Thrift Treasure: Mr. Mouth
The 70’s and 80’s were full of games that had a mechanical element to them. From Hungry Hungry Hippos to the classic Dark Tower, publishers were always trying to find unique elements and actions to add to board games. And while we usually do our used game shopping at our local Goodwill or Salvation Army, this week we happened across a classic at our local library book sale!
Twice a year our library has a public sale of their donated items from the previous six months. Nearly everything is 50 cents each, and a typical event will offer over 22,000 books, CDs, DVDs, puzzles and yes, even games. Usually the selection of games are the mass-market variety like Monopoly, Scrabble and Yahtzee. This time we found a 1970’s-era classic, Mr. Mouth!
Who can forget this classic commercial?! At the time it was a state-of-the-art toy for kids, and a must have for Christmas. Our TOMY version was one of the originals, with later issues looking like the one in this ad with a frog as the main character.
The rules haven’t changed at all over the years. Mr. Mouth is often compared to a deluxe version of Tiddlywinks. Instead of flipping your chips by pressing them against one another, you load them one by one on a plastic hand and let them fly towards Mr. Mouth in the center.
But Mr. Mouth isn’t willing to just eat any of them – he has to close his mouth to chew his food! Requiring one “C” battery, Mr. Mouth rotates 360 degrees and opens/closes his mouth four times per rotation.
Getting one into the mouth when he is facing you is a rather easy proposition as you can use the inside of his mouth as a backboard. The real skill comes when you try to sneak one in the side of his face when he’s facing to either side of you.
Every player has ten tokens to use, and the first person to get all 10 into his mouth wins the round. Of course, this quick game required multiple matches to determine the true Mr. Mouth champion!
If you’re having a nostalgia attack, you can find copies on both Amazon and eBay ready for immediate shipment! Or maybe you’ll get lucky at your local thrift shop or yard sale. Either way, it was well worth the 50 cents we spent!
Oh my god, so much fun those old games. It’s so great to brings those back for this generation of youngsters.
I love all the old games…. so fun to play and now fun to collect!!! thanks for the inspo!
I don’t remember this game but had I ever played it I am sure I would have. It sounds like a lot of dun. Of course it does require hand eye coordination of which I have little to none.
So much fun, I still remember this game! Just looking at the box I get all nostalgic. I don’t have any old board games any more, maybe I should check a thrift shop and see if I find one.
I have the very strange feeling that I’ve played this before…but I sure can remember where or when!
Wow Scott, you really did manage to find a true classic! I used to play this as a kid with my siblings and it was always loads of fun. I always won because I was the oldest and was better at it. 😀
My boys would have so much fun with this game. It looks like the perfect game for family game night.