Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition

by Parker Brothers

Product Features

• The raised-grid style of the board guarantees that your words won't slip or slide out of place
• Organize your tiles on a curved tile rack that provides an optimum view of each letter
• Store the game pieces in two built-in side trays
• All new colors and a rotating game board with recessed spaces

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.4 x 10.1 x 15.6 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0013WLX3M
• Item model number: 40488
• Manufacturer recommended age: 8 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Sixty has never looked so good! This Diamond Anniversary Edition Scrabble features sleek black and silver tiles, a rotating board splashed with color, curved letter racks of smoky red plastic, and much more. With two built-in side trays for storing game pieces and a raised grid that keeps your letters in place, this anniversary edition of Scrabble will please all players ages eight and above.

The new curved letter racks make it easier to see all your letters. View larger.

Built-in drawers makes it easy to keep everything organized. View larger.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good: Sleek and colorful new look gives this Scrabble set a touch of class. The Bad: Carrying case doesn't shut. In a Nutshell: A snazzy improved edition of Scrabble that's both fun and functional. At a Glance Ages: 8 and up

Expert Tips and Fascinating History
If you've never played Scrabble before, the Gameplay Guide explains the rules in a clear, easy-to-read way. It also has lots of tips to sharpen your game (a list of "q-without-u" words, for example). The sturdy plastic board needs no assembly and the storage trays cleverly built into the bottom of the board are easy to find, especially with help from the Gameplay Guide. The game also comes with a Gameplay Guide that offers many helpful hints, as well as interesting historical tidbits (For example, did you know the game used to be called "Criss Cross Words?")

A Sleek New Look for Scrabble
The black-and-silver tiles, the smoky red racks, and the velvety tile pouch give this Scrabble set a touch of class. The curvature of the racks help you to see your letters more easily than you could on the old, straight racks. During gameplay, the raised grid will help keep your tiles firmly in place, even when the board spins towards another player. The pouch helps keep all the letters and racks together during play. Put them in the storage trays when you're done, fold the board back up -- and voila -- you have a carrying case that makes this deluxe Scrabble game easy to take with you.

Fun and Functional
We really liked the look of this colorful board, with its cheerful blue, green, red, and orange "premium" squares. We also appreciated the way the set folds up into a carrying case, complete with the storage trays and handle. It's not advertised as a travel set, but you can use it that way. You just have to be careful to hold the set closed when transporting it, since it doesn't snap shut. Also, the storage trays can get a little full when you try to put all the letters and racks in one tray, so make sure you tuck everything neatly into the tray so it will close.

Millions of people around the world love the game of Scrabble, and we're sure they'll be just as happy as we are to see this new, improved edition with features that make it both more fun and more functional!

What's in the Box
Scrabble board with two built-in storage trays, 100 letter tiles, tile pouch, four racks, and gameplay guide.

Product Description

Hasbro 4015XXXX Scrabble - Deluxe (EA)

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

411 of 415 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great new version, but not quite perfect, September 27, 2008

By 

D. Erbe (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This review is from: Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition (Toy)

I'm a longtime Scrabble fan, and a member of the National Scrabble Association, and I've played at clubs and in a couple of tournaments. I'm a bit of a Scrabble collector, and I am kind of obsessed with finding the perfect Scrabble board! This is a really good board for everyday play or for taking with you to play at a friend's house. It's a very elegant design, with many improvements over previous versions, and I like it a lot. But still, it is not quite perfect.

Let's start with the good points:
It folds in half, so it takes much less storage space than previous versions, and there's no cardboard box to get ruined. And the fold is on one of the grid lines, not right through the center of the center column, so it doesn't hurt the aesthetic. The closure is a hidden magnet, which is pretty sleek. And there's even a handle for easy carrying. All the tiles and racks fit into the two slide out trays, so you don't have to worry about pieces falling out when you open the board. There's no clear plastic grid covering the board like the 50th anniversary set and other previous editions, which is great, because I always had a problem with glare on those versions. But there's still a raised grid to keep the letters in place. The entire board rotates on wheels on the bottom of the board, and the wheels are wisely aligned to force it to rotate about a fixed point, instead of rolling all over the table.

I only have a few complaints that prevent me from giving it 5 stars:
1.) They changed the color scheme of the board! They switched the double word and triple word colors, and the triple letter is now lime green instead of dark blue. I guess it doesn't matter that much, but I don't like them messing with tradition in this case, especially on an Anniversary edition board. It just doesn't feel like an official Scrabble board if the colors aren't right. In fact, I probably wouldn't use this board at a club or tournament, just because the color scheme makes it look more like a kid's toy than a serious adult game. I sure hope they go back to the traditional colors on future editions.
2.) The racks are curved - I'm not sure if this is good or bad yet, but I don't really see the advantage to it, and I think it will take some getting used to. The tiles still seem to slide ok on the rack.
3.) The instruction book is just barely too wide to fit in the drawers without bending. Of course I'll never need to use the instruction book, but it seems likely to get ruined this way, and it would be nice to keep everything in good shape. I don't see why they couldn't have made it 1/4" narrower so it fits neatly in the drawer.
4.) Even with the curved edges, the board will still hit your rack when it rotates if you're not careful (but it doesn't knock your letters off your rack, which is good). A completely circular board would be ideal.
5.) The list of 2-letter words in the instruction book is not up to date with the 4th edition word list (QI and ZA are missing), even though it was printed in 2008! Again, experienced players will never look at the instruction book, but that's not good for new players, and it's kind of a suprising oversight.

Most of these complaints are pretty minor. Overall, I'm very pleased with this board, and it seems to me they are one step closer to designing the perfect board!

106 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 60TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION ... I'm Disappointed, September 4, 2008

By 

Cynthia J. Salim "LOVE 2 LEARN" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition (Toy)

I love SCRABBLE but I am disappointed with the DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY (60 year) Edition of the game. Perhaps I expected too much based on the wonderful 50 Year Edition of SCRABBLE. I love the 50 year edition and play it often so I jumped at the chance to add yet another SCRABBLE game to my collection. The manufacturer did have an innovative board design which makes the game more portable. The board folds in half to become a hard plastic case with built in handles. Unfortunately, the tile racks are cheap, there is no timer and the colors on the board aren't attractive. I doubt that I'll play with this version of the game unless I am traveling.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rugged, portable, self-contained word-fun, September 8, 2008

By 

M. Greene (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition (Toy)

This is a great edition of the classic Scrabble game. I really liked the design of the molded plastic case which opened up to reveal a raised-grid to keep your tiles in place. The unit is rugged and sturdy and would travel quite well thanks to the built-in handle and all-in-one construction. The bottom of the case has wheels to allow for easy pivoting from player-to-player and has two slide-out drawers that hold all of the game pieces. Speaking of game pieces, this inludes snazzy black wooden tiles with silver lettering, a soft velvety bag to hold them in and futuristic rounded tile-stands in clear red plastic (as opposed to the wooden ones of days of yore). The design of the actual playfield is less striking than previous versions as this one seems "candy-coated", but is still nice enough.