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HASBRO | Home » » MOUSETRAP BOARD GAME | | | | | | WARNING:| CHOKING HAZARD -- Toy contains a small ball. Not for children under 3 yrs. | | CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs. |
| | | Description: | | Can you build a better mousetrap? Find out in this fun-filled game of crazy mechanical gadgets and chain reactions! Race to the finish and nab your opponent's mouse before your own gets caught! | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 3.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 10.6 inches | | Product Height:
| 15.7 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.69 pounds | | Package Length:
| 15.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 10.6 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.4 inches | | Package Weight:
| 3.3 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 142 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 142 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 77 found the following review helpful:
 Lots of fun, if you're up to it!Sep 10, 2001
I usually groan when my first grader pulls out this game, because I know pandemonium will follow -- but it's always a lot of fun!!!!
This game needs to be heavily supervised. Even if you child can read (and kids on the younder end of the spectrum won't be able to), assembling the mousetrap requires a certain amount of fine motor skills and an understanding of how things fit together. My son has yet to play it with a friend without serious assistance! Even when I play if with him, it is a crisis if my younger child is around. He is too young to play the game, but he loves to play with it and work the trap -- usually right in the middle of the game!
Notwithstanding all of this, the game is a blast. It's a good introduction to engineering concepts. Most board games are pretty similar -- you go around the board and whoever gets to the end first wins. This isn't that simple - you don't know who is going to win until the end. Furthermore, the best fun of the game is the process of reaching the end, since most turns involve a child adding another piece onto the trap.
My only real complaint about the game is that it needs to be sturdier. My board is taped together, and I am about to order a replacement thing-a-majig (that's really the name of the piece) from Hasbro.
If you don't mind supervising the game, it's a great game.
72 of 77 found the following review helpful:
Do not worry about the game, just build that Mousetrap!Mar 10, 2003
By Lawrance M. Bernabo
I know that "Mousetrap" is a game in which players take turns trying to capture an opponent's mice, but I am going to take a radical position and say the whole point here is to build this Rube Goldberg version of the proverbial "better mousetrap" and get it to work. Yes, the first time or two that you play this with your kids you can follow the rules and declare a winner. But from then on the fun is just putting this contraption together and getting it to work. The important thing here is that they understand the whole idea of a "Rube Goldberg machine" (he was the inspiration for this toy, even if he does not get the actual credit) and to appreciate the idea of taking a simple every-day real-life problem such as catching a mouse and solving it with a complicated mechanical solution such as what we have here, where you begin with a shoe kicking a bucket and eventually, if everything works correctly, ends with trapping a mouse.
This is a game where the way it really works is that young kids want to learn how to put the "Mousetrap" together and get it to work. After they master that skill they will become bored with it, at which point you simply discover some new kids who have yet to be exposed to this unique, classic game. There are certain games that every kid should be exposed to and "Mousetrap" is on that short list of classics.
37 of 38 found the following review helpful:
This is not a game to toss to kids and, say, "go play!"Sep 30, 1999
Parents or playmates, who give unfavorable reviews of Mousetrap, have expectations beyond reality. This is a family game--at least for the first 3 to 4 games. Play as a family, at first, helping your children learn to assemble the "trap". New games and toys are especially more fun if a parent(s) participate in learning game rules and strategy. How fun it is when 1 of my 4 children challenge me to a game I have taught him/her to play. I usually get smeared! A little bit of initial instruction and patience will take you, as a parent, a long way. The investment will pay off as the kids challenge other friends to play along. In return, Mom sips her coffee and enjoys the activity.
31 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Not recommended. Doesn't work well. Flimsy and Frustrating.Nov 22, 2000
A piece broke during assembly (everything made of flimsy plastic). I glued it back together with a little J.B. Weld and tried again. Well, as a game it's completely worthless. But my 5 yr. old and 7 yr. old boys get some amusement out of playing with the assembled contraption, although it's very frustrating to them because it's so flimsy it generally doesn't work. Supposedly the little man is intended to be catapulted into the pool but that never happens, so the mousetrap "basket" rarely comes down. There must be better things to spend money on than this.
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
Mousetrap's contraption is cute -- but Ratatouille Kitchen Quake is a better playing gameJul 21, 2007
By kih
Several other reviewers have commented that Mousetrap is all about the contraption: I agree. The contraption has a certain charm, if you can tolerate the frustration of occasions when it just won't work. But playing it as a game holds little interest; instead, I, with some help from the kids, put the contraption together, and then the kids try triggering it off (lots!) of times -- then we're done. Whether you really like Mousetrap, or despise it, will probably depend on whether the Rube Goldberg aspect of the Mousetrap charms you or leaves you cold, and whether you enjoy putting all the pieces together (and then the suspense of whether or not you can actually get it working that day).
For a similar-in-spirit contraption incorporated into a much better playing game, take a look at the Ratatouille Kitchen Quake game, DISNEY PIXAR RATATOUILLE KITCHEN QUAKE GAME.
Mousetrap (M) vs. Ratatouille (R)
Contraption theme
M: Nostalgic (for those of us who grew up with it); wild Rube Goldberg variety of parts.
R: Limited to kitchen utensils, to fit in well with Ratatouille movie.
Contraption number of individual parts:
M: about 25
R: about 15
Note that the contraptions have the same sort of underlying structure; the difference is that in Mousetrap things like "bases" are constructed from lots of separate parts, where the analogous piece in Ratatouille would have an integral base. So the overall contraption in Ratatouille doesn't really seem less complex or interesting -- but the construction has fewer pieces/is simpler.
Stage when construction of contraption occurs:
M: During the game (if you actually play the game, which we almost never do, but instead merely build and play with the contraption).
R: As part of game setup, before the game itself.
Reliable operation of contraption:
M: This can be frustrating...
R: Fewer pieces, which fit into plastic mounts in the game board, seems to give better reliability. To retain the "charm" of uncertainty of operation, Ratatouille actually has two initial trigger buttons: a reliable button used when triggering ingredient launches, and an unreliable button used when triggering the contraption to (possibly) whack opponent pawns off their current position on the playing board.
Playing pawn interaction with contraption:
M: Only at end-stage of game, when mice pawns get "caught" by the falling cage which is the last piece of the contraption.
R: Recurs throughout the game -- Remy pawns climb onto the contraption at two different points of the game path, putting them in danger of getting dislodged (and having to move backwards to penalty spaces) if the contraption gets triggered, and at various other game board positions Remy pawns are in danger of getting whacked out of position by contraption moving parts if the contraption gets triggered by an opponent. And attempted triggering of the contraption (this is the unreliable button) happens a lot, both when any player passes Chef Skinner board squares, or when a player's attempt to collect an ingredient instead turns up Chef Skinner. Also, Remy pawns collect and actually carry (between the little pawn paws, on top of the pawn head) ingredient disks which eventually are placed in the spoon launcher part of the contraption (and one hopes launched into the soup pot when the contraption is triggered). (This increased interaction is one of my favorite improvements in Ratatouille over Mousetrap; as a kid, it was unsatisfactory to me that the Mousetrap mice pawns didn't have more of a role to play in contraption operation.)
Collection of cheese (M) vs. ingredients (R) aspect:
M: Not interesting.
R: Kind of fun: there's a "memory game" aspect to the collection of the ingredients.
End-game:
M: Once players get to the final loop, they're stuck there going around and around -- boring.
R: There's a "launching ring" to get a chance to launch your current ingredient, but then you set off around the whole board path again -- wheee! First player to collect two ingredients and get them both launched into the soup pot wins.
What's fun:
M: Building the contraption (if such building is to your taste); operating the contraption (if it's not too frustrating).
R: Setting up the contraption (though this is somewhat simplified from Mousetrap); operating the contraption; playing the game.
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