Crocodile dentist by Hasbro is a toy designed for young children first released in 1990. Proper 90’s children will remember this game growing up, simple to play, with no skill or complicated instructions to learn.

In fact, the excitement in this game revolves around the surprise element of the crocodile ‘biting off your fingers’, which made it popular amongst us when we were young enough to have little interest in game boys or goo aliens.

In fact, in 1991, Crocodile Dentist was so popular, it was one of that years top selling Christmas gifts!

How to Play Crocodile Dentist

Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s incredibly basic.

You have a plastic toy crocodile’s head with its mouth open exposing the teeth. Now, there are 2 slight variants of this game, but work in the same way.

The players involved take it in turns to ‘extract’ the teeth; either by using pliers to pull out teeth, or push the teeth down, depending on the version of the game you owned.

Now, with each turn, there is the risk element.

One of the teeth is set up to force the crocodile to bite. You don’t know which one it will be, and each time the game is played, the suspect tooth changes.

The unlucky person will extract the wrong tooth and force the crocodile to bite. If you are quick enough, you can move your hand out of the way. But too slow, and you will get a bite.

Whilst it was a child’s toy, it did no real harm. But the sudden snap was enough to induce excitement/ fear.

If you had psycho siblings like me, you probably wouldn’t be surprised when I say I witnessed them playing alone, leaving their hand in the way to get bitten in some sort of narcissistic manner.

It’s been a long time since I’ve actually seen one of these in real life. However, I was surprised to hear that they are still being made and sold.

I was even more surprised, and somewhat excited, to hear that you can buy the keyring version of this game!

More shockingly, in research for this article, I have seen that REAL LIFE adults have adapted this game for mere youtube views. 

In fact, they modify the game, so that the top half of the mouth has sharp items such as razor blades to re-ignite the surprise and shock element of the game.