Scrabble Premier Wood Edition

We are very happy we bought the Premier Wood Edition of Scrabble, and found Amazon's price to be much better than at Hasbro.com or anywhere else. [UPDATE on 6/12/19: when I bought this in 2015, the price was $60. I wantedto buy one today as a gift and was disappointed to see the price is now 3 times that price! In any case, ours has held up very well and we are still VERY pleased with it.]PROs:-- the board's rotating feature works flawlessly and helps make a fair game so every player has the ideal vantage point during their turn-- the wood lends a handsome and solid look-- the storage tray inside the wood-framed box that holds all the game pieces is solid and slides smoothly-- the velour or velvet-like bag holding the letter tiles is handy to draw from instead of having pieces spread out face down on the table-- the squares on the playing board have a slightly raised lip for keeping each letter tile in the right place if the board gets bumped accidentally, and the color and appearance of the board seems to be of adequate qualityCONs:-- though the rotating board is a feature we sought and enjoy, children and distracted adults may not notice that the next revolution of the board may launch a player's letter tile holder tray (if too close to the pivot path)-- or worse yet, a beverage sitting near the playing board; and so it may be a good idea to train players to call out aloud some warning before rotating the board and/or not allow beverages on the playing table if the table top is small

This is truly an amazing set that shouts "luxury"! It is aptly named "premier" since this is the most premium set of Scrabble I have ever come across. The overall quality is impressive and would make a great gift. I bought one for myself and one to give as a gift. The gameboard sits atop a substantial wooden box that has a drawer where you can store away all the tiles, racks, scoring pads and pencil - no need to scrounge around for these items when you want to play. I particularly like that it has the rotating feature and you can spin the board around when it is your turn - no need to crick your neck or trying to read upside down! The raised grid on the board also ensures that the tiles stay put when we spin the board around. The tiles have a solid feel and the brass details on the racks are a nice touch. This set is beautiful enough to be left out and it sits in our reading room, ready for anyone who want to have a round of Scrabble!

I purchased this for my boyfriend for Christmas as he does not own a Scrabble board. Because of the other reviews, I decided to open it before gifting it to him in case there was something horribly wrong. Like other reviewers have said, there were chips in the wood and scratches on the paper board overlay, and the scoring pad had detached from the book. Clearly this was not made in the U.S., and I don't anticipate this set lasting for a long time.Yet, I am considering keeping it as a gift because it still looks nice, and is definitely usable. I also really liked the storage drawer for all of the game elements. I think if I had purchased this for more than $40, I would have been really upset at the quality. Because the price was relatively low on Amazon (about twice the amount of the original Scrabble board -- I can see why) I am OK with this purchase, albeit a little annoyed at the craftsmanship.

When the air starting getting crisp and chill, thoughts of lighting the fireplace and drinking hot cocoa and playing scrabble entered my thoughts, daily. We went to a local box store, but, didn't really like the newest edition and although the Onyx edition looked pretty sly, we wanted something "Old School".The Scrabble Premier Wood Edition looked very high-end.Not just a board. This edition has it all. Storage, inside, and a Lazy Susan that spins with ease. It may sound cheesy but it's true, you can leave it out and it compliments the room. I purchased mine thru Amazon.com it arrived in about 2 days (unscathed) and we lit the fireplace and used it that night.My husband, after commenting that it looked very nice, very well constructed, asked,"how much?" "I said, don't forget, we will have it for years and years," "how much ?" "I told him, well, a little under 5 benjamins" He said, O.K. I said, "Why, O.K.?" "Because, it will last for years and years, Happy Holidays".

The game is just as you would expect - great! It is handsome enough to leave out on a gaming table as a piece of furniture and some of the features of this "premier" wood edition are quite nice - the look of the wood, the ease of turntable functionality, the fit of tiles into the board squares without shifting, the easy-to-read black letters on white tiles, the tile holders and "hour glass" timer, and the scoring sheets. What I found not so nice is the slipperiness of the tiles - dry hands in winter do not make holding these without dropping them easy. Also, the tiles too easily "fit" under the rotating turntable, which is a hassle when they try to go hide, because you may not notice them disappearing and if you do, the desirable non-skid feet on the board also make it hard to move the board to retrieve them. The color scheme on the board itself was a bit hard for me to get used to compared to the classic game, though I suspect this will pass with continued use. It would be nice to have the drawer do double-duty as a place to store tiles during game play but the space is comparmentalized for storage of the various pieces between use and dosen't have enough room to have all the tiles fit in as a single layer. The felt covered storage area surface also doesn't lend itself to "stirring" the tiles to mix them up either, so we're left spreading them out on the table, where they can get knocked off, spilled on, etc. For this price, I would have expected a bit more engineering forethought (no, I'm not an engineer!), and a built in digital Scrabble Dictionary (hint for future developers).