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Toss Across
Synopsis of Toy
The thing about tic-tac-toe is this: Eventually, you match two kids up who know what they’re doing, and every game is going to be a cat’s game (that’s a tie, for the non-playground-hip). If you don’t believe it, check out that Cold War computer flick Wargames. So what’s a kid to do? How do you break that deadlock between two titans of tic-tac-toe? Well, Ideal is glad you asked. You see, they had the answer: a little game called Toss Across.
The bug in the tic-tac-toe ointment was always its predictability. If X had the top two corners, you just knew O was going straight into the top middle for the block. But what if O had to earn his way into that spot? Ah, there’s the rub. Getting spots in Toss Across wasn’t as easy as drawing a circle or two crossed lines onto a grid. No, sir or ma’am, the Toss-Across board had to be claimed with the throw of a beanbag.
The raised Toss Across gameboard had a grid of nine free-spinning squares, each with both an X and an O (and a neutral third side). To spin the squares, players tossed beanbags onto the place of choice, then watched as the three-sided surface spun and stopped on its fated letter (or lack thereof). Games were still played until someone got three in a row, but the element of chance kept Toss Across tense and unpredictable until the very end. No square was safe, and cries of “No fair!” wouldn’t bring that X back to the surface, no matter how much you pouted, so just stop it babypants.
This inventive twist on the old tic-tac-toe formula has kept Toss Across a favorite of the grade school set for more than 30 years. And no matter how skilled or smart X and O may be, rest assured there will be no cat’s games of Toss Across.