A recent Sorry game – note the smaller box

Okay, time for a quick little rant here: How many of you still have your favorite board games from when you were a kid?

We have Monopoly, Sorry and Stock Ticker – all now over 30 years old and our kids play them over at Nana and Grandada’s house. The pieces haven’t broken, the cards are still in good shape, etc.

Now, how about buying those same board games today?

First of all the boards are all chopped up into squares, folded 3 times, rather than just a nice, sturdy center fold. The boards are about half the thickness (or less), the pieces are the cheapest plastic that break quickly and the cards are even wafer thin and poorly laminated – they bend (and stay bent) just from shuffling them normally!

Every board game we’ve bought in the last five years falls apart in no time. Oh, I lie, we did buy a special version of Scrabble 10 years ago (with real wooden pieces and holders) that’s still in great shape – although, no wait, the bag was crap so I had to sew a new one, which of course is still good (since I used good quality material and sewed it well).

My point is this: I would happily pay double, or triple the going rate for decent, old-style quality board games! And I bet I’m not alone in this.

If they can’t produce a good quality product at the current price point, then why don’t all these toy companies come out with “heirloom” versions of our favorite games? Charge us what the good quality products are worth and we’ll be happy to pay it.

Anyone work for a toy company??