Just back from a week at Disney World. It is snowing in Lafayette today. Makes me miss the mid 70’s daytime temps and sweatshirt weather at night.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I attended the 2008 Chicago Toy and Game Fair on Navy Pier. (http://www.chitag.com/) It was really neat event. One of the few toy industry fairs open to the public. I took my two sons with me. We had a nice time playing games from name brand companies (Hasbro) and brand new games from very small companies. In some cases, the actual inventor of the game was there to show you how to play. It is a fair we will attend again next year. And the idea of opening to the public is one that other fairs should explore.

One of the games we played was Yahtzee Free For All by Hasbro. My sons really enjoyed this new take on the classic game. It played fast and kept their attention the entire time.

So I decided to put this game on our list of presents for Christmas. The next day Meijer had it on special for the week at $10. But, of course, it was sold out. Target had the game for $18.99 (I think).

Here is the strange thing. When we were at Disney World we visited Downtown Disney. This is an area of restaurants and shops. One of the shops had the game (great packaging, I spotted it from across the store). The only problem is the price was $28.99! I understand everything is more expensive at Disney, but this seemed extreme. Why would they have it priced so high? Do they actually sell any at that price? Do they even want to sell any? Had it been priced at $18.99, I would have bought it (it rained the next day).

Anyway, it’s a good game and if you can find it in the stores, you should check it out. And keep an eye out for ads for it between now and Christmas.

JPC