[Ad- gifted product] I only recently wrote about the fantastic Slam It! one of the family-friendly tabletop games that Ideal have on the market. Alongside that, there’s been a couple of other Ideal games that have been doing the rounds with the family. The favourite, by far and large, is Grabolo, a game of quick reflexes and memory.
Grabolo is a favourite for a couple of reasons, I’ll get into those reasons in a moment, but let’s talk about what it actually is first. Grabolo is a tub of 36 pieces, an instruction leaflet and two dice. There are six designs for the pieces, and six colours for them too. This means that you’ll have six (for instance) pig pieces, but each one will be a different colour. One die has the colours on, and the other has the shapes on.
You can probably guess how the game plays out then. You place the 36 pieces in the centre of the play area, and the first player rolls both dice. At this point, all players rush to grab the piece, with the first to cover it taking the piece into their collection. They’ll want to keep this collection secret because if it’s rolled later (and so is off the table) and people correctly guess where the piece is then they get to take it from you.
Play then continues until one player has the right amount of pieces (another reason for the secrecy), or – if you play house rules – enough of the pieces are gone from the pile.
The pieces are great, they feel like little toys. The six little pigs, little ducks, and little people have been taken on adventures when they’re not packed away, and I’ve used them as fun little games, having the kids race to find the correct piece before their siblings. There’s just something fun about the pieces, similar – I guess – to the Monopoly pieces.
I’m going to wrap up by saying almost exactly what I said about Slam It!, and will be saying about 7ate9. The design and packaging is brilliant. I really like how all of the Slam It! pieces have homes, I really like how Grabolo packs away into a tiny tube, and (spoilers) how 7Ate9 becomes a snazzy egg. Grabolo wins favourite because of it’s little play pieces, they just feel quite extra, and that they could have been less characterful but aren’t.
You can find Grabolo on Amazon.
Ohhhh, this looks so much fun! I showed it to Flora who – predictably – wants one now 🙂 It would make a great travel game too, perfect for holidays (when it’s safe to do so). Great review, thank you!
Lisa | http://www.lisasnotebook.com
Awww I hope Flora enjoys it! You’re so right, this does travel well. The pieces all go into a tube-esque tube that has a screw-on top too.