Don't Break the Ice
by Hasbro

List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $8.52
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Category: Toy
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Product Summary

• Tread carefully and win in this classic game
• Tap out ice blocks one by one
• Take your time and do some thinking to keep the polar bear from sinking
• To win, the bear must stay on top
• For 2 to 4 players

• Cootie
• Don't Spill the Beans

Toys and Games Reviews of Don't Break the Ice

Customer Review: A metaphor for life?
Summary: 5 Stars

Thus it was when I was looking for a gift for my three-year-old niece, that I was looking for a gift that fit my sister's strict parameters for appropriateness:

'Please, nothing that makes noise, especially an agonisingly repetitious noise.'

'Nothing that can stain walls, carpets, floors, or ceilings.' (which made me wonder, just what is it that kids do with their paints and crayons that they can reach the ceiling?)

'Nothing that takes batteries.'

'Nothing with choking bits or fragile things that break easily.'

'No more dolls.'

'No more stuffed animals -- she gets buried in the ones you've given her already.' (oops, I guess that was a plea for originality!)

So, these guidelines (commandments, actually) in mind, I ventured into the world of children's toys, and was bewildered with the array of inappropriate gifts. Floor to ceiling in some shops -- who purchased these things? Was my sister being overly harsh in her strictures? Was the rest of the buying public that foolish? (on second thought - don't answer that!)

So it was that I came upon a few things that qualified, and high among them was the game Don't Break the Ice! I remembered this game fondly from my childhood. Putting the 'ice cakes' together in the frame, tapping on them roughly then gently to get the most cakes before the figurine fell through to an icy fate; then putting everything back together again to start the process over.

This made me think that the game is in fact an excellent preparation for the average working day -- putting together projects that are destined to fall apart; some will come and tap gently, others roughly; sometimes you'll be the one who falls through, sometimes others will; and, the whole thing starts over again -- and through it all, the thing to remember is, the point is to have fun. One doesn't have to win each game, each day, but it is in the playing that one succeeds and learns.

Needless to say, after having such an epiphany among the toys, I could hardly not purchase this item. I took it home, delivered it during the holidays, and it was appropriately well received. Despite having nothing that lights up, nothing that makes noise (beyond the rapping of the blocks), nothing that moves and nothing that marks, my niece played enraptured by the game.

'Again!' she would exclaim, mallet in hand ready to rap anyone who dared defy her.

She laughed gleefully as the blocks fell through, and even more when the whole edifice came crashing down.

'Again!'

I am sure she will be a future trader, and hostile takeovers and corporate break-ups will be her strong suit.

Can a toy manufacturer be sued for implanting such desires? Never mind, she'll buy them and break them up, too.

Description of Don't Break the Ice

Board Games Toys

• Categories > Games > Board Games