Tipsy Topsy Turvy Thomas & Friends

Tipsy Topsy Turvy Thomas & Friends

Tipsy Topsy Turvy Thomas & Friends is a balance game with a Thomas theme and a unique turntable game board. The goal is to collect the most freight cards by carefully stacking plastic freight pieces into the train car without toppling the works. 

Thomas the train will sit on the railway turntable game board, and there are eight train tracks that lead out of the turntable. There are 10 lightweight pieces of cargo that will be stacked in the train car. There are a page with stickers that you will put on the train, but they didn't stay on very well.

The cards are nice and heavy stock and shouldn't bend or tear with normal use. There are 8 location cards, six cargo cards and six color cards.The cargo is printed in brown for all cards, so you will have to find the piece by shape, not color. Location cards include Brendam Docks, circus, windmill, Sodor Airport, Sodor Steamworks.

 

Set up:

Place the stickers onto the train. Next, place the game board on a flat surface between players. Place the game board under Thomas so that he will stay upright and place him on the board. There is a small rounded protrusion on the bottom of the train and a small hole in the middle of the game board. Placing the protrusion in the hole helps Thomas smoothly turn while still staying in the middle of the board. Place the plastic freight cargo pieces near the board.  Mix all the cards together and place them face-down near the board. 

Color card, location card, cargo card.

Play:

Choose a card. If it is a location card, place it at the end of the board, matching the train track to the same color train track on the board. Now carefully turn Thomas so that he is lined up with that track. Keep playing until you draw a freight or color card. If you draw a color card, balance that color cargo piece on the train. If it is a shape card, balance that shape piece on the train. If you can balance that particular piece of freight onto the train, you can keep the card. Otherwise place that card on the bottom of the stack and put any pieces of cargo that fall off with the other pieces waiting to be loaded. When the cards from the draw pile are all gone (either on the train track or claimed by players), the person with the most freight and color cards wins the game.

Try this:

• Practice stacking the pieces in the train and taking them off without toppling others before actually playing a game. The space is small and the pieces are smooth.
• Place the cargo and color cards in a line on the table and ask the individual to match a piece of cargo to each card.
  Work on visual discrimination, visual form constancy, spatial relations/position in space, manual dexterity, graded grasp and release, focus and attention, motor planning, eye-hand coordination, proximal stability, process skills, social interaction skills, executive functions, play and leisure exploration and participation
  
  
  In the box: 1 game board, 1 Thomas train, 10 cargo pieces, 20 cards (8 location cards, 6 color cards, 6 cargo cards), sticker sheet
  
  

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.