Customer Reviews

Hungry Hungry Hippos

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

This toy is not worth the money! I remember playing this game with one of my brothers when I was little, and we always had a good time. I was hoping to replicate the experience for my children; unfortunately, this game has been brought back in a junky, poor quality version. The hippos have to be removed from the game board with their necks extended and locked into place in order to put the game away in the box. My kids (6&4) have a hard time putting it together or putting it away by themselves (huge minus in my book!). The hippos sometimes become detached from the game during play. Their necks *frequently* get stuck in the extended position, necessitating stopping the game so that it can get fixed. The marbles are cheap, hollow plastic rather than the heavier marbles I remember from my childhood. The stickers don't stay on the hippos very well, so none of our hippos have eyes anymore. Even the box itself is incredibly flimsy if you hope to use it as a storage box for the game. Don't waste your money! Our game is sitting in the donation bin waiting to be taken to charity!

My 5 year old niece just received this for her birthday. It was opened for the kids to play while we were there and I was appalled at how cheap this game was made.
plastic marbles, er, I mean balls really?????
It is not one continious baord like the old origional but you "slide" the hippos into place. Which makes them flimsy while trying to play the game, becuase they will shift and make the "board uneven.
I can even tell it is much smaller than the origional, and the hippos had a tendency to get stuck while extended out with thier mouths open. And this was all noticeable the first time we took it out of the box.
shame shame....

I bought this for my 4 year old son's birthday. I remembered playing it as a kid and LOVING the game. I will say that the construction is not as good as I remember it and sometimes the poor hippos get stuck with their mouths open, but it is just as much fun as I remember. I gave it 5 stars because when I asked my son what his favorite present was (and he got some fun toys), he said "Hungry Hungry Hippos!"

Like so many other reviewers, I have fond memories of playing this as a child and was excited when my 3 1/2 year old asked for it for Christmas. And like so many other reviewers I am HUGELY disappointed with the changes that have been made to this game's construction.

It truly is made of the cheapest plastic and the hippos heads/necks get stuck frequently which is extremely frustrating for the kids and adults alike. But worst of all once the game is assembled it DOESN'T FIT INTO THE BOX!!! Who sells a board game that can't be stored in the box in which it comes?? Ridiculous! Of course the box does suggest that you disassemble the hippos from the game board in order to store it, however I have been unable to get them back out and am afraid to force them since the plastic is so flimsy I am sure it will break.

If I had read the reviews before purchasing this game I would have talked my daughter into asking for something else. It's a real shame because the original version that I had from the 1970's was so sturdy that my family passed it down over the years and was still playing with it up until just a few years ago. I'll be surprised if thi game lasts more than 1 year. I guess it is just another sad example of how we have lowered our standards and expectations over the years. So sad.

They were advertising this toy heavily before Christmas, and my 4-year-old daughter decided that's what she REALLY wanted. So, I ordered it despite the scathing reviews. I figured "how bad could it really be"? Even worse than imagined. It is extremely cheap plastic. Two of the hippos broke on Christmas morning. The kids hate it. I will heed fellow Amazon buyers' warnings in the future.

I LOVE THIS GAME but they have made it so crappy and cheap that you CANNOT play without it falling apart. I want to send it back but my 3 year old can't tell the difference just gets mad every time the hippo breaks off. The balls are cheap plastic too so they bounce around everywhere. We got this game for my son for Christmas and we are truly disappointed :-( We don't have the heart to tell him Santa's elves messed up and we need to send it back. I don't blame Amazon I blame the people who made it. HORRIBLE!!! Truly a shame, what a great game....... it once was.

I bought three of these as gifts, one for my own child. I was glad we opened ours before we sent the others. I returned all three. The game is a cheap, flimsy, irritating, pale copy of the one I remember from years ago. It has to be disassembled every time to put it away in the box. The pieces are difficult to snap into place, and a child of the target age for this toy would not be able to do it. Those little plastic tabs could not possibly stand up to the repeated process of putting it together and taking it apart. The hippos do not snap into place very firmly, despite the difficulty of snapping them in. This results in a wobbly game to play with. The head assemblies snag up on themselves more often than they work to grab the marbles. I was very disappointed as I know my kids would have loved this game if it had lived up to the original.

Like other reviewers I remember this game from when I was young and it was a lot of fun, but this game has been replaced with a junky version. The hippos have to be removed to fit them back into the box, after a year of use, the game box is destroyed and the hippos don't stay in their place properly. Also, the game I used to have the marbles were real glass marbles. The junky version they've been replaced with light plastic balls. Because of the state of the box, we hardly have any of the marbles left. This was such a disappointing find. It made me sad that a game we loved so much when we were little, has been turned into a game that I cringe when my kids ask me to play.

I would have gladly paid $5 more for a bigger box. Any time I want to put this game away I have to detach each hippo from the blue game board. My son, who enjoys the game, can not do it himself. And the hippos feel as though they're about to break when I detach them. Then, still fitting everything into the box is a feat in itself. Also, the hippos' necks tend to lock up during games. Cheaply made. No thanks, Hasbro. No thanks, China.

My daughter wanted this from Santa but I must say it is junk. Besides no real learning value, it is of very poor quality. The mouths of the hippos often stick and/or the hippo comes out of the slot that holds it in.

So don't waste any money on this useless so-called game. Also, it's not very easy to store (i.e. after wasting so much time trying to get the hippos to stay on the board, you certainly wouldn't want to take them off and put the so-called game back in the box.)