Ants in the Pants
The folks at the Schaper company were definitely the kings of the
insect games. They first hit it big in 1949 with the delightful
construct-a-bug game, Cootie.
In the 1960’s, they followed up that deathless hit with Ants In The
Pants, another game that included plenty of creepy-crawlies. Like
Cootie, it became a hit with kids and is still an important part of the
toy world today.
Schaper Games first unleashed Ants In The Pants on unsuspecting
kiddies in 1967. Essentially, it was an insect-themed variation on Tiddlywinks,
played by two to four people. The game consisted of a large
freestanding plastic pair of pants (complete with suspenders) and 16
two-inch ‘ants’. The ants—which came in red, yellow, blue, and
green—were made of springy, bendable plastic, allowing kids to make
them jump by gently pushing on the ants' backsides with a finger. The
object was to get all of one’s ants into the pants before the rest of
the players. In the process, everyone had lots of ant-flipping fun.
The gimmicky fun of Ants In The Pants caught in a big way, and it
remains an important item on the game shelves at toy stores today.
Board-game titan Milton Bradley currently manufactures this classic. If
you dig fun games and don’t get spooked by fast-hopping insects, then
Ants In The Pants is the game for you.
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