Sport and Games Atlas

How The Game Is Played
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Game

The Game of Jaws

Dexterity and Physical Skill Games

The Game of Jaws is a board and dexterity game published in 1975 by Ideal Toy Company, licensed from the blockbuster film Jaws released the same year. Players use a plastic gaff hook to extract junk pieces, such as tires and human skulls, from the mouth of a plastic great white shark model without triggering its snap-shut jaw mechanism. In standard play, multiple players compete to be first to remove four junk pieces; a two-player game requires removing five. Originally marketed for ages six and up, its recommended age was later lowered to four and up. Original copies are now considered rare and valuable to collectors. The National Entertainment Collectibles Association released an updated version in 2025 to mark the film's fiftieth anniversary, featuring a more accurate shark model and refreshed game pieces.

Facts
Origin Year
1975 1
Sources
1. The Game of Jaws (Wikipedia)
  • Lead paragraph
    The Game of Jaws is a 1975 game produced by the Ideal Toy Company.
  • lead paragraph, origin-year
    The Game of Jaws is a 1975 game produced by the Ideal Toy Company. The game is based on the blockbuster film of the same name. Today, the game is rare and is a valuable collector's item. Jaws features a plastic great white shark, as well as 13 junk pieces. The junk pieces are things like tires, human skulls, etc. The game was also released as "Sharky's Diner" many years later. Despite being based on the mature-oriented horror film, the game’s age range was initially 6+ and later changed to 4+. It was remade by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association in 2025 for the film’s 50th anniversary with a more film accurate shark and pieces.
View the Source

Take a Related Quiz

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.