Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''. The name was changed in 1905 to ''John Waddington Limited'', then ''Waddington's House of Games'', then ''Waddington Games'', and finally just ''Waddingtons''.

Founding and history

The company was established as a printing business, and at first 'practically all its business related to the theatre'. It entered into game production in 1922, due to a boom in demand for playing cards around

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Waddingtons subsequently sold both original games (especially tie-ins for UK television programmes) and games licensed from other publishers. Waddingtons became the UK publisher of the US

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products we ...

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

, while Parker licensed Waddingtons'

Cluedo ''Cluedo'' (), known as ''Clue'' in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players (depending on editions) that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddin ...

. In 1941, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence section 9 (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

held by the Germans. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charitable organisations. Victor Watson, the grandson of Victor Hugo Watson was its chairman from 1977 to 1993. While well known for games, they never provided more than 15% of profit; Victor continued his father Norman's emphasis on improving packaging technology, such as folding cartons and microwave trays. From the 1970s the popularity of

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s hurt game sales, and after Victor's retirement, the company was bought by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

in 1994. Beginning in 1994,

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

-themed jigsaw puzzles were released annually until 2007. The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from a Victorian-era Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from the

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

. The small number of puzzles, combined with them being limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable. Further jigsaws have been produced since 2010 by a new company, using the same brand name.

Games

Among the games published by Waddingtons were: * '' 4000 A.D.'' * '' Air Charter'' * ''Astron'' * ''Battle'' * '' Battle of the Little Big Horn'' * ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typ ...

'' * ''Bigfoot'' * '' Black Box'' * '' Blast Off!'' * '' Blockbusters'' (standard, ''Junior'', Gold Run card game, and ''Super''- 2nd edition game with Gold Run included) * '' Boggle'' * ''

Buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 168 ...

'' * '' Campaign'' * ''Camelot'' * '' Careers'' * ''

'' (1949) * '' Don't Miss The Boat'' * '' Escape from Atlantis'' * '' Equals'' * ''

Exploration Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

'' * ''

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

'' * '' Game of Nations'' * '' Go'' (not the Chinese game of

Weiqi Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to ...

, but based on world travel) * '' Golfwinks'' * ''Grade Up to Elite Cow'' * ''

Key to the Kingdom is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kyoko Shitou. The manga was serialised in Kadokawa Shoten's ''Asuka Fantasy DX''. The manga is licensed and published in North America by CMX and in Taiwan by Kadokawa Shoten's subsidiar ...

'' * ''Keyword'' * ''Kimbo'' * ''Lexicon'' (1932) * '' Lose Your Shirt'' * '' Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs'' * ''Major Battles and Campaigns of General George S. Patton'' (1973) * ''Make-Shift'' (1980) * ''Milestones'' * ''

'' * '' Mine a Million'' (rebranded as ''The Business Game'') * ''

Purple People Eater Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, p ...

'' * '' Railroader'' * '' Ratrace'' * '' Rich Uncle (board game)'' * ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environm ...

'' * ''Safari Round Up'' * ''Scoop!'' * '' Sorry!'' * '' Speculate (Share Trading game)'' * ''

Spy Ring Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangi ...

'' * '' Subbuteo'' * '' Tens'' (variation of Triominoes) * '' Tour of London'' * '' Twelve Days of Christmas Super Delux Double sides Puzzle'' * ''

Top Trumps ''Top Trumps'' is a card game first published in 1978. Each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values to try to trump and win an opponent's card. A wide variety of different packs of ''Top Tru ...

'' * '' Totopoly'' * '' Ulcers'' * '' The Vampire Game'' * ''

Whot Whot is a card game played with non-standard deck in five suits: circles, crosses, triangles, stars and squares. It is a shedding game similar to Crazy Eights and was one of the first commercial games based on this family. The game has been ad ...

!''

References

External links

*
Waddingtons Playing Cards - a Brief historyWaddingtons Board Game Archive
{{Waddingtons Card game publishing companies Board game publishing companies Playing card manufacturers Companies based in Leeds History of Leeds Companies disestablished in 1995