9am, hence the book/game. Then we had to get dressed (hence the new clothes) and eat breakfast (which was usually porridge that took soooo long to cook!) before we were allowed into the front room to see the Christmas tree and all the gifts. I can feel the excitement just recalling the moment when we could see the tree on Christmas morning.

I have spent far more Christmases in the antipodes than I did in the UK so Christmas for me these days is in summer (I do still miss Christmas being in winter though I must admit). Our family Christmases certainly look different to my childhood Christmases for one thing we usually watch Christmas movies (my daughter used to love Elf, whereas my husband and I are more Die Hard fans) in the lead up to the big day - when I was growing up we didn't watch much television.

Board games were a big part of our Christmases and I know they are for lots of other families as well. I also come from a family of readers so there were occasions where after Christmas lunch was over we would all be stuck with our noses in books! If you're after a book to read then be sure to check out our recommendations, and best of all most of these can be downloaded to your Kindle straight away (just in case no one gives you a book this year!)

Some people enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles, others build Legos whereas others take walks as a family or for people Downunder it often means being in the pool or playing backyard cricket. The first Christmas we spent in New Zealand we went down to the beach and tried out fly fishing rods that mum and dad had got, then found a log and tried our version of tossing the caber, I seem to recall a jandal throw as well. Our very own Christmas games on the beach!

Whatever you're doing and whoever you're spending Christmas with this year make sure you are making some fantastic memories. Keep safe, have fun and goodwill to you all.

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Monday, November 29, 2021

Battleship Classic Board Game Reviewed

Battleship is a classic naval combat board game of strategy and excitement. In this board game, you will search the ocean floor to destroy your opponent’s fleet of ships.

The board game was first introduced by Milton-Bradley in 1967 as a plastic board and peg game. The game battleship comes from earlier versions of a pencil and paper game from the 1930s.

Battleship has also evolved into many electronic versions of the game today. The game I had growing up was the original plastic board and peg game. I have spent many hours playing this game with my brothers and friends.

The game we have today is the same, but it was made by Hasbro. I have never tried one of the electronic versions but thought about it many times. Today I play the same battleship game with my grandchildren that I played growing up.

How to Play Battleship:

Each player has a fleet of five ships consisting of the following:

Class of Ship #of Hits to Sink the Ship

Aircraft Carrier 5

Battleship 4

Destroyer 3

Submarine 3

Patrol Boat 2

Each player has a plastic case with two grids, white pegs, and red pegs. One grid is the ocean floor, this is where you place your fleet of ships either horizontal or vertical. The upper grid is to record your misses with white pegs and your hits with red pegs.

You can also use your ocean floor to track your opponent's misses with white pegs. This is an option and I never use it.

A player calls out a location on the grid and the opposing player says either hit or miss. If it is a miss the first player marks the location with a white peg, so he doesn’t call that location again. If it is a hit, then he places a red peg in that location and the opposing player places a red peg in the ship that was hit.

Now, the first player must figure out if the ship is placed horizontal or vertical on the opposing player’s grid. Once a player has sunk the other player's entire fleet, he wins the game.

Battleship is just another classic game that has been around for many years and will provide hours of fun.

For more classic toys and games visit me at

Cherished Toy Finds

Find more toys on Review This Here

ReviewThisToyReviews.com

Battleship Board Game for ages 7 and up makes a perfect gift for hours of fun.

Hasbro Gaming Battleship GameCheck the Price

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Saturday, December 19, 2020

Games Day Reviewed

"Stack O' Games" by Chealion is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Games Day is held each year on December 20th. It began in 1975 by the Games Workshop of Birmingham, England in the UK. If you are not in England, you can still get involved by playing some games wherever you live. It's a day that brings us all together.

History of Games Day

Source: Pixabay

Games Day was created by Games Workshop, a British game production and retail company. The company started out producing more traditional games such as backgammon and later moved on to fantasy universe games, such as Warhammer (my cousin's favorite game!). Since 1975, this day of carefree fun has become extremely popular in England and then in the United States.

How to Celebrate Games Day

Source: Pixabay

Family and friends can enjoy this Games Day in hundreds of ways. There are so many games available from the traditional ones of Chess, checkers, dominoes and backgammon to the modern day ones, which naturally include video games. Just ask any teenager!

The 10 Most Popular Board Games

Source: Pixabay

Chess
Stratego
Monopoly
Risk
The Setters of Catan
Scrabble
Battleship
Clue
Dominion
Ticket to Ride

Other Game Day Celebrations

Source: Pixabay

January 26 – Dungeons and Dragons Day
January 29 – National Puzzle Day – brain exercise games such as jigsaw, crossword and Sudoku puzzles.
March 4 – Games Master Appreciation Day
April 13- National Scrabble Day
April 30 – International Tabletop Day – a day to celebrate tabletop games such as board games and card games
July 8 - Video Game Day
November 19 – Monopoly Day
December 20 - Games Day
December 28 - Card Playing Day

*Links in the above list are game reviews by contributing members of ReviewThisReviews.

Summary

Some games have had enduring popularity, such as Monopoly and Scrabble. Card games have been popular since early times. There is no end to the number and variety of games in all forms and for all age groups.