PlayMonster Flippity Frog And Pop-A-Tops Heads Of History Review

Reviewed by Alice Dixon

Although we are coming into Summer we are still having a lot of chilly or rainy days here. I can’t rely on being able to get my children out into the garden playing in the sunshine. With afternoons after school, weekends and the school holidays I find that I need plenty of ideas to keep my kids busy. We often make up games, play toys, craft, draw and bake. But one of our favourite pastimes is to play board games. I find that board games can be so immersive. My eldest son likes quite complex games that require lots of thinking. Whereas my youngest loves fun, silly, easy to play games that are quick to learn and play so we can have a few goes. As a family we enjoy playing as many board games as we can. We have a few firm favourites that we play repeatedly but my boys also love coming across new ones to try out something different. It’s a lovely way to have fun at home and also enjoy some quality family time. So we were very happy to receive two games to try out from PlayMonster; Flippity Frog and Pop-A-Tops Heads of History.

Pop-A-Tops Heads Of History

Pop-A-Tops Heads Of History is for 2+ players and suitable for ages 8 and over. It arrived in a simple piece of cardboard packaging and the game itself packs away into the compact tin with the pop lid making it easy to store away and ideal if we also want to take it with us to play on holidays or visiting family. With how many games and toys my children have and our lack of storage room, I like a game like this which doesn’t take up too much space.

The concept of Pop-A-Tops Heads Of History is simple and easy to learn. However it requires a good knowledge of history and famous figures to win. To play, the 50 heads cards are placed face up around the dome on the table. Players take turns to pop the top which rolls the dice inside. All the players read the dice. One corresponds to the century and the other the decade. If the century dice is pink you are searching for a matching birthdate, if it’s a yellow star you need to match an iconic moment. All players then grab for a card which they think matches. Everyone turns their card over and reads the date. Whoever matched one the closest gets to keep the card and the rest are returned to the table. The winner is whoever collects the most heads of history cards. My 9 year old son really enjoyed this game. He likes learning about history and he had at least heard of most of the historical figures. He had learnt about many of them at school such as Van Gogh, Mozart and Princess Diana. I like that the back of the cards have a paragraph about the person. My son enjoyed reading this, especially the people he had not heard of. We all got quite competitive with this one with it combining knowledge and speed to win. I think we are likely to collect more in the Pop-A-Tops range. This one was a little too hard for my seven year old to join in with but I think he would most enjoy the Dino Scores of Pet Factor.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £7.99

Flippity Frog

Mummy Frog must successfully carry her froglets on her back across the pond by leaping from one lilypad to the next. The first player to return 4 froglets safely home is the winner. Flippity Frog is a really fun and simple board game ideal for young children. It is suitable for 3+ years and is for 2-4 players. The game comes in an easy to open cardboard box and includes a board, 30 lilypads, 16 frog tokens, 4 home pads and the flippity frog! Each player chooses which colour tokens they will play with. The youngest player starts the game by placing one of their froglets onto Mummy frog. The flippity frog must leap onto four lilypads to safely get her baby home. As you push the frog down onto the lilypad she will flip them over. The other side of the lilypads will reveal actions to take for example Big Bad Fish which means end of your go and Super Jump that allows you to jump straight home. If you didn’t make it home your froglet goes back to the start and you pass Mummy frog on, play continues with the next player. Both my children enjoyed this game. The little frog is very cute and they thought it was clever how she can flip the cards over. It was a nice, easy game to learn but that is also a memory game which requires you to concentrate on what’s on the cards that get flipped over. This has been a lovely game that my two children can play together without needing an adult to help. It has kept them occupied as the cards are shuffled making the route different each time and they’ve had lots of fun with it. The only negative I would say is that there is a lot of plastic packaging for how few pieces there are altogether.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £13.99

Both of these products can be purchased from the PlayMonster website here.