''Thin Ice'' is a
board game
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
that was produced in
1989
1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
by the
Pressman Toy Corporation
Pressman Toy Corporation is a toy manufacturer based in Richardson, Texas. Founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman, it currently focuses on family games and licensed products.
History
Jack Pressman founded the company in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. ...
. The objective of the game is to place as many wet marbles as possible on a tissue, simulating thin ice, before it breaks and releases the marbles.
History
It was invented by Denise Heimrich and licensed by Robert Fuhrer and Nextoy, LLC.
A 1990 TV commercial for the game used the song ''
Wipe Out'' adding lyrics such as "Place a marble on the ice, but watch out! You are on thin ice, you are on thin ice!"
Gameplay
The game features a lower ring with
marbles
A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. These toys can be used for a variety of games called marbles, as well being placed in marble runs or races, or created as a form of art. They are ofte ...
and an upper ring, where a
tissue is placed to emulate thin ice. Marbles sit below in a pool of water. A large plastic
tweezers
Tweezers are small hand tools used for grasping objects too small to be easily handled with the human fingers. Tweezers are thumb-driven forceps most likely derived from tongs used to grab or hold hot objects since the dawn of recorded history. ...
are included to handle the marbles; the arms were covered by a sticker showing a happy
Eskimo
''Eskimo'' () is a controversial Endonym and exonym, exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Sibe ...
reaching out to "grab" the marbles.
The objective of the game is to place as many wet marbles as possible on the tissue with a pair of big plastic tweezers. Eventually, the weight of the marbles will cause the tissue to break and dump the marbles into the lower ring. The player who placed the marble on the tissue that caused it to break would then have a "strike" counted against them, and the upper ring would be reset with new tissue and the players would once again place marbles atop it. The first person to break through the "ice" 3 times is the loser.
See also
* ''
Don't Break the Ice'', a children's board game relying on dexterity with a similar theme
References
External links
*
*
Board games introduced in 1989
Children's board games
Larry Harris (game designer) games
Pressman Toy Corporation games
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