Pop-o-Whatzit, now?In the 1960's, Kohner Brothers came up with a new game--Trouble!!
Trouble in and of itself wasn't particularly innovative. It wasn't really different from Parcheesi or Sorry in any substantial way...except for this:Ah, yes, the Pop-O-Matic bubble. Apparently, in 1965, Americans were becoming too lazy to roll their own dice...
Oh, yes, I can acknowledge the two main advantages of Pop-O-Matic: A) You couldn't lose the die; and B) Your older brother couldn't cheat with his funky rolling of the die.
Still, as underwhelming as it seems today, Trouble was pretty damn popular. So popular, in fact, Kohner spun off the Pop-O-Matic concept into every other game they could. First came Headache:
But soon it began to smack of desperation (or perhaps a need to use up the truckloads of Pop-O-Matic bubbles they had purchased), as Kohner began to throw those Pop-O-Matics onto games that had never before needed dice...like checkers?
Really?? You need a die for checkers??Or bingo???
And don't even ask me what this is:
But even though the the Pop-O-Matic bubble eventually burst, Trouble is still going strong today. Eventually bought by Milton Bradley, and then Hasbro, you can still get Trouble and it's exciting "Hey, look, I'm actually rolling the dice" action. And not just in its normal version, but in "celebrity" editions as well, such as Toy Story and Star Wars.BONUS: "Available in these fine stores"?? How many of these even exist today??
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