We received a cute little toy from Learnplay Inc. They are called Halftoys and we received the T-Rex from the Dinosaur series. Opinions are our own.
When I was approached about this review I was excited because the concept was so cool. A little plastic dinosaur that you could pull apart and see all the bones. then you could take those bones apart and reassemble them like a puzzle. The toy also includes a papercraft diorama that you assemble in order to use as a display or a play area for your dino. The two halves of the dino’s outer shell are magnetic and you can take the skeleton out of the toy and reassemble the two empty halves. I made a video all about the assembly and more about what I thought of these fun toys. Take a look below.
With the holidays approaching it is fun to play family games around the table. However, you have to clear all the places and then clean it up before each game. What if you could play a game with your family right after the meal before anything is put away. Well, with these free skills from Alexa you can do just that.
A while back I wrote about a game that was connected to and played by using Alexa. This was Voice Originals: When in Rome and it was a lot of fun. Sensible Object is the gaming company behind When in Rome and also one of our favorites Beasts of Balance! They now have two Alexa games including the aforementioned When in Rome and a new one called Word Mine.
Alexa has more games for you to play and these ones are free skills that you can access. These games are Word Mine, Tic Tac Toe, Bingo and Akinator. They are all free and require nothing other than Alexa, plain paper or free printables (in the case of Bingo). The nice thing, too is that you don’t even need an Echo to access these. There is an Alexa app that you can access and use to play these games. I installed it into my phone when we played When in Rome. We are a Google based house.
Here are more details on each of the games with Alexa.
Word Mine:
Free to download, Word Mine is an Alexa Skill game, meaning all you need is an Alexa to play. In the game you play a word miner, looking for discarded letters buried in the ground. It’s your job to mine and piece together forgotten words using anagrams. Alexa accompanies you in the mines, looking out for your safety and helps you read each letter. Every level of the mine uncovers new letters, you have to use your lexical prowess to get to the bottom of the mine and collect coins for the words you create. The deeper you mine the harder the anagrams get, leaving you thinking deeper and faster.
Word Mine is created by Sensible Object, following their hit When In Rome- the first Alexa connected travel trivia board game. Sensible Object is known for their diversifying gaming experiences using Alexa’s voice technology.
Tic Tac Toe:
A great family friendly classic with a cool twist. Play Tic Tac Toe with Alexa on a piece of paper or by using your memory. The way Alexa plays is by speaking out her move. For example she would say “bottom right corner” for a turn while you jot down or remember her move. Sounds easier than it is, since Alexa can be very sneaky with her moves. Tic Tac Toe is a free Alexa Skill that the whole family can enjoy and play.
Bingo:
With the Alexa version of Bingo, you have the freedom to play Bingo whenever you want. With this Skill, Alexa uses her voice technology to call out a number. Each round a number is called and is repeated into the Alexa App as well. This Skill supports numbers up to 75. You can respond to Alexa by saying “Next” for the next number or “Bingo!” once you have a winner. This classic game is available for free on all Alexa devices. You will need Bingo cards to play, fortunately a free PDF version of Bingo cards are available for the game.
Akinator:
This is a new form of 20 questions that you play with Alexa. In the game Alexa plays Akinator, a mind reading character that can tell exactly what you are thinking of just by asking a few questions. In the game you think of a character, prominent person, celebrity, or even fictional character, and then answer a series of only yes or no questions, in which Alexa tries to guess who you are thinking of. Akinator will leave you impressed since Alexa almost always guesses the person/celebrity/character you are thinking of. This game is a free Alexa Skill that requires no other game pieces.
