Cartoon Cards

Similar to 1978's Marvel Comics Super Heroes Card Game, Cartoon Cards is another Milton Bradley card game with a licensed property. Released in 1979, this one features cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbera. The instructions printed on the inside of the cover state "This simple but suspenseful card game will keep children amused game after game. Players win or lose chips by matching their favorite cartoon characters." The game does include a lot of white plastic chips, as well as three copies each of ten cards with a white background (flipside is yellow with Yogi Bear), and one copy each of ten that have a blue background (flipside is red with Scooby-Doo) that act as the dealer's deck. There are two blank blue cards too, but they aren't used, so I don't know why they are even here.

Although it might appear to be a memory matching game, it isn't. Players lose chips when they match the card being dealt, and the dealer changes to another player each round with the goal being to have the most chips at the end of the game. My box cover is in good shape and shows it cost $3.79 at Caldor. However, the bottom of the box has some big tears in it. The cards are nice, though they aren't all cut correctly; you can see a white line on the top of some of the blue cards. While the character names are on the cards, I'll list them here: Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear, Jabberjaw, The Jetsons, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Scooby-Doo, and Scrappy-Doo. Of course, The Jetsons is more than one character, as it shows the whole family in their flying car.

[YouTube] G.I. Joe Adventure Board Game!

https://youtu.be/BchTL4I1_MU

G.I. Joe Adventure Board Game! by International Games, Inc. was released in 1982, the same year that Hasbro launched the 3 3/4" action figure toy line. It's the first of five original G.I. Joe board games released between 1982 and 2002, in addition to G.I. Joe-themed versions of Battleship and Monopoly from 2009. The game is designed for 2-4 players, but it actually includes nine player pieces, one of each of the first Joe action figures. As you'll see in the images, my game came with six stands, though only four are used in play. There are also two dice, one is used during the starting areas, while two are used to navigate the rest of the board and to determine battle outcomes. The main goal is to be the first player to reach 100 objective points.

I don't recall if I enjoyed playing the game, though I don't think I played it too much. As I say in the video, the manual doesn't seem too clear, but it is simpler than I realize. What I do remember is playing Milton Bradley's 1985 Commando Attack Game much more and having a lot of fun with that one. In the manual scans below, I rotated the "UNO" page to make it easier to read. As the fourth page of the manual, the top faces left with the area to fill in the customer's name being right side up.

Although not part of this board game, at the end of the video I showed 7 of the 20 bonus miniatures that were packaged with specially marked action figures in 1989. I mistakenly called them mini figures in the video, as I didn't realize there was an official name, and that is Micro Figures. The size of the micros makes them perfect as board game player pieces, either as a substitute for G.I. Joe games like this and Monopoly, or for any game with small plastic pieces.

Championship Baseball Board Game

Over the years I've primarily posted baseball video game magazine articles and reviews on MLB's opening day, and I think I'm running out of those and ideas on what to post. A few times I have posted about baseball-related toys and this year I've photographed Milton Bradley's Championship Baseball board game from 1984. The box cover states that it's "The Game With Special Topps Baseball Cards That Direct Every Play." It does include 30 baseball cards featuring some of the top talent from the time period, though it doesn't have the MLB license so there are no team logos on the cards. On the backs of the pitcher cards are the player's career stats while on the back of the other player cards are one year of stats and dice roll outcomes.

I'm missing some of the player stands and the box cover has stains from being stored in a basement. It might look better in one photo over another because I didn't edit them all to the same degree. The game also comes with a bunch of pieces that can be put together to create the scoreboard and stands. I don't remember how the game plays but it does look good when set up and the Topps cards are a nice bonus.