Trashdome: Parker Brother vs. Milton Bradley

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting on it. End your first post in this thread with the title of the game you're placing a bet on (i.e. voting for) so its clear to me when reading it later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. Counting expansions or not is entirely up to you just as playing with them or not is. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!

After Thanksgiving the great American over eating day, my brain was completely stuffed with turkey, stuffing and pie so the only games we were willing to play were old school MB and PB games.

On one side we have Milton Bradley with games like Thunderoad, Buffy, Starwars Epic Duels, Battleball, GI Joes and Stratego.

On the other side we have Parker Brothers and games like Risk, Clue, Survive, Monopoly and Shadowlords!

So Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers?

Milton Bradley - hmmmmm ... Fortress America, Axis & Allies, Shogun, Space Crusade and all the ones mentioned in the intoduction. Parker Brothers never made it to the ring !

MB by a no show.

MB, no question. I don't hate the classics (Clue, Risk, etc) or look down my nose at them. But there's really no question that Milton Bradley has made the much larger contribution to the types of games I like to play (Southernman mentioned some).

i can't decide. Risk opened the door for A&A.

Can someone post a complete gamelist for both or is that nuts?

I think MILTON BRADLEY pushed the ball forward for young men and boys to really sink their teeth into what board games are capable of so I vote for MB.

Vote: MB

I think that Milton Bradley practically DEFINES Ameritrash. There are just so many games filled with plastic and goodness. Although they are both now owned by Hasbro, so the distinction is in name only. But a lot of the good games keep the MB logo. And the brand has a history of excess, but often backing it with decent games (Dark Tower). One thing, Mike Gray STILL works for Hasbro, and designed Fortress America and Carrier Strike.

I actually have much more respect for Parker Brothers. Their back catalog is filled with a lot of really good business roll and moves (Careers!), and there are ton of nearly forgotten games: Astron, Survive!, Formula One (the basis for AH Speed Circuit), Yacht Race (the basis for Regatta), Pit. The thing is, if you name a classic american boardgame that non-geeks have heard of, it is a PB game.

Well it looks like MB is going to win this walking away, so I'm throw my vote to Parker Brothers and hopefully make it interesting. Two reasons:

1) Formula 1. I just found this game and had a blast playing it with my buddies. Wish I would have found it years ago.

2) Risk. I've may have played this game more than all other games combined. I've definitely played it more than any other game of comparable length. There are some games that you play and then you box them up and do something else. There are other games that you play and then some time talking about what you should have done and strategizing for the next time for a bit afterwards. Then there are a handful of games that create memories that you remember for decades. Risk is chief among those games.

The Parker Brothers actually invented their own games, including ones based upon current events. Several of their games were seminal works for the hobby.

Vote: The Parker Boys by three lengths.

A valiant effort by you guys with PB, but sorry, no


Vote: Milton Bradley

I'm not denigrating Parker Brothers as they are a great games company, and I think Formula 1 (which I have the Waddingtons version of) is probably the best car racing game ever and RISK plus they seem to have Risk:Star Wars Original Trilogy (a top 10 game for me) in their catalogue, but the MB games gives me a much bigger WOW factor.

Notable Parker Brother games:

Balderdash
Beyond Balderdash
Boggle
Can't Stop
Careers
Catch Phrase
Clue and all versions
Dealers Choice
Diplomacy
Dungeon
Escape from Atlantis
Escape from Colditz
Formula-1
Jenga
Lord of the Ring
Lord of the Rings Friend or Foe
Mastermind
Masterpiece
Monopoly all versions
Outburst
Pictionary
Pictureka!
Pit
Rheinländer
Risk all versions
Rook
Scrabble all versions
Shadowlords!
Sorry
Survie
Taboo
Trivial Pursuit: All versions
UpWord
Yacht Race
Yahtzee

This isn't the landslide some are making out. It could be seen as MBs Ameritrash vs Parkers family games, except both produced such a vast range. As already mentioned Parker did Careers, Survive, Shadowlords!, and Escape from Colditz. I'd add Bantu and Take the Brain. Except TtB was also published by MB! (And was called Smess (ugh) in America).

Vote: Waiting for more arguments from both sides.

For me, it comes down to Survive! vs. Thunder Road.

VOTE: Parker Bros.

This is the toughest Trashdome ever.

Milton Bradley:
Heroscape
MB Gamemaster series

Parker Brothers:
Dungeons and Dragons Fantasy Adventure Boardgame

Both:
Hasbro Slaves

I'm going to have to go with Milton Bradley on this one. Any entity that's responsible for Heroscape AND Samurai Swords AND Axis and Allies AND Fortress: America....that's the king shit there.

Great Trashdome KP.

Hmmm...this is super tough.

On the one hand PB was definitely more prevalent in the households a round me, but MB had a more toy/game combination which I dug even more.

Tank Battle
Game of Life
1313 Deadend Street
Axis and Allies
Bargain Hunter (with the credit card "shak shak" doohickey)
The Omega Virus
Burmuda Triangle
Zaxxon
HeroQuest
The Gamemaster Series
Super Spy

MB for me.