Big news if you’re a fan of Scrabble. Especially if you’re one who’s always having trouble finding people to join you in the playing of your favorite board game. Mattel has just released an updated version of the game called Scrabble Together, which is touted as a new, less “intimidating” version of its venerable board game.
The stated goal of Scrabble Together is to be the ideal option “for anyone who’s ever thought, ‘word games aren’t for me’ or felt a little intimidated by the Classic game.” Apparently, people can even team up to make playing more fun.
As far as I can tell the new game is played something like this: Each team or player is given 20 “goal cards.” These cards direct the players to perform tasks such as “Play a vertical word,” or “Play a word containing at least two different vowels.”
Each card also contains a helpful tip. For instance, the goal card that directs players to “Play a word containing two of the same consonant,” also provides the tip, “Getting rid of duplicate letters can really free up space on your rack.” The winner is the player or team that completes 20 challenges. You lose if you have used up all the helper cards and cannot complete a goal.
So here’s a chance to finally convince that reluctant friend or relative to join in the word-spelling fun that we word wonks have enjoyed for years. Sounds good, huh?
Well, not so fast – that was the good news. The bad news is that Mattel’s new version of America’s favorite word-related board game isn’t available at a local store in the good old U.S. of A.
“But why?” I hear you desperately inquiring, “I need to be able to play Scrabble – any type of Scrabble – with that special someone who doesn’t get into word games!”
The answer is a little complicated, but if you’ve got the time (it’s Sunday morning, you’ve got the time), here’s what I found out. It deals with Scrabble’s scrambled history and dual owners.
In 1933, an unemployed architect named Alfred Butts came up with the idea for a game he initially called Lexico and then changed to Criss Cross Words. In 1948, Butts partnered with financier James Brunot, who came up with the name Scrabble and promptly trademarked it. It took a while, but by 1952 the new word game was being sold at Macy’s department store, and it was finally off and running.
Playing off Scrabble’s success, Brunot sold the game’s foreign rights to the British company J.W. Spear & Sons in 1954. In 1972 he sold the game’s North American rights to Selchow & Righter — which had been manufacturing and marketing Scrabble for the past two decades — for about $2 million.
After the bottom fell out of the market for its Trivial Pursuit game in 1986, Selchow & Righter was purchased by Cabbage Patch doll maker COLECO for $75 million. COLECO, in turn, held onto the game’s U.S. and Canadian rights for about three years until it was acquired for $85 million by Hasbro, which owns those rights today.
Meanwhile J.W. Spear & Sons retained its foreign rights to the game until the middle of 1994. That’s when Hasbro and Mattel entered into a bidding war for the British company with Mattel coming out on top with an offer of $90 million. And that is why Hasbro sells Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel sells it everywhere else.
So there it is, the reason why you can’t go down to your local store and buy Mattel’s Scrabble Together to play with your BFFs (unless you’re able to order it online, which you probably can). In the meantime you could always try to convince your reluctant friends to partake in a rousing game of Scrabble Junior, which is said to be fun “for kids and family ages 5 and up.”
Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.
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