The Grape Escape

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The Grape Escape
Publisher	Parker Brothers
Players	2–4
Age range	5+
Setup time	3-7 minutes
Playing time	20 minutes
Random chance	High (die rolling)

BoardGameGeek entry

The Grape Escape was a board game released in 1992 by Parker Brothers (now Hasbro) and licensed by Rehtmeyer Inc.^[1]. The game was intended to entertain younger audiences of 5+ years old^[2]. The game was short lived having only been available for one year. The game consisted of playing pieces constructed of various colored Grape Goop (Play-Doh^[3]) that were fashioned after grape-like action figures. Game play consisted of maneuvering clay playing pieces through several plastic obstacles on a board that were aimed to physically disfigure or decapitate the playing piece; destroying the Grape Goop figure often resulted in losing the game. Thankfully, the figures could be recreated using one of the included grape mold templates. Some obstacles included: crank/rubber band operated scissors, steam roller, and grape stomping boot activated by lever and rubber band. Some speculate that the game was discontinued early not only from moderate sales but also because it promoted violent behavior in children.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Advertising

The Grape Escape was advertised primarily through television commercials aired during children's television programs. The commercials consisted of elaborately animated figures being violently crushed and decapitated while little children played the game. Aside from the animations and regular game play, the television advertisements played a Grape Escape theme song written to sound like the famous Italian song Funiculì, Funiculà except with modified lyrics ^[4].

[edit] Game Factoids

The game required moderate adult assembly; most of the game contraptions arrived on plastic part trees that required the assembler to extrapolate the parts from the plastic frame^[3].

Many times the clay figures were too large to become properly decapitated and deformed by the torture devices, this occasionally caused children to force parts resulting in broken game components or personal injury.