Games & Puzzles SmartGames Challenges Players to Use Their Noggins
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utterflies, from SmartGames, is a unique sliding puzzle game featuring 48 challenges in which players must arrange the pieces to create beautiful butterflies. In Penguins Parade, a magnetic travel game featuring 48 challenges, players must arrange the pieces on the gameboard to line up the penguins four in a row. Three Little Piggies challenges little ones to fit large pieces on the game board so that the Piggies are either playing outside or hiding in their houses when the wolf shows up. There are 48 challenges in total. IQ Blox is the newest addition to the IQ series and features 120 challenges. This version features walls that form blocks for the pieces. Players have to set up the game board with walls according to the challenge and fill in all of the pieces to complete it. IQ Candy challenges players to fit all of the candy-colored pieces onto the game board, adjusting to the different-shaped protrusions that pieces must fit over. There are 60 challenges to complete. Three Little Piggies
MasterPieces Puzzle Co. Celebrates 20 Years
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asterPieces Puzzle Co. celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with new licensed lines and brand extensions. The company has partnered with Ty for Ty Beanie puzzles. Nostalgic Beanie Babies are featured in 700-piece search-and-find jigsaw puzzles in specialty acetate boxes, and new Beanie Boos are featured in 100-piece puzzles with no-mess glitter. Tetris-branded brainteaser puzzles support a growing category of novelty and specialty puzzles for kids and adults. The Tetris Cube is a game featuring 16 3-D plastic Tetriminos. Players can find solutions from easy to difficult, depending on how many levels they can solve. Additional puzzles include a flat Tetrimino puzzle, a traditional 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, and a three-layer Tetrimino brainteaser. A new partnership with Discovery Channel has allowed MasterPieces to create Animal Planet puzzles for both kids and adults; Shark Week puzzles; and Cake Boss puzzles, featuring colorful cakes from the TV series. MasterPieces has also partnered with the NFL Players Association to create 100-piece puzzles for kids, each packaged in easy-to-store foil packs. Each puzzle features popular players, including Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers. A licensing agreement made with the National Hockey League (NHL) will result in 1,000-piece Panoramic puzzles featuring top team arenas. There will also be a line of NHL Checkers, which will feature hockey puck playing pieces and a playing board that depicts a realistic ice arena. The U.S. Army has granted MasterPieces licensing rights to produce a custom-painted puzzle line by artist Dona Gelsinger, as well as wood craft and 3-D wooden puzzles featuring Army vehicles.
156 • THE TOY BOOK
FEBRUARY 2015