KerPlunk

KerPlunk is a children's game invented by Eddy Goldfarb with Rene Soriano and first marketed by the Ideal Toy Company in 1967. The game equipment consists of a transparent plastic tube, plastic rods called straws (normally 26 to 30 in total and of various colours — yellow and red predominantly) and several dozen marbles. The base contains four separate numbered trays; the straws are passed through holes in the middle of the tube to form a lattice. The marbles are then placed in the top of the tube and held in place by the lattice. The onomatopoeic name of the game derives from the sound of the marbles tumbling to the base of the tube during play.

At the start of play, the entire tube is rotated so that a hole in the base of the tube is aligned with the active player's tray. Players take turns removing a single straw from the tube while trying to minimize the number of marbles that fall through the web and into their trays. Once a player has committed themselves to a particular straw by touching it, they must remove it. The player who accumulates the fewest dropped marbles wins.

The game is manufactured and marketed by Hasbro in the UK, and formerly by the Milton Bradley Company, and by Mattel in the USA.

A drop tower amusement park ride themed after KerPlunk is planned as one of the attractions in the in-development Mattel Adventure Park in Glendale, Arizona.