I remember the first time I fell in love with tiny hands. It was 2008 and I was sitting in my basement watching Saturday Night Live. Fred Armisen cleverly counts off a song as Lawrence Welk for the Maharelle sisters from the Finger Lakes, played by host Anne Hathaway, a very pregnant Amy Poehler, Casey Wilson, and my biggest hero in life, Kristen Wiig. The all-star cast sings about how great it is to be sisters, with Wiig’s character, Dooneese, looking slightly off compared to her siblings. But it all makes sense when she raises her arm to her expanded forehead with her snaggletooth sparkling in her smile, and salutes the camera with a baby doll-sized hand.
The concept of having a tiny hand is comedy gold, and as an O.G. fan of baby hands—thanks to Ms. Wiig and her nine appearances on SNL as Dooneese—I am all about the latest trend of our great generation embracing the mini palms and phalanges. That is why upon opening The Original Tiny Hands Challenge Game, from Moose Toys, I was giddily tapping into every baby-hand bit I have in my arsenal. It took me about a week to finally get over the hands themselves and pick up the rules to start playing the game.
Prior to starting this game, it should be noted that I have 12 of my own baby hands (two of which glow in the dark), as well as a tiny foot that is too detailed for comfort. My expertise in using baby hands during everyday life is probably above average. However the ones included in this game are a little different than the ones available in bulk at novelty stores. Mine are made to fit my fingers like individual phalange gloves (yes, I have worn 10 of them at once), but Moose’s sets have wrists with handles attached to them to allow for a little more control.
The Original Tiny Hand Challenge Game pits teams against each other, as they wager their bets and complete challenges. The spinner will decide whether each team must complete a solo challenge, team challenge, or round of charades using the tiny hands, tinier hands, or both. The goal of the game is to be the first team to reach 31 points. Once players read their challenge card, they decide how much they want to wager and then set off to complete the task. If successful, the other team can also challenge if they think they can also complete the card and make a wager of equal or greater value.
The game comes with a shoe string, a ball, and a timer, and occasionally requires you to use household items, such as a cup or a pen. Although the game is for kids ages 8 and up, do not be fooled into thinking that these challenges are easy. It is very tempting to cheat using your real hands instead of the lil’ ones to complete your mission. Tying the string around your teammate’s head using the tinier hands with a timer watching over you is a lot of pressure. Think you can hold a pen with tiny hands and use it as a bat as your teammate throws a ball with even tinier hands? Good luck because now you basically have no thumbs.
When picking a charades card, one might think, “Oh, I’m the master of charades, I got this.” But then one must remember, you are not using your own hands, which have fingers that bend and can mimic holding things, etc. In this version of charades, you are given plastic hands molded into one form and now you must overact to compensate for the lack of hand movement, like acting out the word “cat” without turning your hand into a claw. It’s really a better form of charades, imo.
You need at least four people to play the game, but I say the bigger the teams, the more fun it is, since everyone has their own tiny hands expertise. Even if you don’t have someone willing to play the game with you, there are two fantastic sets of little phalanges ready for you to walk around and use as you please. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s tiny hands.
