Milk caps is a
children's game
This is a list of games that used to be played by children, some of which are still being played today. Traditional children's games do not include commercial products such as board games but do include games which require props such as hopscotch ...
played with flat circular cardboard milk caps. Players make a stack of these caps, and take turns to drop a heavier "slammer" object onto it, causing the caps to be disrupted.
Each player keeps any face-up caps and is to restack the face-down caps, repeating the process until none land face-down, at which point the player who collected the most caps wins the game of milk caps.
The game is also known as Pogs, under which name it was sold commercially in the 1990s. The name originates from
Pog, a brand of juice made from
passionfruit,
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
, and
guava
Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava ''Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family ( Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, the ...
; the use of the juice's caps to play the game preceded the game's commercialization.
[Lewis, Tommi: "Pogs: The Milkcap Guide", page 23. Andrews and McMeel, 1994]
History
![Men'uchi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Men%27uchi.jpg)
The game of milk caps possibly originated in Maui,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, during the 1920s or 1930s,
or possibly with origins in
Menko, a Japanese card game very similar to milk caps, which has been in existence since the 17th century, during the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
.
The game of milk caps was played on the Hawaiian island of
Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
as early as 1927.
There are cap collectors that have caps dating back to the 1940s and 1950s.
After new packaging made cardboard milk caps obsolete in the 1950s, manufacturers such as Haleakala Dairy and Orchards Hawaii occasionally distributed the caps as promotional items.
When Haleakala used the caps to successfully promote the 1971 introduction of their fruit drink Pog, it led to a surge in similar promotions and milk cap collecting. In 1991, Haleakala expanded to the more populated Oahu island, which led to a revival of the game. With this revival, the Pog name began being used generically for the game.[
The 1990s revival is credited to Blossom Galbiso, a teacher and guidance counselor who taught at Waialua Elementary School in ]Oahu
Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...
. In 1991, Galbiso introduced the game she had played as a girl to a new generation of students, incorporating milk caps into her fifth grade curriculum as a way of teaching math and as a non-violent alternative to other popular schoolyard games, such as dodgeball
Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...
. The game spread from Oahu's North Shore, and by early 1992, Stanpac Inc., a Canadian packaging company that had been manufacturing the milk caps distributed by Haleakala Dairy on Maui (the same caps that were collected by Galbiso for her class), was printing millions of milk caps every week for shipment to the Hawaiian island chain. The game spread to the mainland, first surfacing in California, Texas, Oregon, and Washington before spreading to the rest of the country. By 1993, the previously obscure game of milk caps, which had almost been forgotten, was played throughout the world.
Milk caps returned to popularity when the World Pog Federation and the Canada Games Company
Canada Games was a Canadian games manufacturing company, originally based in Brampton, Ontario, before moving to nearby Concord. Its slogan was "The Best in Fun from Canada Games."
It's notable that despite being a far smaller company than its A ...
reintroduced them under the Pog brand name in the 1990s. The Pog fad
A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period.
Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...
soared, and peaked in the mid-1990s. Pogs were being handed out for opening bank accounts and in McDonald's Happy Meals.[ With the end of the Pogs fad, Canada Games went out of business in 1997.
Seven other companies entered the milk cap field after a comic book and card industry convention in January 1993. ]SkyBox International
SkyBox International Inc., formerly Impel Marketing, was an American trading card manufacturing company based in Durham, North Carolina started in 1990 and operated until 1995.
History Impel Marketing
In 1990, The Liggett Group Inc., a U.S. tobacc ...
and Marvel added the product to their lines under the names SkyCaps and Hero Caps respectively.[ The game had spread to California, Florida and Texas.]
The term Pog was claimed as trademark by the World Pog Federation while other companies claimed it was a generic term as it was selected by the children that played the game. In October 1994, a lawsuit was settled between World Pog and Universal Pogs Association. Pog was recognized as World Pog's exclusive term and Universal Pogs changed its name to Universal Slammers, Inc.[
Because many children would keep the milk caps they won in games from other players, many school districts considered milk caps a form of gambling.] Milk caps proved to be major distractions from classes and the source of various playground arguments. These elements eventually led to the banning of milk caps from various schools across North America. Other bannings occurred across Australia and Sweden.
Equipment
Milk caps generally involves two types of playing discs: milk caps and slammers. Milk caps are typically flat circular cardboard discs which are decorated with images on one or both sides. Traditional (or traditional-style) milk caps are made of rougher cardboard, are printed with limited colors, and often have a staple in them (as they appeared when used as actual POG bottlecaps), while modern commercial pogs were stiffer, thicker and are often printed with colorful glossy imagery.
The other equipment that is used is a slammer: a heavier game piece often made of metal, rubber, or more commonly plastic, which come in various thicknesses and weights. They are typically similar in diameter to milk caps. Metal slammers are not allowed in some games because they are usually heavier than other materials, giving the player with the first turn an unfair advantage, and have a tendency to damage the milk caps.
Gameplay
Rules vary among players, but the game variants generally have common gameplay features. Each player has their own collection of milk caps and one or more slammers. Before the game, players decide whether or not to play "for keeps", i.e. players get to keep the milk caps that they win during the game and must forfeit those that have been won by other players. The game can then begin as follows:
# The players each contribute an equal number of milk caps to build a stack with the pieces face-down, which will be used during the game.
# The players take turns throwing their slammer down onto the top of the stack, causing it to spring up and the milk caps to scatter. Each player keeps any milk caps that land face-up after they have thrown.
# After each throw, the milk caps which have landed face-down are then re-stacked for the next player.
# When no milk caps remain in the stack, the player with the most pogs is the winner.
#Rules can be changed depending on who is playing, and where they are from.
World POG Federation
The World POG Federation was the licensed POG publisher, which was 14% owned by Haleakala Dairy, the trademark holder of POGs. The company was based in Costa Mesa, California.[
]
Global variants
Japan
Menko (めんこ, 面子) is a Japanese card game played by two or more players, dating back to the 17th century. Each player uses Menko cards made from thick paper or cardboard, printed on one or both sides with images from anime, manga, and other works.
South Korea
Ddakji or Ttakji is a South Korean game played by two or more players.
China
It is known in China as ''wáah pín'' (Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: ''huà piàn'', ) (also called ''yang pian'' in northern China) and is printed on rectangular or circular cards.
Philippines
A similar game in the Philippines played by children is known as ''teks''. It involves small collectible cards, originally of popular actors, and then later on of popular comics and cartoon characters. It dates back to the 1930s and involves flipping cards with a thumb and forefinger. The winner is whichever card lands face up. The loser has to give one of his collectible cards to the winner.
Catalonia
"Patacó" is a traditional card game played by children in Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
in which the "patacons" are turned upside down, hit with the palm of the hand and, if they turn around, they win.
They are made with wasted Spanish playing cards
Spanish-suited playing cards or Spanish-suited cards have four suits, and a deck is usually made up of 40 or 48 cards (or even 50 by including two jokers). It is categorized as a Latin-suited deck and has strong similarities with the Italian- ...
.
Pataco1.jpg, 1. Spanish card back view
Pataco2.jpg, 2. Spanish card front view
Pataco3.jpg, 3. Fold up the middle
Pataco4.jpg, 4. Cut down the middle obtaining two equal parts
Pataco5.jpg, 5. The two parts are placed at an angle of 90°
Pataco6.jpg, 6. The vertical part is folded back and then forward again
Pataco7.jpg, 7. The horizontal part is folded back and then forward again inserting the tab into the slot to hold it
In popular culture
The PogChamp emote originates from a video titled "Pogs Championship" in which Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez wins a game of Pogs.
The Korean survival drama Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
series, ''Squid Game
''Squid Game'' () is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryou ...
'', features a Korean variant of the game called ddakji. It is played during the initial challenge between Gong Yoo
Gong Ji-cheol (; born July 10, 1979), better known by his stage name Gong Yoo (), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television dramas '' Coffee Prince'' (2007), '' Guardian: The Lonely and Great God'' (2016–2017), ...
's salesperson character and the protagonist, Seong Gi-Hun, played by Lee Jung-Jae
Lee Jung-jae (; born December 15, 1972) is a South Korean actor and filmmaker. Considered one of the most successful actors in South Korea, he has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cr ...
.
See also
* Bachicombat
* Slammer Whammers
*Tazos
Tazos are disks that were distributed as promotional items with products of Frito-Lay and its subsidiaries around the world. The idea behind Tazos started out similar to Pogs, whereby each Tazo contained a score value, and a game was played to ' ...
* Skully (game)
Skully (also called skelly, skellies, skelsy, skellzies, scully, skelzy, scummy top, tops, loadies or caps) is a children's game played on the streets of New York City and other urban areas. Sketched on the street usually in chalk, a skully board ...
, a disk based game
* Tiddlywinks
Tiddlywinks is a game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small discs called "winks", a pot, which is the target, and a collection of squidgers, which are also discs. Players use a "squidger" (nowadays made of plastic) to shoot a wink int ...
, another disk based game, involving a pot at the center
References
External links
spakatak.com International Tazos Guide
Reference site for AAFES pogs, with image galleries
Information and images of pogs, tazos, flippos and other milkcaps
Information and history about the milkcap craze
{{Authority control
1990s fads and trends
1990s toys
Children's games
Collectible-based games
Street games