Cobra Paw – The Unboxinating!

Merry Happy Thursday to all you U-Con peeps, I got an early Christmas present from my Mother-in-law so I thought I’d do an Unboxinating.  Say hello to Cobra Paw, by the same people who brought you Bananagrams. (The company calls itself Banagrams which is, I suppose, a great reference to a solid game but will need context in conversation).

Number One: Hexagon box? HEXAGON BOX!! I both love and hate this whole box design. The shape is quite different from other games which makes it stand out but also makes it hard to fit in nicely with all the other square games. I dig the orange top/teal bottom thing it has going on (the lid sits flush with about half an inch of the bottom peeking out) and that gap is functional for prying the lid off. Maybe it’s just my box but that is an incredibly tight fit and I don’t think you’d be able to open it if the lid sat flush with the bottom.

The number of players graphic was one of my favorite parts of the outside.

Number 2: Just like Bananagrams, the pieces are solid and feel nice. They also make an excellent clinkity clack sound when they knock into each other. This is extra pleasing because Cobra Paw is a dexterity game where you are trying to snatch chits before anyone else so I expect there is going to be a lot of chits bouncing into one another. I like the symbols on both chits and dice although it’s a little hard to tell the difference between the yellow and white colors and the red and orange colors in low light. The symbols are different enough that it’s not going to matter so crisis averted!

Number 3: Those dice! They are super solid and I love that they are kinda big. Yes, I am dedicating a whole point to the dice because I really liked the size, weight, sound, feel and look of them. I did not smell or taste them but I suspect I’d not mind those aspects either.

Number 4: You can see from the pic on the first point that the contents are on the outside of the box…which I really don’t like (on the bottom is my big time haaaaaate, but side is still annoying), but there is a sort of list in the rules. Kinda. I mean, you have the rules in your hand and there really isn’t much else to the game so all the parts are there. I’m not sure how they are packaging the will to compete tho.

Number 5: Is there anything I didn’t like about this game? Oh yes there is. At first I really loved the inner package design because it looks great. There are your chits and your dice and it’s well organized and pretty. Then I pulled it out and there is a lot of extra room underneath the component holder. I suppose if there are expansions then there will be room for them but it seemed like a lot of wasted space to me.

Then I took the chits and dice out to find that those legs are hollow. This would be neither here nor there if the chits didn’t insist on diving into those holes rather than sitting flat. It wasn’t just the once either. Or twice. They are drawn to those holes for some weird reason. 

Also, the dice space and the chit holder space in the middle are not the same depth. They are close enough, however, that you can easily mistake which one holds the dice and which one holds the chits and then you wonder why your dice aren’t flush but your chits are hiding below the rim. The inner packaging is not suited to ease of repacking or removal as there isn’t a really good way to grab the chits out of their cubbies (assuming they haven’t deep sixed themselves in a leg). I suppose you can flip the whole thing upsidown and then all my cranking about the difficulty of grabbing chits is just me yelling at clouds but you are still gonna hafta pack them back up.

Lastly :