Fisher Price Octopus Dominoes
Written: Jul 31 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: No reading required
Cons: Box is poorly made – cardboard
The Bottom Line: For kids 3-7 that like Oreo Matchin’ Middles, this is a game to consider as well for your family
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| bonniesayers's Full Review: Fisher Price Octopus Dominoes |
Another offering in the line of Fisher-Price® Games is the Octopus Dominoes™, which is a matching and counting game that offers two levels of play for two to four players. The lid to the game acts as the face to the Octopus. The thirty domino cards are purple as well as the lid.
The beginning level is to match colors and the second level is to match numbers. The domino cards are two sided. The cards are thick and shaped with an indent on both sides. The one side of these cards has two oval shapes that are in shades of purple, pink, orange, green, yellow and blue. The other side is broken into two sections with purple dots on them. Some cards do not have any dots on one side while others have a hand figure on either side of the card.
To begin the game of Fisher Price® Octopus Dominoes™ you place the funny face of the Octopus on a flat surface in the middle of the players. The next step is to decide if playing for numbers or counting. The domino cards are then placed with the selected side to play facing down. You can also decide if you want the dominoes to sit in front of you for others to see or hold them in your hand. The youngest player starts by picking six domino cards. The remaining cards are in a pile for all players to reach. A domino with a purple oval is needed to start a domino arm. This card would be placed next to the funny face of the Octopus.
If at your turn you do not have the domino you need to pick one from the pile in the center. This continues until you actually find one, so your pile could get large. The following player can either start a new arm, meaning they need to pick a purple oval or they can match the domino color. The dominoes are picked up until one of these options becomes available. Once a domino has a hand it completes the arm and you must start with a new arm. This continues until a player has no more dominoes. The first player to match all their dominoes is declared the winner of Fisher Price® Octopus Dominoes™.
For the advanced play using the dots on the reverse side of the dominoes you start an arm with a blank end of a domino against the funny face of the Octopus. When games are finished all the domino cards fit inside the box with the funny face acting as the lid. The sides need to be lined up exactly in order for this to be placed correctly. Unlike the Oreo™ Matchin’ Middles™ game this box is not as durable. I have had to use masking tape to keep the box in one piece.
Since both my sons are on opposite sides of the autism spectrum they play the Fisher Price® Octopus Dominoes™ in other ways. My seven-year old likes to sit down and make the Octopus while my six-year old non-verbal son likes to line them up through out the house. Another tactic my youngest son uses is to hold them all in his hand and slowly dump them on the floor and then spread them out over the room.
For the low cost of $4.99 he gets some independent play, stays focused and occupied on one task for a length of time. This game also has been at the previous preschool classroom for share day many times. This would be an ideal game for a therapist to get to work on matching with the patient as well as for a preschool and kindergarten classroom.
The game is easy for a child to pick up and carry on their own and then try to line up the lid the right way. If you need replacement pieces contact Fisher-Price Consumer Affairs at 1-800-382-7470. You will need a lot of room to get the arms attached to the Octopus so a table would be a good place to start the game. The cards are made of cardboard and if the side is curled up a bit you can easily peal off the purple cover as I just did in my experiment. With either a piece of tape or glue-stick this can be rectified.
The colors are appealing to children and the funny face on the Octopus is cute with the colors making a nice design. It helps if your favorite color is purple! The age range makes this suitable for toddlers through the kindergarten age. The youngest ones get to learn through sorting the colors and counting the dots, while having fun in the process.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4.99
Type of Toy: Game
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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