One in a Chameleon

I picked up One in a Chameleon from Fat Brain Toy Co because it looked super cute! I can tell you that I am actually a bit underwhelmed. It's not a terrible visual-spatial puzzle, but it doesn't make the top 10 list for me. (Wait...do I have a top 10 list!??!) Let me explain...

One in a Chameleon comes in a cute tin. The top is the play area and the tin holds the playing pieces.

There are 8 green & black magnetic chameleons with 6 double sided puzzle cards.

There are 8 more chameleons in blue & red that have their own set of double sided puzzle cards. I realized after I snapped this picture that my game came with 7 puzzle cards! Turns out one of them is a duplicate...no problem.

The instructions are on the cardboard wrapper that the game comes in. They are super short (no need for too much explanation here), so I will type them in as is...

"These chameleons need help blending in! Each of the 24 challenges features a unique pattern. Within each pattern is a place for eight chameleons to hide. Pick the eight chameleons that match the colors and then test your visual-spatial skills to find all the hiding spots! Can you master the art of invisibility?"

They also suggest on the wrapper that you start with the green and black challenges, then move on to the blue and red. 

So I started with the green & black chameleons and here is one of my finished challenges. Ooops! Looks like one of my chameleons shifted out of place! But you get the basic idea. I suggest taking one chameleon at a time and figuring out where it might be placed. It seems like the green & black pieces have only one place to fit on each board, so that makes placement a bit easier. Note, I only tried out 6 of the challenges (just 3 of the cards) and they all worked out fairly easily. But I started getting bored and decided to try the blue & red ones without completing all the green challenges.

Shwew! These are a bit tougher! Many of these chameleons fit in more than one spot. I needed help from my daughter to complete 2 of the puzzles that I tried. Just couldn't figure out where to place the last dude! One hint for solving these is to tackle the two chameleons with only a single red blotch first. These guys will only fit in the skinny sections between the bigger blobs. You can see them below....

Getting them in place will limit where you can place the other chameleons just a little bit, so you can work them from there. You will probably need to move chameleons around and try them in the different places that they will fit before you come upon a solution. I completed (with some help) 4 of the blue & red challenges. Definitely start with the green & black ones, especially if you are doing these with younger kids. Fat Brain recommends this puzzle for ages 8 and up.

So what don't I like about this?

One issue I have is that it seems a little light on challenges. The chameleons and cards have plenty of space in tin. They could use some friends! If the publisher plans on creating further chameleon colors and cards, they could sell them as expansion packs to be stored alongside the others in the tin. Seems like they could make at least two more color sets that would easily fit inside. 

I also don't like that there aren't any answers. I thought about making an answer key myself, but that doesn't seem very easy to do in this case. So I get why there aren't any answers. And maybe that is also because there are multiple ways to solve each level? I'm not actually sure about that. 

Furthermore, I'm not sure I like the quality of the chameleons. They seem like they will get worn out pretty easily and maybe even get bent up. I have a couple that are starting to get rough at the edges already. That said, the chameleons are really cute!

Oh...almost forgot...lastly, I think that the game is a bit pricey for what you get. It is going for $14.95 on Fat Brain's website right now (2023). Maybe I haven't gotten used to the recent inflation of everything yet, but it still seems overpriced.

So overall, it's not a terrible puzzle. But it didn't bring me much joy. If you are looking to buy a puzzle for a friend or loved one, skip One in a Chameleon...there are better puzzles out there.