From the Toysit archive
Mystery Date Electronic Phone Game
Mystery Date’s electronic phone offers three historical game modes and inspires an original festival-guest clue desk.
The play at a glance
A little phone with clues waiting inside
The blue-and-green Mystery Date phone stands open above its yellow keys, with a character picture and clue sheet beside it. Dialing a game number brings a recorded response into the tabletop scene. The player listens, looks through the pictures and decides what the clue changes. The original toy offers three different games around that telephone-shaped centerpiece.Three modes, three reasons to listen
Dating Line asks players to identify a hidden character. Clues about clothes, foods, sports or locations send them back to the picture frames to cross possibilities off a sheet. The recorded calls and picture details work together.
Mystery Line adds another piece of detective work: players collect digits for a fictional best friend’s number and learn a numeric answer needed to finish the mystery. Party Line changes the goal to gathering six character cards as party guests.
The phone’s recorded responses create the calls within the game. Its private and shared listening options give information a role in the turn sequence. For an original paper mystery, you can invent a smaller guest list and let the group write every clue.
Open a festival-guest clue desk
Draw four imaginary visitors on separate cards. Give each a different hat, snack and hobby: a striped hat with a pear and painting, a star hat with a sandwich and gardening, a leaf hat with a plum and kite making, and a dotted hat with a bun and drumming.
One player secretly chooses a visitor and prepares two clues about the drawing. “My guest carries a pear” is a direct clue; “My guest’s hat has no stars” leaves several possibilities. Check the pictures together so the clues agree with what is on the cards.
Another player works at the clue desk. They can lay a folded-paper phone beside the pictures, hear a clue and point to the visitors still possible. When they have an answer, they explain which detail helped them choose. Add a third clue if the group wants one.
Give the solved mystery somewhere to go
Draw a festival invitation for the chosen visitor. A painter might decorate the entrance, while a gardener brings a picture of a flower for the welcome table. Add the guest’s card to a festival scene and invent a short greeting.
Swap the clue writer and detective for another round. Try changing one visual detail and noticing how it changes the clues you can give. The visitors, dialogue and invitation story are the players’ own creations.
The historical record
Original Toysit coverage
The complete earlier coverage follows. Its promotional language, broad learning claims and generic game commentary remain historical material; the researched qualifications appear in Sources.
Using an electronic talking phone, girls will delight in playing three different mystery games.
This ultimate slumber party game has taken a new twist. Using an electronic talking phone, girls will delight in playing three different mystery games. The trick is to uncover clues by talking to 24 boys to find out which boy will ask them on a date. Players can also find out who the mystery boy is.
The Mystery Date Game with Talking Phone adds a layer of excitement and unpredictability that children find absolutely thrilling. The incorporation of a talking phone into this classic dating board game not only modernizes the play experience but also introduces an interactive element that heightens suspense. The phone serves as a direct line to potential "dates," providing clues or directions that guide players toward their mystery date for the evening. This sensory addition makes the game feel more immersive and personal, as if the events are unfolding in real-time. Moreover, the talking phone fosters a sense of agency; players feel they are actively influencing the outcome based on their decisions, which can be both empowering and educational. Overall, the Mystery Date Game with Talking Phone captures the essence of surprise, suspense, and the joy of the unknown, all while teaching children about choice and consequence in an interactive, playful environment.
Sources and editorial notes
All nine PDF pages of Hasbro’s 41299 guide were reviewed, including its 1999 copyright notice, illustrated phone and three modes. The guide identifies a simulated electronic phone and entirely fictional names, numbers and locations. Exact box printing and the original ASIN mapping were not independently established. Broader claims in the historical essay about agency, education and real-time experience are retained as commentary. The festival activity uses new paper clues supplied by players, not a programmable function of the toy. The companion activity is original to Toysit. No physical game or electronic playback was tested.
- Hasbro: Mystery Date 41299 instructions — All nine PDF pages reviewed for the illustrated phone, fictional clue system, three modes, listening options and owner guidance.
- Original Toysit coverage — Complete earlier text, original identifiers and retained product image inspected and preserved.
Images and descriptions are retained as historical material. How Toysit covers toys.
Created for Toysit by Tabbloza — the artwork in our header.