{"id":41696,"date":"2023-12-10T02:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=41696"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T21:27:18","slug":"retro-recomendo-toys-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-toys-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: Toys & Games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sign up here<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started seven years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014 Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 7 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like Sudoku, but with colors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

ColorKu<\/a> is a nice looking wooden game board, with holes that hold colored wooden marbles in nine different colors. Game play is just like Sudoku, but this version makes it fun to play with others. It comes with about 100 starting problems, but you can use any Sudoku problems by assigning each color a number. I gave this to my sister for her birthday and she loves it, too. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excellent dartboard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My wife bought me a dartboard for Christmas last year and we play darts a few times a week now. She got a high quality dartboard \u2014 a Winmau Diamond Plus Tournament Bristle Dartboard<\/a> \u2014 and it\u2019s much better than the cheap dartboards I had as a kid. The darts rarely bounce out, and the board has held up well, showing little signs of use. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beautiful puzzles<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pomegranate\u2019s Charley Harper puzzles<\/a> are beautiful and sturdy. Each piece is glossy and locks well with other pieces, and it\u2019s a fun distraction for a few hours. I\u2019ve bought two so far \u2014 Tree of Life and Exquisite Creatures. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite social puzzle<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The simplest toys are the best. Our favorite family social puzzle is a tangram, an old classic from China made of 7 geometric pieces that you arrange to fulfill a required silhouette. With two sets you can race to finish. It is much harder than it looks, yet doable and fun for small folk. You can make a tangram from cardboard, or 3D print<\/a> one yourself, but the version we grab is Tangoes<\/a>, a tidy travel case with two sets of pieces, plus cards (with solutions) for all the target images. We own 3 or 4 Tangoes ($11), enough for larger groups. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Play a cold case detective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unsolved Case Files is my new favorite game to play with my husband and friends. Each case file comes with evidence photos, suspect interviews, coroners report, witness statements, newspaper clippings and more. The objective is to work collaboratively and solve three mysteries before you can \u201ccrack the case.\u201d So far I\u2019ve solved the Harmony Ashcroft<\/a> and Max Cahill<\/a> case and each one took a couple hours. They can be challenging, but it is so satisfying when you\u2019ve completed one. The quality of the documents and materials are so good, that these made-up characters actually come to life and it\u2019s hard not to let it all get to my head when I\u2019ve solved one of the mysteries. It makes me feel like a real detective! I just ordered my third case on Amazon because they are often out of stock, so now I\u2019m just gonna grab one when I can. I also signed up on their website<\/a> to be notified about new cases that will be released later this Spring, and I discovered if you sign up for their email list, they will email you a free mini-case that you can download and print out. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Werewolf, intense social game<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we meet for family reunions, or gather with friends, our favorite group game is Werewolf. Classrooms and corporate retreats also play Werewolf. It\u2019s a deduction\/deception game, extremely social, that is as much fun to watch as to play, so it can involve everyone. The games are exhilarating, surprising, and addictive. The only gear you need are some cards. While you can get by with an ordinary deck of cards, a set of dedicated Werewolf cards makes it much easier. After you\u2019ve played a number of basic games, it\u2019s easy and fun to play with variations, which are supported by this deck of Apostrophe Werewolf<\/a> cards ($13). \u2014 KK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #387<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41697,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41696\/revisions\/41697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}