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26 Life-Size Versions of Popular Board Games
Everyone's favorite board games get a whole lot more fun when they're super-sized. (Also: the pieces are harder to lose.) We've gathered up a collection of jumbo variations on classic board games—if you think we've missed a good one, let us know in the comments!
Candy Land
I was surprised there weren't more life-size versions of the candy-themed game, but the quality of these two jumbo versions makes up for the lack of other variations.
Lombard Street
San Francisco's famously winding Lombard Street was turned into the biggest version of Candy Land ever to celebrate the children's game's 60th anniversary in 2009. Laughing Squid has more videos and photos.
Candy Land Garden
Craftster user KandeeCorner (and YouTube user eieioh1) created a garden based on the various iterations of the Candy Land game board. You can read about her project in the Craftster boards.
Operation
On G4's "Attack of the Show," Kevin Pereira, Candace Bailey, and Gillian Jacobs played a life-sized G4 version of the buzzing medical game. Check out the photos on Attack of the Blog.
Scrabble
America's favorite word game is also one of the most popular games to get the life-size treatment.
Mississippi Children's Museum
The Mississippi Children's Museum boasts a Hasbro-official giant Scrabble. In the photo above, some members of the Navy ham it up at the museum for Mississippi Navy Week. Photo from the Mississippi Children's Museum's Facebook album of Mississippi Navy Week.
Canstruction Vancouver 2011
Amazingly enough, the Scrabble above was created from canned goods for the 2011
, a canned food sculpture competition that raises money for the
Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society
. Photo by Flickr user Karen Neoh (
).
Valley Fiesta 2010
The "Giant Games in the Valley" portion of the 2010
in Brisbane, Australia, boasted this colorful version of the word game. Photo by Flickr user Michael Zimmer (
).
Kensington Market
Toronto's
has "Pedestrian Sundays," during which this giant homemade version of Scrabble was available to play. Photo by Ish & Jen of
.
World Literacy Day 2010
(LAW), a not-for-profit organization that provides free numeracy and literacy support to residents of Wellington (New Zealand), hosted a giant street game of Scrabble on
2010.
Toy Story Mania!
While this version isn't playable, its size earns it a place on this list. Gracing a building at
in Pixar Place at Disney's Hollywood Studios is a folded Scrabble board being hoisted by Army men. Photo by Flickr user
.
Monopoly
These "life-sized" versions of Monopoly aren't quite the size of the real locations named on the popular game's board, but they're still a lot bigger than the table-top version!
Guadalupe River Park
This
in
, near the
in San Jose, CA, is the largest Monopoly game board in the world. Photo by Flickr user
.
Bally's: Atlantic City
To attract attention for their "
" promotion,
and Hasbro created a jumbo Monopoly game on the boardwalk outside the Atlantic City casino. More information about the game and promotion at
. Photo from ACWeekly.com's
.
Minnesota State Fair 2002
The 2002
included a tented walk-able version of Monopoly. Photo by
from his
.
Mousetrap
This amazing life-size game of Mousetrap was created by Mark Perez and company for Maker Faire 2007. To see more of the game, check out Nathan Bennett's (mostly) night-time photos.
Word on the Street
Origins Game Fair 2010 hosted the first life-size rendition of Out of the Box Games' Word on the Street.
The Royal Game of Ur
created a giant (yet portable) version of the
for the British Museum to celebrate the press launch of
. Photo from
.
Chess
Giant chess games can be divided into two categories: human chess, in which people are the pieces, and super-sized chess, in which jumbo versions of the traditional pieces are used.
Jeu d'Echecs Indien
Henri-Pierre Picou's 1876 painting,
, depicts a human chess game in India. Unfortunately, we can't find much more information about it, although there are an awful lot of sites offering reproductions. Image via
.
Monselice, Italy
This human-chess game took place in Monselice, Italy, and was photographed by Wikimedia Commons user
.
Jai Mahal Palace Hotel
The grounds of
in Jaipur, India, include an amazing carved life-size chess set. Photo by Flickr user
.
Taj Exotica
, another luxury hotel owned by the same company as the Jai Mahal Palace Hotel, is also home to a cool jumbo chess set. Photo by Flickr user Sean Ellis (
).
Brindavan Gardens
They must really love chess in India, because a third life-size chess set resides at the
in Krishna Raja Sagara, India. Photo by Flickr user
.
Yahoo! Burbank
includes this giant courtyard chess set surrounded by flowers. Photo by Flickr user Konrad Summers (
).
Best Western Resort Country Club
The fourth (or fifth, if you count the Henri-Pierre Picou painting) Indian life-size chess board on our list is an amenity included with
at
Best Western Resort Country Club, Gurgaon
in New Delhi, India. Photo via the Best Western Resort Country Club
.
The Embarcadero
Pieces for the giant chess board at the Embarcadero in Morro Bay, CA, can be rented from the city's
. Photo via
.
Checkers (and Chess)
Bastions Park in Geneva, Switzerland, has at least four grids painted onto the pavement, with corresponding sets of playing pieces for checkers or chess, whichever strikes the players' fancy. Photo by Flickr user
.
Chinese Checkers
The “Giant Games in the Valley” portion of the 2010
in Brisbane, Australia, also included this large version of Chinese checkers as well as the previously mentioned large Scrabble. Photo by Flickr user Michael Zimmer (
).
Battleship
Julie, who writes the blog
, and her family created this jumbo version of Battleship for an event at their church. Photo via
.
***
26 jumbo versions of our favorite board games not enough for you? Don’t worry, we’re not stopping the fun. Head over to our
“Popular Games, Super-Sized” board
on Pinterest for more giant games around the world. And if you’ve seen a good one, let us know in the comments and we’ll add it to the board.