Tiki Toss by Mellow Militia is a bit of a departure from backpacking for me. We ran across Mellow Militia at the Outdoor Retailer show and were intrigued by the Tiki Toss game right away. All of the wood parts of the game are made from bamboo, which is great for the environment. The bamboo looks great and is pretty tough to boot.
Setup of the Tiki Toss is pretty easy. You will need a vertical wall and a spot overhead that will allow an eye hook to be screwed in. A large metal hook needs to be screwed into a pre-drilled hole in the Tiki Toss board and the whole thing is attached to a vertical surface with two screws or double sided tape. A metal ring attached to a length of string is the last piece to install. Tie the free end of the string to the eye hook so that the metal ring can fall onto the large game hook and you are done. Installation took about five minutes for me. Installation instructions are included on the packaging and they even drew a picture for those of us who don‘t like to read. Hey this is a fun game not a final exam, right?
Tiki Toss is simple and challenging at the same time. I‘d say that Tiki Toss is akin to playing a game of horseshoes. Good eye-hand coordination, practice, and a bit of luck are all you need to play. After a dozen or so shots, the ring landed on the hook for me. I found myself stepping outside for a few minutes at a time just to play around with the game.
Instructions for a game of Tiki Toss are on the packaging but I can see endless possibilities for creating your own games. You could give points for hitting the hook, with more points for landing on the hook. A game of horse or pig could be set up. Of course you could just chat it up with friends and challenge each other while drinking your favorite beverages.
Now, I‘m an engineer at my day job, and my inner nerd pops out once in a while. That being said, I plan to use the game to teach my kids about physics. We will talk about momentum, pendulums, and centripetal force. By playing the game, all of these laws of physics can be demonstrated and experienced by kids. Maybe some grown-ups can learn a thing or two.
There are a few Tiki Toss games to choose from each having its own game board. MSRP on the games pictured is $29.95. Click here to check it out.
– Mark