Domino Rally was the brainchild of 16 year old Jason Carroll, and originally called ‘Domino Track’. It was manufactured by Pressman Toys in the late 1980’s, remaining on shelves for the next 15 years.
The original design featured a robust interlocking track with solid dominoes. However, the Domino Rally that people are familiar with used light-weight plastic dominoes that would fall easily…as any child who has ever tried setting up the dominoes will know. Hours of painstakingly placing dominoes to accidentally knock one over when nearing completion was a nightmare!
While the commercials all showed how much fun they were to knock down, they very rarely showed children spending hours trying to set them up and begging parents for help. They also didn’t show annoying siblings knocking down your dominoes on purpose. Instead they simply showed how much fun knocking down a completed ‘Rally’ could be.
Over the years Pressman Toys created numerous Domino Rally sets. Many of which featured stunts such as rocket launchers, marble tracks, zig zags, bridges and other novelty parts to differentiate the different sets from one another. They even released a glow in the dark Domino Rally with glowing dominoes.
Some featured ‘Domino Dealers’ and ‘Pathmakers’, designed to help those with poor hand-eye coordination to lay the perfect straight track with ease. This made things a lot easier and far quicker, taking away much of the frustration of accidentally knocking down dominoes.
By the early 2000’s Pressman Toys had released dozens of different sets and finally run out of domino ideas. It was at this time that Domino Rally was sent to the toy graveyard. However, in 2011 Goliath Games resurrected Domino Rally and began selling the family favourite once more to a whole new generation of domino stackers.
