Customer Reviews

Cardinal Solid Wood Checkers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased the wooden chess set and the wooden checkers/tic tac toe set as gifts for my grandchildren. I wanted a traditional game for them that would hold up over the years. These products were just as advertised. They are well made and great looking. I would certainly recommend them to anyone wanting a lasting game for their collection.

If you're looking for a set to play checkers (and/or tic-tac-toe), this set will probably fit the bill just fine. The gameboard and checkers themselves are solid wood, and you could probably use the gameboard as a cutting board if you grew tired of the game -- it's that thick and strong. It's currently at a nice price, too.

Some cons about this set: the included instructions are not very detailed, about one paragraph long, so hopefully you already know how to play the game. (For what it's worth, it contain several typos, too.) Clearly the company didn't invest a lot of effort in the instructions.

The checkers have an embossed pattern on one side, but in my set, one of the checkers wasn't embossed. It's not a big deal, but I think shows some lack of quality control on the part of the manufacterer.

One more thing to throw out: the gameboard smells like -- and I am not making this up -- barbecue. Maybe it's made of mesquite or something. It's a fairly strong scent, pretty much detectible the whole time while playing the game. It's not a bad smell. Who knows, it might even be a selling point if you like barbecue.

This is a nice wood checker set, which we bought so we can play checkers with our 5 year old grandson. The set is NOT oak...it is "oak finish" meaning it is oak stained, and made in China of some wood that looks like pine and is not as heavy as oak, nor has the fine grain of oak. The board is about 1/2" or more thick, so it is a good thick board. Checkers all have the design on one side (no one checke missing design as some mentioned) and I find no odor, unpleasant or pleasant on the set.
I think it will serve our purposes well, and last for years. Good set for the cost. Only drawback is I thought it would be oak board and it is not. Also it is just a tad small (square) I believe 10x10 inch.

When I bought this board, I was looking for the cheapest possible checkers board, and that is what I got. It is cheap, but not without a cost. You get a very solid board, a pointlessly short set of directions, and just the right number of pieces for a game.

Things to improve:
1) Quality control. As usual with anything made in China, there was no quality control on this product. One of the pieces was missing the swirl design used to "queen" a piece. Another reviewer had this same problem.

2) No spare pieces. I have never seen a checkers board not come with a few spare pieces. Especially since this is such a small board and set of pieces not coming with at least one or two spares is kind of a rip off.

3) I wish I bought a Checker / Chess combo board. My daughter is 5, so I thought that Chess was too far off to warrant buying a Chess and Checkers combination board. I was wrong.

My recommendation to you is not to make the same mistake I did. Spend a little money to get something nice, preferably made in America (or Europe). If you do buy this, you will be assured that you will get what you paid for.

I love wood boards and this checkers set is great! Checkers is a game that everyone should learn; it simple, competitive, and fun to play for all ages. The other side of the board has a tic-tac-toe board for those times when you don't want quite so challenging or involved a game.

VERY pleased with this buy. many nights of fun with friends and family. super nice person to work with as well. REplied back to my comment and was great!

The title says it all: the set is reasonably priced and is reasonably well made. The board is wooden, but is not completely even or uniform. There is no box or bag for storing checkers. But the price was impossible to beat.

The board arrived and is as described. It is solid wood, thick and sturdy. My only complaint is that it is smaller than I thought. The pieces are also smaller. I purchased this as a Christmas gift for an elderly person and I don't know if they will be able to manage the pieces well. Pieces are more nickel sized than quarter sized which is what I expected.

Kept this set for my kids and purchased a bigger (but not as nice)set for the elderly peron.

I donate to the grade school that my 91 year old mom, my brother, sister, and three cousins attended.

The neighborhood is now considered a "high poverty" area. One of the teachers requested games, to allow children to learn how to "play".

Many of the children are first generation in this country, who live in apartments, and parents work odd hours, and/or work more than one job.

The children are stuck in apartments because of nowhere to play, and fear of the bad neighborhood. Consequently, they perform fine in structured activities, but have not learned the art of negotiation or sharing, and do not do well in unsupervised play.

I purchased the requested checkerboards and extra checkers, because they are wood, and should last a lot longer than a flimsy cardboard checkerboard, especially with use in a classroom. It was under ten dollars, and the reverse side is a Tic Tac Toe game, also requested. So it will server 2 purposes, also saving on storage space.