Don't Break the Ice

Don't Break the Ice was first marketed by Schaper Toys — the Cootie company — in the late 1960s, and the design barely changed for half a century because it didn't need to: a frame on stilt legs holds a grid of white plastic 'ice' blocks wedged in under tension, a character figure stands on the big center block, and players take turns tapping blocks out from underneath with little mallets. The physics do the drama. Every tap is a gamble about which blocks are load-bearing, and the whole thing eventually collapses on someone's turn to a mixture of horror and delight. Milton Bradley took the game over in 1986, which is the box most 90s kids remember.

Here's the detail that trips up everyone's memory: the little guy on the ice has changed over the years — editions have variously starred a seated 'Ice Man,' a polar bear, and a penguin. The version most 90s kids had starred the polar bear (the TV jingle was all about keeping the polar bear from sinking), while Phillip the Penguin — the one so many people swear they remember — is the mascot on today's boxes. White arctic animal on ice; the memory blurs. Either way, the game itself is the one you're thinking of.

It has simply never gone out of production: still on preschool shelves today under Hasbro Gaming, with Frozen tie-in editions putting Elsa and Olaf on the ice for a new generation. Like Perfection and Crossfire, it's proof that the best kids' games are tiny machines for manufacturing suspense — and that nothing bonds a group of five-year-olds like collective property destruction with hammers.