Mouse Trap (board game)
A classic 3D board game with a Rube Goldberg trap.
Last updated
Ideal first published Mouse Trap, a board game for two to four players, in 1963.[1]
Making and release
A board game that dispensed with conventional play methods like rolling dice or board squares was a radical departure for the toy industry of the 1960s.[2] When Marvin Glass and Burt Meyer took the game to Milton Bradley, they were surprised at the reaction.[2] The game, released by Ideal, wound up selling 1.2 million copies in 1963 alone.[2] The Victoria and Albert Museum record states that Mouse Trap was rejected by Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers but was snapped up by Ideal in 1963.[3]
The same record reports that Mouse Trap accumulated around 1.2 million sales in the first year.[3] Marvin Glass and Gordon Barlow, both from Marvin Glass and Associates, originally came up with the concept; a US patent for their invention was later awarded in 1967.[4] Hank Kramer from Ideal Toy Company designed the 1963 published edition, specifying the details that Glass had not determined.[4] Sid Sackson redesigned the board game in 1975, introducing cheese pieces and giving players the ability to shift opponents onto the trap space.[5]
What the cited sources add
The Victoria and Albert Museum record notes that the game consists of 34 parts and that the parts are mounted on three base plates which fit into holes in the game board with plastic tabs.[3] The same record describes the mechanism: turning a crank handle causes gears to turn, springing a red Stop Sign to hit a boot hung from a Lamp-post.[3] The Mental Floss article states that the game's concept was conceived by Gordon Barlow and Burt Meyer and was ready for the 1963 Toy Fair.[2] The HISTORY article notes that Glass’ company didn’t manufacture toys, but licensed them to major toy and game makers.[6]
The Victoria and Albert Museum record states that the game was inspired by the complex devices of cartoonist Rube Goldberg.[3] The same record adds that the game has undergone various modifications, the first in 1975 when Sid Sackson re-designed the board.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Mouse Trap (board game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How Toys Changed After World War II", HISTORY, 2022-11-03; Kramer, "Mouse Trap Game (1963)", Victoria and Albert Museum, 1963 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Rossen, "6 Cheesy Facts About Mouse Trap", Mental Floss, October 8, 2019. facts only, no text reused. mentalfloss.com
- Kramer, "Mouse Trap Game (1963)", Victoria and Albert Museum, 1963. facts only, no text reused. collections.vam.ac.uk
- Wikipedia, "Mouse Trap (board game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Game with action producing components" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Mouse Trap (board game)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hinebaugh, "A Board Game Education", R&L Education, 2009, p. 221; "Mouse Trap (1963)", BoardGameGeek (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "How Toys Changed After World War II", HISTORY, 2022-11-03. facts only, no text reused. history.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mouse Trap (board game) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Mouse Trap (board game) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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