Bring Yahtzee To The Beach Or BBQ With ‘Yardzee’

Let’s wrap up “Beach Week” here at We Know Products, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. I want to talk about Yardzee. A lawn game my family has gotten plenty of use out of at home, last week was the first time we were able to try this giant version of Yahtzee out on the beach.

What is Yardzee? It is pretty much exactly as it sounds—Yahtzee for your yard. The product comes with six durable wooden dice as well as a reusable scoresheet and dry-erase marker for keeping track of points. You may remember that only five dice are used for the game of Yahtzee, so one of them is an extra. Or you could make up your own rules for some other dice-playing yard game.

ROPODA Giant Wooden Yard Dice Set for Outdoor Fun, Barbeque, Party Events, Backyard Games, Lawn Games Includes 6 Dice, Collapsible Bucket, Score Cards & Dry Erase Marker — $46.99

Yardzee is great fun, and I am really glad we were able to enjoy it on the beach. The wooden dice, which measure 3.5″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″, are hardy and hold up when exposed to things like sun and water and sand. The pips are burned into each side rather than painted, so you don’t have to worry about them washing off if they get wet.

An all-around solid product, Yardzee has just one minor issue: The bucket. The bucket is terrible. It is super flimsy, which is not what you want out of a container that you are potentially lugging around as you travel. This is especially bad when it comes to rolling the dice. In the traditional tabletop version of Yahtzee, you cast the five dice by shaking them up in a dice cup and rolling them out onto the table. In theory, that is what you do here as well, but it is hard to keep the bucket from contorting its shape along with the dice whenever you attempt to jostle them a bit.

So, while I highly recommend Yardzee, I also recommend using a different bucket.

This leads me to an interesting discovery I made while putting together this article. You can actually buy a version of Yardzee without the bucket, from the same exact brand, on Amazon for half the price: $23 compared to $46. This would obviously be ridiculous even if the bucket were not in fact the worthless piece of junk that it is.

Giant Wooden Yard Dice-Giant Outdoor Gaming Dice Set 3.5″-Includes 6 Dice, Scoreboard and Canvas Carrying Bag-Great Backyard and Lawn Game. — $23.99

Besides the bucket, there does not seem to be anything from the listing immediately identifiable as the cause of this price gap. Both sets are made of solid pine, both have the burned-on pips, both come with six dice plus the scoresheets and markers. What gives?

After reading the customer reviews, I think I figured it out. Although it does not say so, the more expensive set must be sprayed in a way that makes them weather-resistant. As the comments say, and as I know from experience, it can withstand things like the ocean. Numerous reviewers for the cheaper one say they recommend spraying it with something like Rust-Oleum. This seems to be the difference.

The brand, ROPODA, should clearly mark on its pricier listing why it is worth the extra dollars. Something like Yardzee, which is sees a great deal of time outdoors, certainly benefits from anything done to it that make it last longer. The way I see it, that is the one you should buy this summer.