Cluedo beats Risk and Uno to join National Toy Hall of Fame

Murder-mystery classic Cluedo has become the latest board game to be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The Toy Hall of Fame is curated by US museum The Strong, which chooses a handful of creations to join its ranks each year.

Last year it was seminal RPG Dungeons & Dragons that made the cut, beating Cluedo and card game Uno, which was nominated again this year.

Also in the running for the 2017 accolade was strategy icon Risk, plus non-game hopefuls include My Little Pony, the PEZ dispenser, the Magic 8 Ball, Matchbox cars, Transformers, play food and sand. Yep, as in the stuff you find on beaches.

Joining Cluedo in 2017’s inductees was the humble paper airplane and the baseball-like US invention Wiffle Ball.

Tabletop games already in the Toy Hall of Fame – which has added more than 60 inventions since it began in 1998 – include Monopoly, Scrabble, The Game of Life, Twister, chess, draughts and playing cards.

Although inducted under its American name of ‘Clue’, Cluedo was designed by a British couple in the UK at the end of World War II. It wasn’t released until 1949 by Monopoly publisher Waddingtons, and was later licensed by Parker Brothers for its US iteration.

It remains one of the ten best-selling board games ever made, and has been spun off into a movie and even comic books.