''Crocodile Dentist'' is a game made for young children, first published by

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...

in 1990. A smaller travel version of the game was released in 1993 and is currently being produced by Winning Moves. The game was conceived by Robert B. Fuhrer, who later created

Gator Golf ''Gator Golf'' is a children's miniature golfing game. It was released in 1994 by the American game company Milton Bradley. In the game, children take turns putting into the mouth of a motorized plastic alligator figure, which then flings the ball ...

, and many other toys and games.Drew Fetherston. "Playing With Toys Is Serious Work: Robert B. Fuhrer's life revolves around games". ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

''. December 5, 1994. C03.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to press down on the plastic teeth from a crocodile toy's mouth. Earlier versions required the player to instead remove the tooth with a pair of pliers; this was changed to avoid having small loose parts to make the game more accessible to younger children. If the "sore tooth" is pressed or removed, the mouth will snap shut and lunge toward whoever pulled the sore tooth, and the person who caused the mouth to shut is the loser. The mechanism of pushing the tooth down was initially only used in the travel version, which lacks the ability to lunge, but was later incorporated into the full-sized version of the game.

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 pliers to quell fears that children would hurt their fingers. However, the game testers later thought that the toy lacked excitement, and though the pliers remained in the final product, Fuhrer restored the original lunging motion.

Reception

''Crocodile Dentist'' was one of the best-selling games of the 1991 Christmas season and remained a high-seller afterwards. Crocodile Dentist was then released by Toy City in the United Kingdom. Several commentators listed the product as one of the strangest new toys available. "What kind of mind came up with this game?" asked the ''

York Daily Record The ''York Daily Record'' is a newspaper and news publisher serving York, Pennsylvania, United States, and the surrounding region. Its news publications are the ''York Daily Record'' and ''York Sunday News''. The newspaper's circulation is 37,32 ...

'''s Mike Argento, who included it in his 1992 Bizarre Toy Awards. Twelve years later, however, Argento admitted that the game had "passed into classic status". The success of ''Crocodile Dentist'' led Robert Fuhrer to design several other crocodile-themed games. One of those, ''Crocodile Golf'', became the popular ''

''.

In popular culture

A 1993 episode of ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also inc ...

'' featured a blooper involving the travel version of ''Crocodile Dentist''. The game was used as one of the small prizes in the pricing game Pathfinder, and host

Bob Barker Robert William Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American retired television game show host. He is known for hosting CBS's ''The Price Is Right'' from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American televis ...

and model

Janice Pennington Janice Maurine Pennington (born July 8, 1942) is an American former model and was one of the original "Barker's Beauties" models on ''The Price Is Right.'' As its longest-running model, Pennington was with ''The Price Is Right'' from the show's ...

decided to try it out. Barker triggered the sore tooth, which caused the crocodile's jaw to close on his finger and Barker to yelp in pain.''The Price Is Right'' episode from November 30, 1993. In episode ten of ''

Men Behaving Badly ''Men Behaving Badly'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British British sitcom, sitcom that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang (Martin Clunes) and his flatmates Dermot Povey (Harry Enfield; series 1 ...

'', the main characters are seen playing the game with Dorothy's ten-year-old nephew.

References

External links

Hasbro's product page
* {{Hasbro Board games introduced in 1990 Children's board games Milton Bradley Company games