Crocodile Dentist

Crocodile Dentist is a game made for young children, first published by Milton Bradley in 1990.^[1] A smaller travel version of the game was released in 1993.^[2] The game was the brainchild of Robert B. Fuhrer, who later created Gator Golf, and many other toys and games.^[3]

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to "extract" the plastic teeth from a crocodile toy's mouth by pulling them out with plastic tweezers. If the "sore tooth" is pulled, the mouth will snap shut, and the person who caused the mouth to shut is the loser. The travel version of Crocodile Dentist featured slightly different gameplay, where instead of pulling the teeth out of the crocodile's mouth the players had to push the crocodile's teeth down into its mouth.

Development

Crocodile Dentist went through several changes during its development phase. Fuhrer and his technicians were told to tweak the length and speed of the crocodile's lunging motion so that the toy would not cause eye injuries. Fuhrer also added a pair of plastic tweezers to quell fears that children would hurt their fingers. However, the game testers later thought that the toy lacked excitement, and though the tweezers remained in the final product, Fuhrer restored the original lunging motion.^[3]

Reception

Crocodile Dentist was one of the best-selling games of the 1991 Christmas season^[4][5] and remained a high-seller afterwards.^[6][7]

Several commentators listed the product as one of the strangest new toys available.^[8][9] "What kind of mind came up with this game?" asked the York Daily Record's Mike Argento, who included it in his 1992 Bizarre Toy Awards.^[10] Twelve years later, however, Argento admitted that the game had "passed into classic status".^[11]

The success of Crocodile Dentist led Robert Fuhrer to design several other crocodile-themed games. One of those, Crocodile Golf, became the popular Gator Golf.^[3]

In Popular Culture

An episode of the The Price Is Right from 1993 featured the travel version of the game as one of the small items used in the pricing game Pathfinder. Model Janice Pennington demonstrated to host Bob Barker how the game works. After pressing a few teeth, Barker chose the bad tooth causing the crocodile to snap on Bob's hand causing Barker to incite a loud "Aaah!"^[12]

The main characters are seen playing the game in the Men Behaving Badly episode Ten, with Dorothy's ten-year-old nephew.

References

1. ^ Nancy Piccin. "Zoo time at Toy Fair - Turtles have lots of company". The Republican. February 17, 1991. H1.
2. ^ "Tools for back seat playing". Philadelphia Daily News. July 16, 1993. 60.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Drew Fetherston. "Playing With Toys Is Serious Work: Robert B. Fuhrer's life revolves around games". Newsday. December 5, 1994. C03.
4. ^ Pete Bishop. "Hottest games going from burst to splat!". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 1, 1991. H4.
5. ^ Bruce D. Ebert. "What's hot in toyland?" Daily Press. December 3, 1991. C1.
6. ^ Beth Snyder. "Familiar favorites are still popular". York Daily Record. October 19, 1992. D6.
7. ^ Emily Heller. "What's hot for the holidays?" The Bradenton Herald. November 15, 1992. E1.
8. ^ "Toy makers take a walk on the weird side". The Orange County Register. November 14, 1993. E04.
9. ^ Randy Peterson. "Want to see something really odd? Check..." The Salt Lake Tribune. December 1, 1993. C7.
10. ^ Mike Argento. "First annual bizarre toy awards". York Daily Record. December 5, 1992. 6.
11. ^ Mike Argento. "Toys of our times". York Daily Record. November 25, 2004. Living, 1.
12. ^ "Bob Barker Vs Crocodile Dentist- 1993". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAGfIa3tY8M. 

External links

• Hasbro's product page
• Crocodile Dentist at BoardGameGeek