How to Play Thing-a-ma-bots (with a deck of playing cards)

Thing-a-ma-Bots is an out of print children’s memory game, but don’t let the “for ages six and up” scare you away from this fun pick up game. The original game is out of print, but you can approximate the game with a deck of playing cards.

Number of players: 2 to 6.
Equipment: Ideally, play with an original Thing-a-ma-Bots deck. Those goofy robot images lend toward goofy names. Since it’s out of print, though, a deck of playing cards will be our reasonable substitute.

Rules of play:
1.) Shuffle the deck. Deal an equal number of cards to each player, face down, until you’ve gone through the deck. Extra cards go in a face down pile in the center. Players make a face down pile of their cards.
2.) Choose a player to go first. That player flips the top card of their pile face up in the center of the table.
3.) The flipping player gives the card a name. Give it any name you want. “Susan”, “Doobily Dooberson”, or “Greg still owes me five dollars” are all perfectly fine names.
4.) Pass the turn clockwise. That player flips a card to the center of the table. If this is the first time that number has been revealed, go back to step 3.
5.) If the card they flipped matches a face up card in the center pile (the suit doesn’t matter. A six of clubs matches a six of diamonds.) the first person to shout out the card’s name takes all of the cards in the center and puts them in a face-up wins pile to their side.
6.) The face up card in a player’s win pile is a vulnerable weak point. If a flipped card matches the number (not the suit) in a player’s face up win pile, any player may yell “Thing-a-ma-Bots!” If they do, they take that player’s entire win pile, shuffle it, then tuck it face down under the rest of their face down pile.
7.) At the end of a player’s turn, if they have no face down cards, they shuffle their face up win pile and make a face down pile out of those cards.
8.) If a player runs out of cards, they lose the game. Play continues until one player controls all the cards and is declared winner.

Note #1: If there’s an honest tie when shouting out a card’s name, those players split the pile evenly. Put any extra cards face down in the center pile.

Note #2: Instead of using playing cards, duplicate commons from any card game like Magic: the Gathering or Pokémon will do. You could even sleeve baseball cards or My Little Pony trading cards if you own enough duplicates. The original Thing-a-ma-Bots deck came with five copies of twelve cards for a total of 60. But a deck of playing cards is composed of four copies of thirteen cards, which should also work fine. If you want to build with two copies of one card and seven copies of another, no one is stopping you.

Note #3: There’s a natural human tendency when flipping a card face up on the table to look at it while putting it down. When a player does this, they sometimes slow down a little to look at their own card while they place it, giving them a fraction of a second to see it before everyone else does. That’s not fair in a game where all the players are trying to react as fast as possible, but it’s just something people do unconsciously. They don’t think about it until it happened.

That said, best form is to grab the card from the edge furthest away from you and flip the card in the other direction, so it faces your opponents before it faces you. You should encourage all players to play this way. Be kind to children and players who just can’t seem to remember to do it the ‘right’ way, though. Thing-a-ma-Bots is supposed to be a fun diversion, not an opportunity to boss your friends around.

Note #4: Some players would prefer to not continue playing if another player is eliminated. That’s fine. If you’re playing that way, simply count up all the cards each player has when one player is eliminated. The player with the most cards is declared the winner. If two players are tied, they’re both winners. Shuffle up, and play a new game.

Note #5: Some groups like to play that when two cards are matched, they lose their name and a new name must be used when that card appears again. Some players like to keep the same name for the entire game. Either way can be fun. Play it the way your group prefers.