If you've never played Pass the Pigs, can I suggest you do. It may not deserve the 'Best Toy Ever?' tag, but I'm giving it anyway - as it's a while since we had one here - but it's definitely the most fun you can have
with two pigs in a family setting without getting yourself arrested and carted
off! As this weekend is all about visiting families and stuff, now is the time
to rush out and find a set.
The case has been given a make-over, using
design styling from 1990's remote-controls and the 2000's Nokia mobiles; it now
looks like something Captain Kirk might ask 'Bones' for . . .
"Pass
me the porker-patcher . . . I've . . . got . . . to . . . to . . . learn . . . to . . . communicate . . .
with them"
"Jim;
you're not well, you need to rest now"
^^ Captain;
your insistent belief that these small, naked, pink creatures hold the secret
to life, the universe and everything is illogical, besides; I happen to know it's
42 ^^
Basically it's a dice game with pigs! Two
of them, cleverly designed to fall several ways, some more commonly than
others, leading to variable point scoring, with a race to 100 for as many
people as you happen to have in the room and at a loose-end.
Pigs landing on either side are a 'Pig Out'
and you lose all your points that move. All other likely landing positions are
scored as follows, with single scores applied as part of a 'Mixed Combo', or some
harder to attain poses earning quadruple points for doubles.
Moves are as long as you want them to be,
you can score once and Pass the Pigs,
or be a 'Pig-head' and throw again, you can keep doing so until you get a 'Pig
Out' or something worse!
Pigs leaning the same side (either a marked
or un-marked side-pair) is the commonest result and earns you a measly 1-point,
it's called a 'Sider' and there's no 2-for-a-double!
The 'Double-Razorback' gets you 20 points,
or 5 as part of a 'Mixed Combo', the similar but not-illustrated standing 'Trotter'
is also 5-or-20.
A 'Leaning Jowler' (on the left in both
shots, the pig is arse-up and resting on its nose and an ear) brings in a right royal
15-points, with the extremely unlikely double scoring a 60. On the right is a
plain 'Snouter' with the pig resting on its nose only, for a 10-shot, the
double; 40 points.
If the dice pigs end-up touching
(and remember they don't roll straight, they're pigs!), that is the ultimate
crime, known as 'Makin' Bacon' (the "...something
worse." and you lose all the points you've accrued in the game so far
- boo-hoo, it's like the Snakes and
Ladders serpent at 98 which takes you back to 4!
Recognised as a theoretical result, but
considered impossible, this is the 'Piggy Back' and would A) require some fancy
dice pig-flicking, B) be a pointless thing to practice throwing, as it
gets you a swift exit from the game for failing to wrangle you pigs in an
appropriate fashion.
A throw resulting in a combination of two
different point-scoring landing positions is called a 'Mixed Combo' and scores
at the lower (non-double) scoring of the poses.
A quick shot scale-sizing them with various
farm figures from Britain, France and Hong Kong, with a larger Chinese figure
in the centre, these two little chaps often turn-up loose in mixed lots or
'bundles' of farm or farm & zoo animals on feebleBay having escaped Pass the Pigs.
The point counter (and umpire) is known as
the swineherd and there is a gambling variation. This (illustrated) version is issued by Winning Moves, although others have carried it in the past; originally David Moffat, commonly; MB Games (my storage edition).
One of the pigs is called Hugh
. . . Hugh Pigfellow . . . Soooowwweeeee!
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