KerPlunk is a fun, simple game of strategic moves and exciting suspense. Instead of a gameboard, KerPlunk is a three-dimensional activity with a transparent plastic tube that has four numbered trays at the base of the cylinder. Plastic rods are put through holes in the middle of the tube to form a lattice structure, then marbles are poured through the top of the tube to rest on the rods.

The game starts when the tube is turned so that the current player’s tray is aligned with the hole at the bottom of the tube. Players take turns pulling rods out of the cylinder with the goal of dropping the fewest amount of marbles into their tray as possible. The player who drops the fewest marbles by the end of the game wins.

The game was invented by Eddy Goldfarb with Rene Soriano. Goldfarb was an industrious man who invented more than 800 toys and held nearly 300 patents. Some of the other toys he created included Battling Tops, Stompers, Chutes Away, and Vac-U-Form.

Once the toy was completed, Ideal Toy Company started marketing the game in 1967. From Ideal, it went to Milton Bradley Company, and is now manufactured by Mattel in the US and Hasbro in the UK. Similar to other boardgames, KerPlunk has had pop culture based versions, like the Toy Story edition that was shaped like a rocket ship and used little aliens instead of marbles. An updated version was also made that sent the marbles down a spiral chute instead of just dropping straight down.