Strollerderby : Monopoly

Last Day For Free Holiday Shipping

Brett Singer — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:15:00 GMT

With the economy in shambles (even the wealthy are losing big money) I wanted to do my part to tell people how to save a little cash this holiday season. We began with Please Buy Stuff Part 1 – Cheap Toys, which featured a half-off toy sale at Target. Now here is Please Buy Stuff Part 2 – Free Shipping.

If you put off your holiday shopping because you were (a) busy, (b) waiting until the last possible second in an attempt to secure the best price, or (c) all of the above, more than 100 merchants are in your corner. On Thursday, December 18, web retailers from 1800Mustang (specializing in Mustang parts – the cars, not the horses) to Zappos.com (shoes) will ship your stuff for free AND guarantee delivery by Christmas. On the list are Babies R Us, Apple, Big Toe Soccer, OhToy.com – a huge list, and it keeps growing, according to FreeShippingDay.com.

Once again, procrastinators are rewarded. In fact, the web site even says, "Free Shipping Day is the last chance for many procrastinators."

As one who celebrates Chanukah, I wish the same deal applied for the festival of lights. That said, The First Night of Jewy Christmas coincides nicely with Actual Christmas this year – the evening of December 21, with the final night occurring on December 28. So you can pick up some chachkis to give the kids on the first few days (thereby supporting your local merchants), then give them the good stuff later in the week.

That actually works well for the way we do Chanukah in our house. We do eight gifts, but most are of the smaller variety, with a big one on or about the final night. So although FreeShippingDay unsurprisingly focuses on Christmas, it also works for Chanukah, as well as Kwanzaa, which begins on December 26.

It's as if merchants everywhere are saying, "Please – please buy something! The toys are half price, you get free shipping with guaranteed holiday delivery even if you wait until the last minute – wouldja just buy something already? Please? No, really. Buy something. Anything. What's that? My watch? Um, it's not for sale… oh, you'll take a Barbie Dream Car Set if I throw in my watch? And my shoes? Uh… sure! It's the holidays. Why not? Merry New Year!"

Anyone else feel like retailers are desperate? And while it's nice to be the beneficiary of some of this stuff-based holiday cheer, doesn’t it feel a teeny bit weird?

Oh well. Get it while the getting's good. Nothing distracts a kid from the world's problems like a shiny new toy. And seeing them open it is still one of the best freebies around.

Are You Cutting Back This Holiday Season?

Indiana Planned Parenthood Sells Gift Certificates

What NOT to Tell Your Child After You've Been Laid Off

White House Sends Chanukah Card With Christmas Tree On It

It's Hip Hop . . . for Babies

They Say – Most Toys Are Toxic

Parents Make Son Hold 'I Will Never Shoplift Again' Signs

Mini Baby Sculptures Not Edible, Selling Like Hotcakes

Toy Libraries: An Idea in Need of a Comeback?

Girly Gift Guide

Vonage Offers Free Calls To Santa

Make Your Own Religious Doll

Half Price Toys at Target

Brett Singer — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

With the economy in shambles (even the wealthy are losing big money) I wanted to do my part to tell people how to save a little cash this holiday season. So here is Please Buy Stuff Part 1 – Cheap Toys.

* * *

Has anyone else noticed how cheap toys are right now?

I get at least one email per day from Toys R Us practically begging me to buy something… anything… just buy a toy! Please! 50% off is not uncommon. It seems like the closer it gets to Christmas, the cheaper everything becomes.

Now Target is joining the party with a 50% off sale. The cheapest item is the game Monopoly Town, now priced at $7.99 (down from $15.99). On the high end, you can now get a Kota My Triceratops for $99.99 (was $199.99). Click the image below to see all 50% off items in all their glory, and also visit Target.com.

What's interesting, to me at least, is the fact that I don't seem to care much. Let me explain. I'm a cheapskate and I like bargains. Sometime in the past few years, however, I became less and less interested in shopping. It's not that I don't buy things when we need them. But it's less fun than it used to be. I would attribute this feeling to the economy, but it started before our financial system did its imitation of David Caruso's pre-CSI career. Part of it could be perspective – with two kids, stuff seems less important than it once did. But I'm not buying that (no pun intended). I think it has more to do with being tired (see: two kids), and also slightly overwhelmed by the array of choices out there. As an example, our toaster oven has been broken for several weeks. This thing owes us nothing – I believe we've had it for well over ten years. But it SORT OF works. And when I go online looking for new ones, I quickly get bored and decide to just deal with the old one for a little bit longer.

Some of my merchant-based malaise does have to do with the economy, of course. It seems…unseemly to lust after hi-tech stuff when people are being laid off all over the country.

That said, the kids don't need to suffer for my mishegos. (Except for the toaster oven. That they'll just have to deal with.) And if the toys they want are this cheap, go for it. Besides, isn't it our patriotic duty to go shopping?

Next: how to get free shipping and still get your stuff in time for Christmas (or Chanukah, or Kwanzaa).

Are You Cutting Back This Holiday Season?

Vonage Offers Free Calls To Santa

Make Your Own Religious Doll

When Board Games Become Major Motion Pictures

Jen Chaney — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:28:00 GMT

Toys have been turned into movies before. It happened with "Transformers." Same deal with "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl."

Still, I find something particularly odd about making a film based on a board game. But that's exactly what Hollywood plans to do with ... wait for it .. Monopoly.

As mentioned recently in the Hollywood Reporter, the production of the Monopoly movie is moving forward and ... wait for it again .. Ridley Scott has officially decided to direct. Yes, THAT Ridley Scott, the same guy behind "Alien," "Blade Runner" and "Gladiator." Honestly, what's next? Martin Scorsese signing on to helm "Hungry, Hungry Hippos"?

Apparently Hasbro, the company behind Monopoly, has other motion picture plans in the works, including film versions of "Ouija Board" and "Battleship." (We can all guess what the climactic line of dialogue will be in that last one, right?)

To be fair, Monopoly doesn't mark the first time a board game has inspired a movie. We all remember the big screen version of "Clue." (OK, some of us do. Vaguely.) Still, somehow this concept feels like a new low for movie ideas. Then again, perhaps I am wrong.

Maybe Americans are simply dying to see another classic "Kid MovesThimble Around Board, Kid Tries to Buy Park Place But Realizes He Has No Money, Kid Gets Bored and Ditches Monopoly to Play Video Games Instead" story. It's so cliche, though. I mean, that's basically the same exact plot as "No Country for Old Men."

You tell me if I'm wrong. Seriously, I know you're capable of doing that based on the stick incident. Does the "Monopoly" movie sound like a great idea? Would you take your kids to see it? And who should play that dude with the monocle?

Babble Talk: Worst Toy Makeovers

Jen Chaney — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:28:00 GMT

I've gotten a bit negligent in my RetroFitted posts. So I was happy to see Jeanne Sager pick up the slack with this fun Babble List on the Top 20 Worst Toy Makeovers. She mentions a lot of prime offenders. But here are the five that stick most uncomfortably in my toy-lovin' craw.

The Monopoly Makeovers: Sure, I have a version of this classic game that's based on the university I attended. (William & Mary-opoly, I have played you exactly 1.5 times.) Who doesn't? But all these other varieties, including the "American Idol" edition -- I'm with Jeanne, Simon Cowell and buying property on Boardwalk do not mix -- only serve to dilute the brand.

Etch-a-Sketch: This is very simple. Etch-A-Sketch should be red, rectangular and allow its knob spinners to draw nothing but black lines. No color imagery. No elaborate Dora the Explorer decorations. If I want a fancy pants Etch--A-Sketch, I'll buy the original and BeDazzle it, okay?

Lincoln Logs: Build a house with the new version of this nostalgic favorite and you can bet the Big Bad Wolf could blow it down with just a huff, let alone a puff. These logs don't look rustic, they look like they came from a poor man's Pottery Barn.

Holly Hobbie: As Rachael pointed out not too long ago, Holly is supposed to be a Calico-wearing pioneer girl. Holly Hobbie 2008, who is technically some sort of younger relative of the original, is a generic looking preteen who apparently borrowed Fred "Rerun" Berry's hat.

My Little Pony: Rachael and Jeanne also both cited the Struts -- which honestly resemble My Little Ponies in S&M gear -- as appalling toy remakes. And again, I agree. Yes, the updated toys are horses. But they're horses who look like little hos.

Bored games

Brett Singer — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:30:00 GMT

They're meant for kids, but sometimes I wonder if even they enjoy these dull gaming concoctions.

	Clue Jr.: When I was young, I played regular Clue. (My mother used to torture me with the cards in a way that has scarred me for life, but that's another story.) Clue Jr. is actually more complicated, and also less satisfying.
	The Game of Life: If actual life were as dull as the Game of Life, our nation's suicide rate would quadruple. You spin. You move. You do what the space says. You spin. You move. You do what the space says…Hm. Maybe it is like real life. Only much more boring.
	Candy Land: With little children, this is fine. But once they can string a sentence together – "Candy Land sucks, can we play something else?" for example – it should be time to move on.
	Monopoly Jr.: What, pray tell, is wrong with regular Monopoly? They even make different versions now in order to satisfy even the most media-addled brain: Star Wars Monopoly, Your-Favorite-Sports-Team Monopoly, Marvel Super Heroes Monopoly. In Monopoly Jr., you build lemonade stands, presumably because hotels are too complex a concept for young minds. In our house, my youngest seems to have lost the game board for this one, so he and his older brother were "making rain" with the lemonade stand pieces. That seems like a better use of them. (I skipped an explanation that in the rap world, "making it rain" has a slightly different meaning.)

There are probably more, but I have to get back to a marathon 'Clue Jr.' session. Isn't it time for school to start?

images: theair1morningshow, Amazon.com

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Children opposed to healthcare (Onion Video)

5 reasons it's a good thing I had boys

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Hunka hunka burnin Barbie

Birth inspires lottery ticket purchase

My name is Budweiser Bjorklund, what's yours?

Retarded movie boycott

5 things that would make parents' lives easier

It all started when Mary needed a laxative

When playgrounds attack, the sequel

20 Disturbing Baby Products

S&M Barbie

Five things my son taught me about living green

New "Lite" Versions of Old Standard Board Games Hitting Shelves

Karen Murphy — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:37:00 GMT

I'm trying to figure out whether this new trend is due to the dumbing-down of America or because our attention spans are now the size of a gnats, but in either case, toy manufacturers are busy rolling out "Express" versions of familiar family board games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Life, and Sorry. Is this really necessary? I thought part of the fun of these games was the six-hour marathons incurred because the seven-year-old takes so long with her turns, painstakingly moving her piece around the board, one.space.at.a.time. At least, that's how it is in my house.

But...Candyland? One mom in the article admits to cheating to hurry the game. C'mon, Candyland takes, what, 15 minutes? We can't spare 15 minutes with our kids? I admit that there are times when a shortened version of games would make life a lot easier and still please everyone, but I think that sometimes it's nice to just spend a lazy afternoon being really in the moment and decide to mow the lawn, do the dishes, blog that article -- whatever -- later, because pretty soon those kids are going to be growing up and won't give us the time of day let alone sit down and play a game anymore, not without a whole lot of eye-rolling and heavy sighs.

Check out the new Monopoly Express, by the way. WTF? Looks like, er, so much fun. By the way, if you're really into Monopoly, there's about a hundred different specialty versions out there (I had no idea; Bass Fishing Monopoly, anyone? Or Elvis Monopoly?) -- check 'em out!