Hasbro Gaming Scrabble Deluxe Edition Board Game, (Amazon Exclusive)

I always loved playing Scrabble growing up and decided to purchase the game again. I came across this Deluxe Edition of the game and decided to try it. Great decision. The game was aggravating at times for me because someone would accidentally hit the board and it would cause the letters to move around. Not anymore! Each tile has little raised edges that guard against this. Love it. The addition of small wheels on the bottom of the game board is genius. It greatly improves the flow of the game by simply turning the board in the direction of each player. Also love the compartments that allow you to store and keep your pieces with the game.. If you find yourself thinking about purchasing another scrabble board game like we did, in my opinion, you can’t go wrong with this one…

Awesome. Easy to carry. Actually brought it on vacation and stuffed in my luggage.Love it.

LOVE. This game board is awesome!!! Has drawers that stay shut on the sides and folds up easily for storage! Highly recommend!!

This is not just any scrabble. This is THE BEST scrabble game you can ever buy. Has storage drawers for your booklet, pencil, game tiles etc. Very easy to carry around. I've had other scrabble games before but nothing comes close.

Wow, what a nice board for the tiles!

Great family game! Spins nicely and everything tucks nicely together!

This Deluxe Edition of Scrabble is the upgrade we needed and were looking for. The typical Deluxe Scrabble editions with the plastic frame around the squares (what they call "recessed game spaces") and built-in lazy susan for rotating the board, were cumbersome to carry and too large to store easily or well.This game board has the recessed game spaces, yet also folds in half - so storage has been easy, and we have been able to transport the game with us much easier around the house and in our travels. Fits into a backpack, or when I carried to the bar down the block I held it like a hardcover book. We also like the built-in storage drawers for the tiles and tile racks, however they pop out fairly easily. Best to use the drawers when the board is opened, not in the folded mode.Wish the tile racks were made of wood and not plastic. Do like they are curved, and the transparant red matches the color theme nicely, but the traditional wood tile racks are always preferred. The tile bag faux felt doesn't have a great "feel" but it more than gets the job done. Thank goodness the tiles are still wood - wouldn't like plastic tiles. The drawstring is already faltering, but we will deal with that as necessary.Nitpicks aside, this is exactly what we needed in an upgrade from the old standard family Scrabble set we have had for 40+ yerars. All in all we are quite happy with this upgrade.

So you may have noticed there's a Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition, and then there's this Amazon-exclusive Scrabble Deluxe Edition which, I might add, is WAY better than the current "Deluxe" edition in brick-and-mortar stores. But you may ask "What's the difference between this Deluxe and the Diamond Anniversary Edition?" and that's a really, really good question.The answer is: Not much.In fact, if you press the stickers on the sides down a bit you'll see that the plastic on this board actually has the logo for the Scrabble Diamond Anniversary Edition embossed into it, with a Scrabble Deluxe sticker pasted over the top of it to hide the previous branding. Yes, kids, this is a Scrabble Diamond board with new stickers.What else is different? The tiles. In the Diamond Anniversary Edition the tiles are black with silver letters embossed into them. In this set, the standard wooden tiles from classic Scrabble are in play. The wood tiles are *slightly* smaller than the black ones, so they sit in the grooves on the board just a little bit less snugly than the black tiles that this board was designed for, but not so much that it noticeable or a problem if you've never played the Diamond version.The racks are the same curved red rack from the Diamond version. The bag is a standard felt-like bag. The manual's actually pretty nice and detailed with some great information, variations on play, and suggestions.So basically, Hasbro mass-produced the Diamond Anniversary edition, and made a deal with Amazon to sell this version as a "lesser" model for a lower price, but the only thing "lesser" about it is the tiles. If you're really a stickler for a complete Diamond experience, I suppose you could buy some black and silver tiles separately for another fifteen bucks, but I don't see the need.I had the Diamond Anniversary Edition (lost it, though) and I have this Scrabble Deluxe Amazon Exclusive edition, and I'm here to tell you that if you're spending over a hundred bucks for a Diamond set, you're either a crazy collector, or easily duped into paying way more for nearly the same thing. This IS the Diamond board with a sticker on it.So how does it play? It's a great Scrabble set. The board spins by way of some wheels on the bottom (no, not a turntable, actual little wheels) and it's a smooth experience that makes game play easier for everyone around the table (though it likely won't spin on carpet.) The whole thing folds up for storage, with two plastic trays built in to hold the racks, scorepads, pencils, tiles, bag, and manual (scorepad sold separately, of course.)It's pretty easy to carry around, though I wouldn't call it totally "travel" sized. I wouldn't try to play in a car unless it was a very smooth-riding vehicle and the road had no chance of bumps. For travel it's best to have a magnetic set, which this is not. But for bringing along to places where you have a stable surface to play? Yeah, it's pretty handy.Bottom line: This is the Scrabble set to get if you want a turntable, don't want to spend a hundred bucks, and don't particularly care if the tiles are special limited-edition colors. This will do just fine.Five stars, no question.Update: As another reviewer notes, the tiles with this set are a bit lower quality than the tiles with the standard set. They're perfectly usable. They are all present (in my set, anyway) and the letters and numbers are legible. If you don't like them the easy solution is to swap your tiles from your previous standard edition (come on, you know you had one before buying a Deluxe edition!) or buy another set separately. They're inexpensive. However, I see no reason why most people wouldn't be perfectly happy with the tiles included with this set.