The Magno-Man Game product reviews

I wasnt too sure what to expect from a game that was just a metal box and three strange little manshaped things with magnetic hands and feet and scary hairstyles. After reading through the rules though I found out what a fun little game this is. You throw the empty tin onto the ground a little way away and then you try to get as many of your magnomen hands and feet to stick to the tin. There seems to be a way to score bonus points by getting your magnomen to stick to each other but that bit was a little confusing so we just ignored it.
Upside, the gaame can easily be played by anyone of any age. Downside, each tine is one player only so you need two tins to play a game. Kids will not find this a problem as they will definitely want to have a number of tins just so they have spare sets to avoid colour clashes with opponents. Can you imagine the fights that would happen when it came to scoring time and both players had red magnoz or blue magnoz?! So it wouldnt hurt to buy a couple of games if you are going to buy any at all. I popped in to my local Warehouse branch and bought 2 more kits so that I wasnt having to fight for a turn when my child was playing.

A while ago, as I wandered through a local mass-retailer, I spotted these dinky little magnetic men toys. I didn't see the tin-boxed game at that stage or I would have bought it, but I did notice the single units at around $3 each I think. At the time, my young son was really getting into magnetic toys thanks to the Magnetix range we had received, so I thought it would be good to have some little figures he could incorporate into his magno-play. His favourite colour being blue, and his favourite number being three, I bought three blue ones... funny that.

He LOVED them and has them stuck to something metal near his bedside most nights... I suspect so that he can play with them after the lights go out and daddy closes the door... little rascal. But during playtime he is often caught building boats, planes, cars, spaceships, etc out of his Magnetix and plonking a MagnoMan pilot/captive/passenger on/under/in them and zooming around the room dive-bombing his Bionicles.

So, when I got the game tin, it was with great pleasure I realised we already had everything we needed to play a game together, since each player really only needs their 3 mangoz and 1 tin. Simple to play, hard to master, it's all about the throw. Too hefty and you'll end up sticking them to the fridge or something, too softly and you won't reach as far as the tin at all. get it right, and you can score up to 4 points. Unless of course you are fortunate enough to buy a tin that contains a special, limited edition magnoz, either the Black Emperor (worth 2 points per limb) or the Rainbow Warrior (worth a mighty 4 points per limb!), but you can't have it all and these rare magnoz make the game far more interesting when they pop out of the woodwork.

Overall, a surprisingly fun game, with a lot more uses than just the stated ones. Your kids will find a hundred ways to incorporate these into their games, and if nothing else, when they outgrow them, they'll do a great job of holding school notices to the fridge door.