The Game of Cootie

William H. Schaper, who ran a popcorn machine business in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, came up with The Game of Cootie in 1948. The idea may have grown from an older pencil-and-paper game and a 1939 version that used cardboard pieces on a board. Schaper’s first cooties were made of wood and sold at the family bakery in Robbinsdale. By 1949, the game went into wider production with plastic parts.

Sales took off quickly: more than 1.2 million units had been sold by 1952, and over 25 million by 1971. Hasbro bought the game from Tyco Toys in 1998. In 2018, a statue of a Cootie was put on display in Robbinsdale.

The game is for two to four players. Everyone tries to be the first to assemble a complete three-dimensional bug, called a cootie. Players take turns rolling a die (called the Cootie Cube). Each number on the die matches a specific bug part.

To start, a player must roll a 1 to get the body, then a 2 to get the head. After that, the remaining parts can be collected in any order. If a player rolls a part they already have, their turn ends. Otherwise, they keep rolling to collect more parts.