Showcase Minnesota

I'm in Minnesota, not far from the place where Tonka Trucks were first made, getting ready to head over to KARE TV for the Showcase Minnesota Show! Rob Hudson and I will be playing some fun games, including one of the biggest hits for this year.... Jishaku!



Jishaku: The Game of Magnetic Action from RSV Productions. Carefully place all your magnets before your opponent, but be careful! The magnetic force make the magnets AND YOU, jump! Suspenseful fun at its best. In my 20 years in the industry, I've never seen a strategy game that plays like a party game. Great fun! $19.95 for ages 8+

Time's Up: The Fast Paced Guess-Who-I-Am Game from R&R Games. $29.95 for ages 12+. Time's Up asks you to describe as many famous people to your teammates as you can in 30 seconds. That's the first round. Round two has your team guessing the same famous people, but with only one word as the clue. Round three? No words, just charades. Ingenious Fun. $29.95 for ages 12+

Blurt: The Uproarious Word Race Game from Educational Insights. Players hear simple descriptions to common words and must be first to blurt out answers before anyone else. So simple, yet so silly. Will your mouth keep up with your mind? I designed Blurt for kids, but it's become a hit with adults as a party game! $29.95 for ages 7+.

LCR: Left Center Right Dice Game 25th Anniversary Game by George & Company. It's a fun, fast paced dice game for all ages. Includes 3 specialty marked dice, 24 large playing chips, and a dice cup, all in a 25th Anniversary, embossed tin box. Players roll the dice which indicate where the players chips go. The last player with chips is the winner and wins the center pot. Suggested retail $14.95 for ages 5+

Arizona Midday

This morning I'm in Phoenix to play some great games with Jan Atri at Arizona Midday. Why on earth would she want a freakishly tall guy on her show? It's the games I bring, silly.

Here's the line up of fun we'll be playing.

Last Word: The Uproarious Race to Have the Final Say from Buffalo Games. Be the first Player to advance to the Finish by creatively connecting Subjects and Letters, while racing a Random-Interval Timer and the other Players, for example, Subject: "Vegetables"... Letter: "C". Players yell out... Carrots, Cucumbers, Corn, Cauliflower, 'tick-tick' ... The player with the Last Word before the timer sounds advances. $19.95 for ages 10+.

Jishaku: The Game of Magnetic Action from RSV Productions. Carefully place all your magnets before your opponent, but be careful! The magnetic force make the magnets AND YOU, jump! Suspenseful fun at its best. In my 20 years in the industry, I've never seen a strategy game that plays like a party game. Great fun! $19.95 for ages 8+

Blurt!: The Uproarious Word Race Game from Educational Insights. Players hear simple descriptions to common words and must be first to blurt out answers before anyone else. So simple, yet so silly. Will your mouth keep up with your mind? I designed Blurt for kids, but it's become a hit with adults as a party game! $29.95 for ages 7+.

LCR: Left Center Right Dice Game 25th Anniversary Game by George & Company. It's a fun, fast paced dice game for all ages. Includes 3 specialty marked dice, 24 large playing chips, and a dice cup, all in a 25th Anniversary, embossed tin box. Players roll the dice which indicate where the players chips go. The last player with chips is the winner and wins the center pot. Suggested retail $14.95 for ages 5+

Volkswagen Fun Theory

Can adding a bit of fun to something change people's behavior for the better? Could it change the world?

I stumbled upon this Volkswagen experiment and love it. Their website says, "This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better."

Seize the play and make a difference... WOW!

Blurt on B95.5 in Albany, New York

Laura Daniels challenged me to a game of Blurt, because no one in Albany can come close to beating her! Every week Ric Mitchell reads clues from the game and Laura goes one-on-one against a caller... and every week she wins. She's quick! How quick? I edited the game and all the clues in it and I just b-a-r-e-l-y defeated her.

Thanks Ric & Laura! Great show. Tune in live on on the web on Thursday mornings to listen to the Blurt fun!

It's a toe-tapper!

Listening

Just returned from Nashville and a trip to one of the coolest toy stores I've ever seen, Phillips Toy Mart. The relationship people have with this place was evident to me before I'd even set foot inside. I was on the TV show Tennessee Mornings before my promotion at the store and the co-host, Kelly Sutton, chatted with me off the air. "I see you're going to be at Phillips Toy Mart later today," she said. "I love that place. You know they have live bunnies there every Easter?" Later that morning I heard words like "institution," "tradition" and "destination" used to describe the place. This was going to be fun.

I arrived to promote the 15th Anniversary of Blurt, but first I got the "nickel tour" from owner, Cynthia Phillips, whose family opened the store in 1946. Full games are displayed in shadow box style... glued to the ceiling! Halloween costumes were to be expected this time of year, but a walk-in Haunted House?! A huge 20' x 40' Lionel train mural marks the hobby section. And on, and on. Needless to say... cool store.

I stood just inside the door and greeted people as they walked in and offered to show them how to BLURT! It was such a beautiful day that I went outside a chatted up people as well. Now I've been in the toy business for 20 years and have logged more than my share of time in stores. Phillips (as the locals call it) is that rare store that people want to talk about. Time and time again the kids would rush past me to get inside, and the parents would stop and talk with me about Blurt and games and eventually... the store.

"I've been coming here my whole life." "My parents brought me here and now I bring my grand kids here." "Isn't this place great?!" Just across the street a real train blows its whistle as it roars past. A dad picks up his little one so he can get a better look. "IT'S PART OF THE CHARM OF COMING HERE!" he yells over the noise, before taking the tot to see the miniature trains inside.

A group of girls spilled into the store and by the time their chauffeur Mom arrived from the parking lot, the girls and I were already playing Blurt. I slowly read a dozen or so clues while the girls blurted out the answers and laughed. We played a few rounds before the lure of finding the perfect Halloween costume sent the girls swirling off in another direction. The Mom had been quiet as I read and the kids blurted, but when the girls scurried off she said, "Good game." She started to walk away, but then turned back and added, "That game teaches kids to listen. Think about how important that is today."

I was blown away. After 15 years of playing and promoting Blurt, I thought I'd heard all there was to hear in terms of compliments, comments and critiques on the game. Does Blurt build vocabulary? Absolutely. Does it elicit the blurting of silly things and thus, some fun? Sure. But l-i-s-t-e-n-i-n-g. Never heard that, but in retrospect, it's obvious. You can bet that in my marketing of the game, I'll be adding that benefit to the reasons to buy Blurt.


Listening to customers is every smart marketers job. Phillips Toy Mart has a legion of loyal fans who can't stop talking about their store. How could they leverage that into great word-of-mouth marketing?

Oscar Wilde once said, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." I hope Phillips Toy Mart is listening.