Not just a flying saucer
Toy Box has churned out a slew of titles that have Frisbees doubling up as game boards. The flying discs are aimed to lure impatient 4–11 year-olds into more cerebral pursuits like maths, word building, strategy and the like.
A monster like my nephew Aran would have thrown the Frisbee around indoors, threatening to break everything in sight, and resolutely ignoring all attempts to turn his mind to maths on a Frisbee.
Retailing at just `100, Sum+It+Up Fifteen makes for a thrifty gift, something that even manufacturers are chasing, with the “gifting segment” clearly flagged in their back-of-the-box credo.
The virulent pista (ice-cream) green Frisbee has surprisingly good in-flight stability. Players number the circular counters on the printed lines on the disc, alternately, from one to nine. Each row of three must add up to 15. When I read the instructions I anticipated some Sudoku like machinations. As it turned out, game play was painfully simple.
The game is unlikely to challenge the addition capabilities of the average Indian student beyond 4–5 years. But the interesting twist is that it’s not one player versus the other. Sum+it+up Fifteen is a collaborative effort. Victory is the sum of all players’ efforts.
From a marketing and behavioural science perspective, it will be fascinating to learn whether the target audience starts with the physical activity (Frisbee), and graduates to the thinking games (played on the Frisbee), or vice versa. Or, are there gender stereotypes at play?
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