“The Most Exciting Word Game Ever!”
In Topper Toys’ Clock-A-Word, players competed to form the longest possible word from a random selection of 9 letters in the shortest amount of time. The “race against the clock” pattern-recognition game was released in 1966.
GAMEPLAY
At the start of the game, each player received a stop pin and the Clock-A-Word pointer was moved to the start position, pointing straight up. One player pushed down on the slot-machine-style handle, which caused a new set of 9 letters to appear in the window below and started the pointer-timer.
As the timer counted down, players attempted to formulate words. Any letter appearing in the window could be used as many times as desired. As an added wrinkle, the word “TOPPER” could appear as one of the letters. When this happened, players could treat it as any letter, a.k.a. a wild card.
When a player felt that they had formed the longest possible word (or didn’t want to take the time to attempt to form a longer one), they placed their stop pin in the numbered hole corresponding to the number of letters in the word formed. This action had to be taken before the pointer passed the hole.
Other players who may have formed an even longer word could also place their timer in another hole, provided the timer hadn’t moved past it.
Rounds were won by the player whose stop pin stopped the pointer-timer. Provided the announced word was spelled correctly, the player received a score value equal to the number of letters in the word.
The first player to score 100 points was declared the overall winner.
IN THE BOX
A complete game included the game board and 4 multi-coloured stop pins (black, yellow, red, and white). Printed instructions were included in the box.
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