U-Build Battleship

by Hasbro

• Strategic water battle-themed game lets you build your own fleet and destroy the enemy
• Build classic ships or create your own
• For 2 or more players
• Includes 108 U-Build Bricks, 150 scoring pegs (100 white & 50 red), 40 red cones, 20 blue pegs, 10 locator plates, 2 target grids, 2 peg storage trays, 2 gameboards, parts sheet, assembly guide and game guide

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 10.5 x 10.5 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Origin: Made in USA
• ASIN: B003B1UAT6
• Item model number: 25634
• Manufacturer recommended age: 6 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,052 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Product Description

Can you build the winning fleet? This cool version of the classic Battleship game lets you build your ships brick by brick, either the classic versions or your own custom designs! Bulk up your fleet by building heavily armed super ships, any way you want. Then call the shots to try to hit your opponent’s ships. If you can sink them all, you win!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice idea, poor execution, at least for younger kids October 20, 2010

By Eli Burke

Durability: 1.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 2.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

My 7 and 5 year old boys "got" the concept right away. They loved building the Lego-like ships, and enjoy playing with them even when not playing Battleship. But there were some serious flaws that make this unsuitable for kids at the low end of the suggested age range.

The new gameplay lets each ship attack once for each "hit" left until it sinks. On your turn, you pick one ship and then fire as many times as it is able. Advanced rules let you modify your ships so that some have more hits, and therefore more opportunities to attack. Instead of a basic 5,4,4,3,2 configuration, you might make a 10-hit mega ship and spend the rest of your points on 2-hit escorts.

Shots are tracked on separate little plastic pegboards. To take a turn, you first put in blue pegs for each of your shots. Then you call them out one at a time for your opponent to check, while simultaneously replacing the blue pegs with red or white ones to indicate hits and misses. Your opponent then uses a different type of red peg on the Lego-ships to mark hits, except for the Submarine and Aircraft carrier which in some cases require guns/planes to be removed.

After listening to my boys play and fight for a couple of hours, here's how the concept fails in execution:
1) The board and screens are cardboard. When assembled, they do not fit back in the box, so cleanup means taking them apart. Furthermore, my kids cannot assemble them unaided, as the design requires you to fit the tabs from two pieces into a slot on the third, from opposite sides. It almost requires 3 hands. After a weekend which included 3 cycles of assembly/disassembly the tab/slot connections are already showing signs of wear.

2) Ships can easily be bumped off their flat cardboard grid spots; ships must be lifted off to adjust hit counters, and can easily be put back in the wrong place if you don't pay close attention (hard for young kids). This leads to a constant stream of accusations of cheating (not to say that you can't cheat at normal battleship, but a false accusation of cheating when your opponent made a mistake seems to be even more insulting).

3) The separate pegboard design means there are TWICE as many pegs: instead of just red and white, there are now blue and a second type of red peg. More tiny pieces to fly around, drop, etc.

4) The design of placing multiple blue pegs and then replacing with red/white pegs leads to more opportunities for mistakes. I can't count the number of times I watched my kids put down blue pegs, call them out, hear "miss, miss, miss", and then yank ALL the blue pegs to replace with white ones. At any age, correctly remembering multiple grid co-ordinates to replace the white pegs is error-prone at best. I had to repeatedly suggest that they only take one peg out at a time.

In my opinion, a good kids game is one that I can teach them to play and they will then play with minimal parental involvement. This version of Battleship does not pass the test.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this... buy the one already put together October 30, 2010

By D. Lee

Durability: 1.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 1.0 out of 5 stars   

I strongly recommend you don't buy this version of battleship. It is made out of cardboard and and cardboard tabs hold the game together. After one use it's already showing signs of wear and tear. If you do buy this you should expect that it won't last very long. Also you can't store it in the box without taking it apart, and it doesn't come with a container to store it when it's assembled so you're stuck assemblying it everytime you want to play which isn't good if you're a parent. Would be better if you bought a different version and not the U-Build version.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Bring back the old games!! January 24, 2011

By D. Marchus

Amazon Verified Purchase

Durability: 1.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 2.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 2.0 out of 5 stars   

Very cheaply built. It won't be long and it'll tear/rip and not work properly. We need to get away from cheaply-made products like this from China. Maybe if it were USA made, it would be constructed better and hold together much longer. I'd rather pay more money for something that will last longer. Man, those old Battleship games were great. My husband still has his. It's 30 years old!!