Jenga

''Jenga'' is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili word "" which means 'to build or construct'. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. The game ends when the tower falls over.

Rules

''Jenga'' is played with 54 wooden blocks. Each block is three times as long as it is wide, and one fifth as thick as its length – . Blocks have small, random variations from these dimensions so as to create imperfections in the stacking process and make the game more challenging. To begin the game, the blocks are stacked into a solid rectangular tower of 18 layers, with three blocks per layer. The blocks within each layer are oriented in the same direction, with their long sides touching, and are perpendicular to the ones in the layer immediately below. A plastic tray provided with the game can be used to assist in setup.

Starting with the one who built the tower, players take turns removing one block from any level below the highest completed one and placing it horizontally atop the tower, perpendicular to any blocks on which it is to rest. Each player may use only one hand to touch the tower or move a block at any given time, but may switch hands whenever desired. Once a level contains three blocks, it is complete and may not have any more blocks added to it. A block may be touched or nudged to determine whether it is loose enough to remove without disturbing the rest of the tower, but it must be returned to its original position if the player decides to move a different one. A turn ends when the next player in sequence touches the tower or when 10 seconds have elapsed since the placement of a block, whichever occurs first.

The game ends when any portion of the tower collapses, caused by either the removal of a block or its new placement. The last player to complete a turn before the collapse is the winner.

Origins

''Jenga'' was created by Leslie Scott, the co-founder of Oxford Games Ltd, based on a game that evolved within her family in the early 1970s using children's wooden building blocks, when the family purchased from a sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana. The name ''Jenga'' is derived from ''kujenga'', a Swahili word which means "to build". A British national, Scott was born in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, where she was raised speaking English and Swahili, before moving to live in Ghana, West Africa. Scott launched the game she named and trademarked as "Jenga" at the London Toy Fair in January 1983About Jenga: The Remarkable Business of Creating a Game that Became a Household Name. Leslie Scott (Greenleaf Book Group Pres

/ref> and sold it through her own company, Leslie Scott Associates. The blocks of the first sets of ''Jenga'' were manufactured for Scott by the Camphill Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire. The V&A Museum of Childhood has exhibited one of the original sets of ''Jenga'' since 1982.

In 1984, Robert Grebler, an entrepreneur from California who was the brother of a close friend of Scott, contacted her and expressed interest in importing and distributing ''Jenga'' in Canada. In April 1985, Grebler acquired from Scott the exclusive rights to ''Jenga'' for the United States and Canada, and then in October of that year, Scott assigned the worldwide rights in ''Jenga'' to Grebler, which he in turn assigned to Pokonobe Associates. Convinced of ''Jengas potential, Grebler had invited two cousins to form Pokonobe Associates with him in 1985 to increase distribution of ''Jenga''. Pokonobe then licensed Irwin Toy to sell ''Jenga'' in Canada and to be master licensee worldwide. Irwin Toy licensed ''Jenga'' to Schaper in the United States, and when that company was bought by Hasbro, ''Jenga'' was launched under the Milton Bradley banner in 1987. Eventually, Hasbro became licensee in most countries around the world.

By 2019, according to Pokonobe Associates, owners of the ''Jenga'' brand, over 80 million ''Jenga'' games, equivalent to more than 4.3 billion ''Jenga'' blocks, had been sold worldwide. On November 5, 2020, ''Jenga'' was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

Tallest tower

The packaging copy of one edition of the ''Jenga'' game claims that Robert Grebler may have built the tallest ''Jenga'' tower ever at 40 levels. Grebler built the tower in 1985 while playing with an original ''Jenga'' set produced by Leslie Scott in the early 1980s.

Official variants

''Throw 'n Go Jenga'' is a variant originally marketed by Hasbro. It consists of blocks that are in various colors plus a six-sided die. It is marketed by Art's Ideas.

''Jenga Truth or Dare'' was a variation of ''Jenga'' also marketed by Hasbro. This version looked like regular ''Jenga'' except there were three colors of blocks instead of just the natural color of ''Jenga''.

''Jenga Xtreme'' used parallelogram-shaped blocks that could create some interesting leaning towers.

''Casino Jenga: Las Vegas Edition'' employed roulette-style game play, featuring a felt game board, betting chips, and additional rules.

In addition, there have been a number of collector edition ''Jenga'' games, featuring the colors and logos of the Boston Red Sox, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Yankees, and John Deere, among others. '' Hello Kitty Jenga'', ''Transformers Jenga'', ''Tarzan Jenga'', ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Jenga'', ''Donkey Kong Jenga'', ''Bob's Burgers Jenga'', ''National Parks Jenga'', ''Jenga Ocean'', '' The Walking Dead Jenga'', ''Super Mario Jenga'', '' Fortnite Jenga'', ''Godzilla Jenga'', ''Rick and Morty Jenga'', ''Onyx Jenga'', and ''Harry Potter Jenga'' are some of the licensed variations of ''Jenga''.

''Jenga XXL'' and ''Jenga Giant'' are licensed giant ''Jenga'' games manufactured and distributed by Art's Ideas. There are ''Jenga Giant'' variations which can reach or higher in play, with very similar rules. ''Jenga XXL'' starts at over high and can reach or higher in play. Rules are the same as in classic ''Jenga'', except that players may use two hands to move the eighteen-inch-long blocks.

''Jenga Pass Challenge'' includes a handheld platform that the game is played on. Players remove a block while holding the platform, then pass the platform to the next player. This variant includes only half the number of blocks (27), which means the tower starts at 9 levels high instead of 18.

See also

*Rock balancing
* 56 Leonard Street, nicknamed "the Jenga Building"
*Pick-up sticks, physical game of removing sticks from a pile
* ''The Final Straw'', a game show with a similar format

References

Sources

*

External links

*

Jenga GIANT official website

The Jenga Chair
() in the Bröhan Museum

The Jenga House


at the V&A Museum of Childhood

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1980s toys
British inventions
Combinatorial game theory
Games and sports introduced in 1983
Games of physical skill
Milton Bradley Company games
Party games
Swahili words and phrases