The Cranium WOW Game: Method To The Madness

Some time ago, I read on a toy blog that an upcoming edition of the game Cranium would come packaged with playing pieces designed by Gary Baseman. That sounds cool, I thought, and I filed it away in my head.

I was browsing in Toys 'R' Us today, and happened to spot a display for the game. You know the kind - those plastic cubes that show a toy off really well, but keep it locked down to the shelf. Oh hey, that game's out, I thought. Maybe I'll pick it up.

So I check the price on one of the scanner thingies that are spread throughout Toys 'R' Us-es these days. Thirty dollars. Not bad - that comes to about eight dollars each, if you fold in tax. I can give the game to some friends, they can use something else for game pieces, and the figures won't cost more than blind-boxed ones do. Sounds good.

It's all great until I pull the box from the shelf.

Then to my collecting horror, I notice that some of the figures in the game behind it are different. I look at the box behind that one. There's some different ones in that game, too. I look at all four games in stock. Each of them have at least one figure that's different from the others. What?!

CRAP! There's no way of knowing how many figures there are now. These guys are EVIL. So I pick the game that has the most figures in it that I really like, buy it, and head home. I understand about putting collectible figures in a game to get people to buy it, but randomizing them? That seems like a bad tactic. Collectors will buy a lot of the games, but you might wind up with a lot of games getting thrown out unused, which seems wasteful at best.

I get home and open up the game to take out the figures. They're cool, and they come with four hats and four hairpieces. There's pictures of twelve figures on the box's inner lining, so you can decorate them as they're illustrated, or however you want. That seems more merciful - at least you know that there's twelve figures in all, if you really want to go for it.

Then I see a notice that you can't read until the box has been opened, and it all comes together:

Research has shown that people fall in love with our new movers, and want to collect the entire set. Research has shown that you will go to cranium.com and order all of them.

Ah-ha! Now it makes sense. You want the figures. You buy the game (whether you want it or not) to get some of them. You find the notice telling you how to get all of them. Now you have four duplicates after ordering the complete set. You have a complete game, and a complete set of figures. Probability increase of you keeping the complete game? One thousand percent. Wasted materials? Zero.

Brilliant!

PS - I just went to the site, and it appears that you can get any of the figures individually (for $4.95 + shipping each). So the duplicate figure part goes away, but other than that, the strategy's still pretty sound. Whether or not you keep it, you bought a game, and they figured out a way to keep you from buying unnecessary extra games, and still keep collectors happy.