Fundex Mexican Train Dominoes

Many games can be played with Double 12 Dominoes but the most popular is "Mexican Train". Mexican Train dominoes has become a bit of a fad in the USA since 2004/5 and the game is now 'en vogue' in Europe, too.

Our set from Fundex is for those who take their Mexican Train dominoes seriously or for children who will love the unique 3-D Train hub that makes noises!

The set features a higher quality hub with a speaker that toots and chugs when pressed and cleverly holds dominoes in place during game play. Dominoes are whilte composition tiles with coloured spots at 10mm thick.

The Fundex Mexican Train Dominoes comes in a specially shaped Tin containing the Train Hub, set of Double Twelve Dominoes, a full quota of 9 mini-train game pieces, and instructions.

This product requires batteries, although the game can still be played without them, if peace and quiet is preferred! Batteries are included.

Tin dimension are 28 x 15 x 12cm. There are 91 tiles at 10mm thick.

Fundex Mexican Train Dominoes in a tin (with audible hub)

Bundle - Fundex Double 12 Dominoes with Mexican Train Accessory Pack

History of Dominoes

Tile games of some form have been found from around 1120 AD in China. Chinese dominoes are longer than Western ones and are divided into two types and were originally carved from bone or ivory with the indented pips made of ebony.  Each Chinese tile represents one of the twenty-one different permutations of throwing two cubic dice although there are a total of thirty-two tiles since certain dominoes are duplicated.   A set of Chinese tiles is divided into two categories - Military and Civilian.   The Civilian tiles are the set of tiles that have duplicates while the Military tiles are those that are unique. 

The game appeared first in Europe in 18th Century Italy, possibly in the courts of Venice and Naples.  Although domino tiles are clearly of Chinese inheritance, there is debate over whether the game played by Europeans was brought by the Chinese to Europe in the fourteenth century or, in fact, was invented independently.  European dominoes are shorter than Chinese ones and there is a single tile for each permutation of the throw of two dice or a blank making a total of twenty-eight tiles.  This is the standard or "double-six" set and, as in China, various games can be played with it.   Double-twelve sets (91 tiles) are popular in America and Double-nine sets (55 tiles) also provide some extra complexity to this genre of game.

The game arrived in Britain in the late 18th Century from France (possibly via French prisoners of war) and quickly seems to have become popular in inns and taverns at the time. The word "Domino" is French for a black and white hood worn by Christian priests in winter and that is probably from where the name of the game derives.

You can learn more about Dominoes from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.