Bolt ‘n’ Stein Board Game Review
A Frankenstein game from TOMY
In 1994, TOMY released a 4-player board game that was essentially a board with a giant toy right in the middle. Bolt ‘n’ Stein had players traversing a mad scientists lab, trying to bring the Frankenstein monster to life one part at a time. If you manage to activate a body part of Bolt ‘n’ stein, you won a lightning bolt. Gather 3 lightning bolts and you get a shot at bringing the monster to life.
The hitch? Only half the bolts actually worked. Players have to pick from a random selection of bolts that may, or may not work. It’s a fun game that doesn’t require skill, just a good bit of luck. Bolt ‘n’ Stein could use batteries to add a roar sound effect when he came to life, but these aren’t necessary to play.
The Rules
GOAL:
Collect lightning bolts by activating Frankenstein’s body parts. Take any chance you can to knock other players off the board. Once you have enough lightning bolts, you race to the bottom corner and take your opportunity to activate Frankenstein.
Game Play:
The dice has two numbers on each side.
If you’re on the board, use the brown number (which will be the higher one).
When you’re on Frankenstein, use the green, lower number.
Rolled a Frankenstein face? Uh-Oh, miss a turn.
If you land on a hole, you can try and activate that hole with a screw.
When you land on a screw icon space you can choose which hole to try and activate. If your character is on a body part you wish to activate, you can move them to a safe location beforehand.
You have a total of 6 screws, they all look identical but only 3 actually work. The other 3 are duds. The screws must be all kept together, and be kept random.
If you are successful in activating a part of Frankenstein, you earn a lightning bolt.
When you land on a lightning bolt space, you get a lightning bolt.
If you knock another player from Frankenstein, they return to the start.
When you collect 3 lightning bolts, you can take a chance at bringing Frankenstein to life when you reach the machine between the 12 and 13 space.
If you fail to bring Frankenstein to life, return the lightning bolts.
Quick way to play:
Each player only needs a single lightning bolt to bring Frankenstein to life.
Image Gallery
Bolt ‘n’ Stein mostly consists of a large Frankenstein piece placed on a fold out cardboard playing field. You also get 4 coloured professors (Red, Green, Yellow, Blue), 6 bolts, a cardboard container, a screwdriver and a collection of lightning bolts. My set came with 6, but the Lightning Bolts are symbolic and easily replaced with any token you can make or find. There’s a space on the back of Bolt ‘n’ Stein to insert 2 A batteries, but these aren’t necessary to make Frankenstein move.
If you’re after some spooky video games to play on Halloween, why not try out some of the previous Leftover Culture Review episodes?Jam packed with fantastic horror titles to bust out.