By 

Susie Morris “Book Junkie” (Southern California) –

  

Durability: Fun: Educational: 

Hands Down is another game that has lasted generations. Originally created in the 1960′s, it was so much fun that it has remained on toy store shelves and in family rooms since. It seemed when I was growing up that my parents always included at least one game when we were children. Hands Down was the game left by Santa Claus one year.

As my younger brother and I looked at the box, we wondered if it was a dud or if it would be a really cool game to play. We found it to be a blast, especially if we could talk someone else into playing with us.

Hands Down is a cross between a card game and a board game. There is a slapping machine (which has a lever facing each of the four players) and is make of sturdy plastic. When the lever is pushed down, a plastic hand that is the same color as the lever goes down on the card, which is placed in the middle of the machine. Luckily for most parents this machine is already put together so there is no assembly nightmare! A deck of cards is the other component of this game.

The play begins by each player choosing a colored hand (blue, green, yellow or red). Then the cards are dealt – each player receives four cards and the remaining cards are placed face down in a “draw” pile. Each player takes turns drawing a card from the pile – if you get a match, you slap your colored hand down. The last person to slap gets one of his cards taken by the first person that slapped. The slapping machine decides the order because the lever and colored hand are color coordinated and the “hands” lay on top of each other in the order they were depressed. So the colored hand on top is the one who gets a card taken away.

Here’s the tricky part – if you draw a card and it doesn’t match, you can fake out your opponents and pretend to slap the machine. If one of the other players slaps the machine, then you have succeeded in faking them out and get to draw a card from them. Boy was my brother good at faking everyone out – he was the master faker! The card taken from the one who was faked out is placed on the bottom of the draw pile.

The winner is the one with the most matches at the end of the game. The end of the game is when there are no more cards in the draw pile.

But let us not forget those special cards that have been added to keep the game interesting. The happy joker card is a wild card and can be matched with any other card to form a pair. The sad joker card will cost you points at the end of the game, so if you have it, hope someone draws it out of your hand!

The simple game concept is fun but can get quite loud. When you’re slapping the machine, laughing, yelling and carrying on, the neighbors can hear you at times. If you don’t mind the high noise level and want to play a game that children as young as six-years-old can play (but older “kids” like it too!), then this is the game for you! If you have quick reflexes you might even be the Hands Down champion!

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http://www.handmadegiftcards.com/hands-down.html/comment-page-1#comment-4321 Susie Morris "Book Junkie" Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:14:56 +0000 http://www.handmadegiftcards.com/hands-down.html#comment-4321 <div style="margin-left:0.5em;"> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> 36 of 39 people found the following review helpful: </div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <span style="margin-left: -5px;"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-4-0._V192240704_.gif" width="64" alt="4.0 out of 5 stars" title="4.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/></span> <b>fun when I was young--fun now with my children</b>, <nobr>October 18, 1999</nobr></div> <div style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> By <b>A Customer</b><br/></div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span style="vertical-align:top;">Durability:</span><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-4-0._V192240704_.gif" width="64" alt="4.0 out of 5 stars" title="4.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/> <span style="vertical-align:top;">Fun:</span><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-4-0._V192240704_.gif" width="64" alt="4.0 out of 5 stars" title="4.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/> <span style="vertical-align:top;">Educational:</span><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/customer-reviews/stars-3-0._V192240710_.gif" width="64" alt="3.0 out of 5 stars" title="3.0 out of 5 stars" height="12" border="0"/> </b> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom:0.5em;"> <b><span class="h3color tiny">This review is from: </span>Hands Down (Toy)</b> </div> Our family played this game a lot during the 60's. We had a blast with it. I didn't think much about it until this year when my son turned 6. It's a blast for family fun! <div style="padding-top: 10px; clear: both; width: 100%;"> <div style="float:left; padding-right:15px; border-right:1px solid #CCCCCC"><div style="padding-bottom:5px;"><b class="tiny" style="color:#666666;white-space:nowrap;">Help other customers find the most helpful reviews</b> </div><div style="width:300px;"> <a name="R7RFUA513WQ12.2115.Helpful.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span><span class="votingPrompt">Was this review helpful to you? </span><a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R7RFUA513WQ12/Helpful/1/ref=cm_cr_ifvoteyn/177-8243021-4958157?ie=UTF8&token=17FD33D14C247B995630A7B21E04886F5450B082&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL3Byb2R1Y3QtcmV2aWV3cy9CMDAwMDBJV0U1L3JlZj1jbV9jcl9pZnZvdGVyZHIvMTc3LTgyNDMwMjEtNDk1ODE1Nz9fZW5jb2Rpbmc9VVRGOCZzdW1tYXJ5PTAmYWxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZ0YWc9c3RldGhldHV0LTIwJnY9MiZsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImYXNpbj1CMDAwMDBJV0U1JnRydW5jYXRlPTUwMDAmYWtpZD1BS0lBSU1XNVVHRVdLUDdDTkc3USZzaWc9JTJCSTRCakVER0s5eHRIVXN4ZzBNJTJCbmEwQzhrVGVkdFlZT2FEaGtTU2o5UkklM0QmZXhwPTIwMTEtMDgtMTlUMDElM0E1MyUzQTE4WiZhdGFnPXN0ZXRoZXR1dC0yMA&voteAnchorName=R7RFUA513WQ12.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=177-8243021-4958157"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-yes-sec-md._V192249951_.gif" width="35" alt="Yes" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <a rel="nofollow" class="votingButtonReviews" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R7RFUA513WQ12/Helpful/-1/ref=cm_cr_ifvoteyn/177-8243021-4958157?ie=UTF8&token=44577EC45A3B1190F47C5FCEC73F378C125E25C9&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL3Byb2R1Y3QtcmV2aWV3cy9CMDAwMDBJV0U1L3JlZj1jbV9jcl9pZnZvdGVyZHIvMTc3LTgyNDMwMjEtNDk1ODE1Nz9fZW5jb2Rpbmc9VVRGOCZzdW1tYXJ5PTAmYWxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZ0YWc9c3RldGhldHV0LTIwJnY9MiZsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImYXNpbj1CMDAwMDBJV0U1JnRydW5jYXRlPTUwMDAmYWtpZD1BS0lBSU1XNVVHRVdLUDdDTkc3USZzaWc9JTJCSTRCakVER0s5eHRIVXN4ZzBNJTJCbmEwQzhrVGVkdFlZT2FEaGtTU2o5UkklM0QmZXhwPTIwMTEtMDgtMTlUMDElM0E1MyUzQTE4WiZhdGFnPXN0ZXRoZXR1dC0yMA&voteAnchorName=R7RFUA513WQ12.2115.Helpful.Reviews&voteSessionID=177-8243021-4958157"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/reviews/btn-no-sec-md._V192249949_.gif" width="35" alt="No" style="vertical-align:middle;" height="18" border="0"/></a> <span class="votingMessage"/></span> </div></div><div style="float:left;"><div style="padding-left:15px;"><div style="white-space:nowrap;"><span class="tiny"> <a name="R7RFUA513WQ12.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews" style="font-size:1px;"> </a><span class="reportingButton"><nobr><a rel="nofollow" class="reportingButton" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/voting/cast/Reviews/2115/R7RFUA513WQ12/Inappropriate/1/ref=cm_cr_ifvoteyn/177-8243021-4958157?ie=UTF8&token=A6420025A1F23C7EC0F5895CA9E4EEC86180854B&target=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL3Byb2R1Y3QtcmV2aWV3cy9CMDAwMDBJV0U1L3JlZj1jbV9jcl9pZnZvdGVyZHIvMTc3LTgyNDMwMjEtNDk1ODE1Nz9fZW5jb2Rpbmc9VVRGOCZzdW1tYXJ5PTAmYWxpbmtDb2RlPXhtMiZ0YWc9c3RldGhldHV0LTIwJnY9MiZsaW5rQ29kZT14bTImYXNpbj1CMDAwMDBJV0U1JnRydW5jYXRlPTUwMDAmYWtpZD1BS0lBSU1XNVVHRVdLUDdDTkc3USZzaWc9JTJCSTRCakVER0s5eHRIVXN4ZzBNJTJCbmEwQzhrVGVkdFlZT2FEaGtTU2o5UkklM0QmZXhwPTIwMTEtMDgtMTlUMDElM0E1MyUzQTE4WiZhdGFnPXN0ZXRoZXR1dC0yMA&voteAnchorName=R7RFUA513WQ12.2115.Inappropriate.Reviews&voteSessionID=177-8243021-4958157"></a></nobr></span> </span> <span style="color:#CCCCCC;">|</span> <span class="tiny"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R7RFUA513WQ12/ref=cm_cr_if_perm/?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00000IWE5&nodeID=&tag=stethetut-20&linkCode=xm2" target="_top"></a></span></div><div style="white-space:nowrap;padding-left:-5px;padding-top:5px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R7RFUA513WQ12/ref=cm_cr_if_cmt/177-8243021-4958157?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00000IWE5&nodeID=&tag=stethetut-20&linkCode=xm2#wasThisHelpful" target="_top"><img src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/comment-sm._V192250344_.gif" width="16" alt="Comment" hspace="3" align="absmiddle" height="16" border="0"/></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R7RFUA513WQ12/ref=cm_cr_if_cmt/177-8243021-4958157?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00000IWE5&nodeID=&tag=stethetut-20&linkCode=xm2#wasThisHelpful" target="_top">Comment</a></div></div></div><div style="clear:both;"/> </div> <br/></div>

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

fun when I was young–fun now with my children, October 18, 1999

By A Customer

Durability: Fun: Educational: 

This review is from: Hands Down (Toy)

Our family played this game a lot during the 60′s. We had a blast with it. I didn’t think much about it until this year when my son turned 6. It’s a blast for family fun!

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