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Action / Dexterity Games | Home » » » Bananagrams - the Award Winning Anagram Game! | | | | | | WARNING:| CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs. |
| | | Description: | | Bananagrams is a fast-moving word game consists of 144 ivory-like letter tiles in a fun, zippered banana pouch. The game play is a mixture of Boggle and Scrabble. Players place the Bananagrams tiles face down on the table and randomly select 21 tiles. They then flip their letters and simultaneously race to create as many intersecting/interconnecting words as possible. Essentially, Bananagrams is a speed scrabble game in which everyone plays as fast as they can. | | | Features: | |
• Bananagrams is a fun, fast-paced, family word game!
• A combination of boggle and scrabble.
• Bananagrams is great family fun and educational.
• Just grab and go - Bananagrams portability makes it great for travel!
• 2 to 8 players, ages 7 and up.
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 3.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.76 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.46 inches | | Package Width:
| 3.15 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.76 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.79 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 562 reviews |
| | Charis Games Review: Bananagrams Game - and Award Winning Anagram Game
Bananagrams is one of our best selling family word games. It is similar to Take One or Speed Scrabble. Bananagrams is a good choice for a 10 minute filler game or a family travel game. In Banagrams, players receive 21 letter tiles an race to play all of their tiles as fast as they can. Once you play all of your tiles, you yell "peel," and everyone must take an additional tile. A unique rule to Bananagrams is the "dump" rule. If you want to get a letter, you can "dump" it by placing it back in the middle and replacing it with three new letters. The first player to place all of their tiles wins. A round of Bananagrams typically lasts 5 to 10 minutes.
Awards:
- 2009 TOTY Game of the YEAR award
- Oppenheim Toy Portfolio- Best Toy Award Gold Seal
- iParenting Media Winner Award
- Good Toy Award 2006- Play Matters Gold Award Winner
- Dr. Toy Best Products Winner
- Right Start Best Toy Award
- Parent's Choice Recommended
- Creative Child Magazine- Creative Toy Awards 2007- Top Toy Of The Year Award
TDMonthly Review of Bananagrams
Beth Carroll, Psy.D., is a professional psychologist who specializes in child intervention and development. She works with children in many capacities, including providing early intervention services to infants and toddlers and conducting play therapy and psycho-educational assessment with children and adolescents. She has also provided private childcare for families for more than 22 years. Her diverse experience working with children has enabled her to see firsthand how playing with toys can be one of the richest sources of learning and communication for kids.
Dr. Carroll peels through the layers of fun in a new word game.
First Impressions
Unlike Scrabble and other word games, Bananagrams does not require a board. The game includes 144 letter tiles that fit into a compact banana-shaped cloth carrying case, which makes it perfect for travel. The object of the game is to create as many words as possible from selected tiles. All words need to be interconnected by a shared letter. Once the tile pile is depleted, the player who is able to use all of his or her tiles first wins.
Developmental Stage
Word games build vocabulary, spelling and word-recognition skills. Bananagrams also targets creativity, because the goal is to use every single tile — requiring players to deconstruct existing words to make letters available for other words.
Recommendation
Kids will go bananas for Bananagrams! I was also able to adapt this game for some of the younger children with whom I work; they had fun pulling individual letters out and identifying them.
| | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 562 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
497 of 502 found the following review helpful:
 fast, portable fun for anyone who can spellSep 08, 2007
By CristyW
Do you like Scrabble but get hung up trying to use those special point squares, are bummed when someone "steals your spot", or dragged down by Debbie Dictionary ("just let me look up this one word") or Slow Joe (who takes 20 minutes for each turn)? Well you would love Bananagrams, because it solves those problems. There are no special squares (or squares at all), no points on the letters (all are worth the same) and no time to dawdle. You are instead rewarded for speed and flexibility in making your own crossword. You can completely pull apart your crossword and start from scratch if you need to or just swap out a letter here and there, but don't get caught with a bunch of spare letters when an opponent goes out!
It is exciting and challenging to play this game with adults, but it can be fun to include the kids. You can easily adapt the rules to suit yourself. We "handicap" the adults by drawing two tiles for every one the kids draw. You can play solitaire or have several players.
A similar game that I also love is Learning Resources' "Take Four". If you are the type who would prefer to have a grid to keep those tiles straight, or likes to have a few "jokers" thrown in, you might prefer this. But Banagrams is far more portable and much cheaper. I like both of these games so much (as well as the spelling card games Quiddler, My Word, and Tri-Virsity) that the old Scrabble board is gathering dust.
99 of 99 found the following review helpful:
ADDICTIVE!Dec 04, 2007
By M. JOHNSON
This is a family favorite! There are a variety of ways you can play this game. We use three or four sets for our large "extended" family games. One of the best facets of this game is its portability--fits in a purse, backpack, or car glove box. We give bonus points at the end of each for the most creative word, longest word, etc.
87 of 90 found the following review helpful:
Better in Scrabble in many way!Jul 26, 2007
By J. McKeever
I played this game with a close family member and was in love with it at first sight. Unlike Scrabble, you play somewhat independently and are able to rearrange words constantly to make your letters fit and to create new words. You know that annoying friend or family who always takes your spot in scrabble??? They can't take the spot you wanted to use! You're truly working against the clock to be the first to say "Bananas!"
I've bought it for everyone I know as a gift since then. It's original, super fun and portable. A great game to travel with, play in hotel, at pool, on plane, keep kids busy at restaurant (or you and your friend/ spouse) while waiting for dinner! Lots of ways to use this portable, simple game.
I highly recommend and will continue to give this as a gift.
Only negative I can conceive...durability. Be careful of marking the letters somehow. We hope no one cheats, but if you scratch them on a black table...well then...try to clean it off.
28 of 28 found the following review helpful:
we play every dayMay 27, 2008
By Toller Girl
I was shopping for a Christmas gift for my niece last December, and came across all of these rave reviews for Bananagrams. So I bought one for us 50/60-somethings instead (she'll get one this year.) It lives on the kitchen table and we play a few games almost every morning before we go to work. GREAT GAME!!!!! No waiting around for your turn, no angst trying to achieve the triple-word-value square, no getting stuck with hopeless letters turn after turn, no arguments, no dictionary - just pure love of and fun with words. It's complete flexible and you can easily change the rules, for example if you are playing with a novice or child, or just for a change (try playing into and building onto your opponent's pattern.) It definitely gets tossed into my travel bag from now on.
48 of 52 found the following review helpful:
Go BananasMay 21, 2007
By S. A. Cusack
First purchased this game in Minneapolis. It's for all age groups over 5.
Before school the game was played by 3rd and [...] grandchildren. Just recently played it with 2 retired teachers, a lst grade teacher, and a librarian. We couldn't stop playing it. Later one of the friends called to say she had just ordered two of games; one for her home and the other for the granddaughters. Many ways to play. Exciting!
See all 562 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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