Review: Fun Funky Fingernails
Publisher: Milton Bradley
Year: 2000
Tagline: A Hand Full of Fun for You and Your Friends!

Cover shows 3 young girls wearing fake fingernails and smiling at the camera
I completely forgot to take a photo of the cover of Fun Funky Fingernails before I donated it so this is something I texted to Keri after I picked it up. Sometimes items at by-the-pound thrift still have price tags on them. I did not pay $1.99 for this.

how we met

I found Fun Funky Fingernails at a by-the-pound thrift stop. I know that sounds difficult to believe, but it’s true! I am just that lucky!

This particular day the store had a lot of games of all kinds, which is kind of unusual. But most of the games you see at by-the-pound thrift are the same types of games that you basically trip over trying to enter regular thrift shops. So I was pleased to have anything catch my eye. And it was unscattered and complete. And I could amuse myself by trying on fingernails while I was there.

how it plays

Fun Funky Fingernails is a roll and move game where the object is to obtain the golden nail plus nine funky nails – no chipped nails. Then you win!

Players start the game with whatever sad excuse for fingernails they have naturally, and nothing else. On a player’s turn they roll the die and move in any direction that number of spaces.

The pawns are semi-clear sparkly plastic nail polish bottles
The lovely pawns

One side of the die says GOLD and allows you to take the one and only Gold Nail. No matter where it is.

The pink die showing numbers and the word Gold on one side
I didn’t get a nice photo of the die, but it’s pink and behind it is the dish full of fun, funky fingernails!

Most spaces on the board will require you to spin the spinner to see what kind of nail you get! No matter what color flower you land on, it just means you can choose one nail of any color – something that initially tricked me. If you are unlucky and land on one of the Chipped Nail spaces then you must take a Chipped Nail! Bummer!

The chipped nail is brown with a clear bit meant to make it look cracked
So really the only point of having to spin the spinner after you roll is because you might get stuck with a Chipped Nail OH NO!

Other spaces on the board allow you to steal a nail, swap a nail, or fill an entire hand with funky fingernails! The first player to collect the Gold Nail plus 9 Funky Nails (no Chipped Nails) wins Fun Funky Fingernails!

how it went

The fingernails really hurt your fingers after awhile, so players beware.

Fingertips looking pinched
What better way to teach kids young that beauty knows no pain than playing a game that pinches their fingers?

We played this one on a game night full of good, old games. And it happened, for sure. Set collection at its most dull.

The game board with a spinner in the middle
That is the spinner in the middle of the board. We had to let Bill and John play with Gobots during this one

There’s not much to say about Fun Funky Fingernails. And you can berate me by saying I should have known and why did I even pick it up. I picked it up because of the fake fingernails. I literally picked it up because of the fun, funky fingernails. And because it was basically free.

Fun Funky Fingernails actually reminded me of Pretty Pretty Princess, which Keri and I played together in about three and a half minutes many months ago. I never intended to review Pretty Pretty Princess (it was only in the house for resale), but Fun Funky Fingernails was chosen for our group. But the two games are very similar, and there’s not much to say. Pretty Pretty Princess requires more luck because you have to land on specific pieces of jewelry in order to complete the set. Fun Funky Fingernails has more “take that” but most spaces on the board and the spinner just let you add any fingernail to your hands that you want.

Two hands showing one gold nail and 9 funky fingernails
The winning hands

Keri won Fun Funky Fingernails!

play or pass

Oh, pass. If you told me you were looking for an alliterative kids set collection game that lets the children play dress-up and is girly I would hesitantly point you to Pretty Pretty Princess. Plus Fun Funky Fingernails may be harmful to fingertips.