Mousetrap

by Hasbro

• Contraption-building table game that pits players against each other as mice trying to navigate through a complex mousetrap
• Race to the finish and nab your opponent's mouse before your own gets caught
• Develops fine motor skills
• Instructions in English and Spanish
• The last "mouse" left uncaptured wins

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 10.6 x 3.5 inches ; 2.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 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: B00000DMFD
• Item model number: 4657
• Manufacturer recommended age: 6 - 10 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #95 in Toys & Games > Games > Board Games
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (171 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Build a better mousetrap? We dare you. Naturally, the object is to trap mice in the mousetrap, while avoiding getting trapped. By rolling the die, you proceed around the game board, collecting cheese pieces and building a mousetrap bit by bit. Once complete, you set the wheels in motion, as it were, to try to capture the opposition's mice. But this is no ordinary trap. With this contraption you start by turning the crank, that rotates the gears, that push the lever, that moves the shoe, that kicks the bucket, that sends the ball down the stairs and into the gutter, that leads to the rod that releases a second ball, that falls through the bathtub and onto the springboard, that catapults the diver into the washtub, that causes the cage to fall and--whew!--hopefully, capture a mouse. The last "mouse" left uncaptured wins --Alison Golder

Product Description

Mousetrap

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 90 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun, if you're up to it! September 10, 2001

By A Customer

Durability: 2.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I usually groan when my first grader pulls out this game, because I know pandemonium will follow -- but it's always a lot of fun!!!!
This game needs to be heavily supervised. Even if you child can read (and kids on the younder end of the spectrum won't be able to), assembling the mousetrap requires a certain amount of fine motor skills and an understanding of how things fit together. My son has yet to play it with a friend without serious assistance! Even when I play if with him, it is a crisis if my younger child is around. He is too young to play the game, but he loves to play with it and work the trap -- usually right in the middle of the game!
Notwithstanding all of this, the game is a blast. It's a good introduction to engineering concepts. Most board games are pretty similar -- you go around the board and whoever gets to the end first wins. This isn't that simple - you don't know who is going to win until the end. Furthermore, the best fun of the game is the process of reaching the end, since most turns involve a child adding another piece onto the trap.
My only real complaint about the game is that it needs to be sturdier. My board is taped together, and I am about to order a replacement thing-a-majig (that's really the name of the piece) from Hasbro.
If you don't mind supervising the game, it's a great game.

81 of 86 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Do not worry about the game, just build that Mousetrap! March 10, 2003

By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Durability: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I know that "Mousetrap" is a game in which players take turns trying to capture an opponent's mice, but I am going to take a radical position and say the whole point here is to build this Rube Goldberg version of the proverbial "better mousetrap" and get it to work. Yes, the first time or two that you play this with your kids you can follow the rules and declare a winner. But from then on the fun is just putting this contraption together and getting it to work. The important thing here is that they understand the whole idea of a "Rube Goldberg machine" (he was the inspiration for this toy, even if he does not get the actual credit) and to appreciate the idea of taking a simple every-day real-life problem such as catching a mouse and solving it with a complicated mechanical solution such as what we have here, where you begin with a shoe kicking a bucket and eventually, if everything works correctly, ends with trapping a mouse.
This is a game where the way it really works is that young kids want to learn how to put the "Mousetrap" together and get it to work. After they master that skill they will become bored with it, at which point you simply discover some new kids who have yet to be exposed to this unique, classic game. There are certain games that every kid should be exposed to and "Mousetrap" is on that short list of classics.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This is not a game to toss to kids and, say, "go play!" September 29, 1999

By A Customer

Durability: 3.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

Parents or playmates, who give unfavorable reviews of Mousetrap, have expectations beyond reality. This is a family game--at least for the first 3 to 4 games. Play as a family, at first, helping your children learn to assemble the "trap". New games and toys are especially more fun if a parent(s) participate in learning game rules and strategy. How fun it is when 1 of my 4 children challenge me to a game I have taught him/her to play. I usually get smeared! A little bit of initial instruction and patience will take you, as a parent, a long way. The investment will pay off as the kids challenge other friends to play along. In return, Mom sips her coffee and enjoys the activity.