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In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we're gonna twist up a little wind whipper of our own as we unbox, assemble and play the game of… COWNADO!
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Chop-o-Matic. Veg-o-Matic. Dial-o-Matic. Smokeless Ashtray. Spray-On Hair. Mr. Microphone. Pocket Fisherman. These are just a few of the handy, dandy, kitschy, quirky products from the genius mind of one man… Ron Popeil (ok, that’s not entirely true. I’ll explain later) but what IS true is that Ron Popeil’s name is permanently etched into history as the man who could sell ice cubes to eskimos and produce the perfect gadget to make them with as well as being the founder and face of… RONCO! And THIS is THAT story! Time to Set it! Forget it! And Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we bring you the best in retromatic pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! And what could be more fun than throwing back to the crazy, clever, quirky and classic as-seen-on-tv products from the legendary Ron Popeil and his namesake company RONCO!?
BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about our amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They are the perfect attire for singing into your Mr. Microphone or relaxing pond-side with your Pocket Fisherman and best of all they are 100 percent cool-o-matic! But wait! There’s more! Buy one t-shirt and get a second one for ZERO DOLLARS OFF! Just visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and Order yours today!
Oh and while you’re there, be sure to check out our new designs like GORILLATUDE, BODY BY DONUTS, MAYPOP TIRES, LED ROBSTER and more! They make great Christmas gifts! Just get to the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com today!
THE STORY OF RON POPEIL AND RONCO!
Ok! RONCO! It’s impossible to tell you the story of RONCO without also bringing you the story of its founder and pitch-man-in-chief, Ron Popeil. You may remember Ron as recently as the 2000s selling kitchen gadgets on tv, but his more amusing products stem from the 1980s,70s and from Ronco’s founding in the 1960s. But to really po-peel back the curtain on the iconic RONCO and the man who started it all, Ron Popeil, we need to go back farther! MUCH FARTHER!
The year: 1935. A little jewish boy named Ronald Milton Popeil was brought kicking and screaming into a world of many wonders to a mother named Julia and a father named Samuel Popeil who was an inventor and manufacturer of household products. Not much is known about the early life of Ronald Milton except that his parents divorced at a very young age and he went to live with his grandparents in Florida because… that’s where grandparents live.
Samuel Popeil
But in 1952 at the age of 17, Ronald went to work at his father Samuel and Uncle Raymond’s manufacturing facility, Popeil Brothers in Chicago, Illinois selling kitchen gadgets in the street markets. He was a natural and claims to have made over a $1000 per week before heading off to college for a whirlwind 6 months of higher education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, paid for by his sales earnings but quickly ditched college to go back to earning money with the Popeil Brothers marketing his father’s inventions The Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic and the Dial-O-Matic. That’s right! In fact, many of the most iconic and soon-to-be Ronco products were actually invented by Ron’s father Samuel and already had millions of sales before Ronco was ever even conceived!
But the products had a problem! In order for salesmen to conduct their demonstrations, because the products were so efficient at what they did, they had to carry around an obscene amount of vegetables everywhere they went! So Ron’s big solution was to film the products in action and broadcast it to the world as television commercials which were surprisingly more cost effective than anyone in the Popeil Brothers company ever imagined!
POCKET FISHERMAN
In 1963, the senior Popeil, Samuel knocked it out of the park again and straight into the rivers, lakes, ponds, streams and seas (if you’re bold enough) inventing the one and only POCKET FISHERMAN! Samuel thought up the concept for the Pocket Fisherman after almost putting his eye out with the end of a full-sized fishing pole. This was instead, a fishing pole you could put in your pocket (unless you’re wearing skinny jeans). Inside the handle was a miniature tackle box including hooks, lines and sinkers! You can still buy the Pocket Fisherman today at Ronco.com and the modern version can even extend to become a full-sized fishing pole!
BIRTH OF RONCO! Success Out of the Gate!
Mel Korey, co-founder of Ronco
Ron continued working for his father until the mid-1960’s when he decided to branch out on his own along with a brilliant friend he met during his brief stint in college, Mel Korey and establish the now-historic company known as RONCO in 1964. He continued to distribute his father’s products but also brought on goods from other manufacturers like the Ronco Spray Gun. This was a nozzle that turned an ordinary garden hose into a high pressure spray gun which also incorporated various tablets for different purposes like soap for washing surfaces, wax for your car and insecticides and herbicides for insect and weed control. The genius behind the product was that once the consumer purchased the nozzle, they would continue to come back and spend money for the consumable tablets long after the initial sale. With the help of some late-night television commercials, guaranteed-sale promise to the retailers (meaning Ronco agreed to buy back any merchandise that didn’t sale) and “trade support marketing” meaning that the retailers would receive the added promotional benefit of having their store listed in the television ads, the Ronco Spray Gun sold almost 1 million units within 4 years. An undeniable success right out of the gate!
RONCO GETS HOSED!
For the first decade of Ronco’s existence, the company did not offer a single product over $20 and the vast majority were under $10. This was their niche in the marketplace. But over half their revenue in the late 60s didn’t come from a kitchen gadget or any sort of quirky novelty item, but instead came from pantyhose of all things! London Aire Hosiery to be exact, with Ron Popeil himself on late night tv commercials doing what he did best, conducting a master class in salesmanship! You see, these pantyhose were guaranteed in writing not to run. So Ron put them to the test with a scouring pad, nail file, scissors and a lit cigarette to prove that these pantyhose would indeed not run! This increased Ronco’s gross sales in 1969 to over $14 million!
RONCO GOES PUBLIC!
In 1969 Ronco decided to go public under the moniker of Ronco Teleproducts selling 22 percent of its shares for $5.5 million. The following year they raised an additional ¾ of a million dollars selling even more shares on the American Stock Exchange.
THEN CAME THE 70s!
The 1970s and 80s are largely considered to be Ronco’s heyday and with good reason. This is the era in which they were firmly sewn into the fabric of American pop culture with their unique and never-ending parade of quirky as-seen-on-tv gadgets! Like the Miracle Broom, Miracle Brush, Glass Froster, The Roller Measure, the Salad Spinner and a whole lot more!
BUT THE DECADE ACTUALLY STARTED WITH A DIFFERENT KIND OF HIT! MURDER FOR HIRE!
1972 included an absolutely bizarre occurrence in the world of the Popeil family but unfortunately, this was neither cool, quirky nor amusing in any way! Samuel Popeil’s estranged wife, Eloise (not Ron’s mother) whom had separated from him in 1965 had run off to California, met a new boyfriend, Dan Ayers and together they attempted to put a hit out on Samuel offering tens of thousands of dollars to two of Mr. Ayers’ coworkers who ultimately got cold feet, went to Samuel Popeil himself and divulged the murder-for-hire plot to him. This resulted in the arrest and conviction of both Dan and Eloise who were sentenced to just one to five years in prison. Eloise ended up serving only 19 months, was awarded a quarter of a million dollar divorce settlement in 1976 and then even more bizarrely Samuel and Eloise remarried several years later (this according to an article by the Daily Pilot.)
SMOKELESS ASHTRAY! Ron’s first invention!
1974 found Ron Popeil keeping himself busy with an invention of his own: The Smokeless Ashtray. This was an ashtray with a built-in vacuum that would suck smoke in, route it through a charcoal filter and exhaust out clean(er) air.
Then you had the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler which featured a slightly bent pointed pin on a base that you would insert into the bottom of a whole egg through the shell. The pin would then spin inside the egg, whisking the contents.
MR. MICROPHONE AMPLIFIES AMERICA!
In 1978 Mr. Microphone was unleashed upon the world allowing anybody to amplify their voice over a common radio. The tv commercial became a pop culture mainstay and even featured Ron’s daughter in a car full of hooligans using Mr. Microphone to cat call women on the street as they drove by broadcasting over their car radio. It was a very different time!
And the kitschy, quirky products rained from Ronco practically nonstop during this era with the Bottle and Jar Cutter, Rhinestone and Stud Setter, The Record Vacuum where you would place a vinyl record into a slot and this device would spin it while brushing the dust and supposedly static from it. Personally I would NEVER put one of my records into this thing!
RONCO RECORDS
And speaking of records! Ronco also went wild with their own record label releasing mainly compilations of hit songs giving K-Tel a run for their money! With all this combined by the time 1980 rolled around, Ronco’s gross sales had reached almost $37 million!
But then Ronco made a fatal mistake with the release of the Clean-Aire Machine. This was basically the Smokeless Ashtray on steroids and was one of the early home air cleaners on the market. I say “one of” because there were others with similar products such as Remington and Norelco whom Ronco vastly underestimated. Simultaneously they grossly overmanufactured for the 1983 Christmas season and got burned by the retailers on their “guaranteed sale” policy forcing them to buy back over two thirds of the inventory they placed into stores.
RONCO DECLARES BANKRUPTCY!
It was also during this time, the price of television commercials sharply rose and to make matters worse a $15 million line of revolving credit was called in by Ronco’s bank forcing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy which soon turned into a Chapter 7 and Ronco was 86’d right out of business practically overnight.
BUT RON! (who did not declare personal bankruptcy himself) repurchased the inventory from the bank and continued under a new partnership agreement with one of Ronco’s top salesmen, Malcolm Sherman. Together they focused on selling off the inventory of the Clean-Aire Machine and the Electric Food Dehydrator before parting ways in the late 80s. Sherman received full rights to the Clean-Aire Machine while Ron took over Ronco once again along with full ownership of the Electric Food Dehydrator. And by taking over, I mean he slipped into semi-retirement for the remainder of the 80s going back to his roots and demonstrating products at street markets once again.
AGE OF THE INFOMERCIAL!
Fast forward to 1991: Ron Popeil got the television bug once again signing an agreement with the USA Direct Shopping Channel owned by Fingerhut where he would go on to sell 200,000 of his Electric Food Dehydrators.
It was the new age of the infomercial and Mr. Popeil was once again right there in his element which set the stage for his new company, Ronco Inventions. He also had a new line of products like the absolutely weird Spray-On Hair (GLH Formula #9 Hair System) which I desperately tried to find for this episode to no avail as it was discontinued long ago. I was seriously going to have someone spray hair onto my head. It would have been amazing! The other products during this time were the wildly successful Automatic Pasta Maker which spawned a flurry of patent lawsuits but ultimately Ronco Inventions was allowed to continue selling it.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
In 1995, Ron Popeil at 60 years old, released his autobiography “Salesman of the Century” which he toured the United State promoting.
SHOWTIME ROTISSERIE AND BARBECUE OVEN!
Then came what was to be pretty much Ronco Inventions’ last big hit in 1998: The Showtime Rotisserie and Barbeque Oven selling more than 2.5 million units for a total of over $400 million by the year 2001.
SALE OF RONCO
In 2018, Ron Popeil decided it was finally time to put his beloved Ronco under new stewardship and sold the company to Fi-Tek VII, Inc. for a whopping $55 million. The new ownership promptly changed the name of the company to Ronco Corp but Popeil remained involved as a consultant overseeing inventions and sales and continuing to personally promote products on television.
DEATH OF RON POPEIL
Sadly on July 28, 2021, Master Marketer of the Century Ron Popeil passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. No cause of death was officially given but secondary family members reportedly stated that he had been admitted to the hospital a day earlier with a brain hemorrhage. He was 86 years old and left behind a legacy of American cultural influence on a level that very few could ever hope to achieve.
Mr. Ron Popeil, the DANDY FUN HOUSE SALUTES YOU!And THAT’S the story of Ron Popeil and his legendary company RONCO!
And if you find yourself enjoying this episode of the Dandy Fun House or even if you hate it but want to throw money around for the heck of it, please consider supporting future productions by visiting our Patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com and becoming a Dandy Fun House Supporter!
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And Five Star Reviews wherever you can leave them always get my undying gratitude.
And on that note, I think it’s time for me to SET IT AND FORGET IT ON OUTTA HERE . Let me know your thoughts, opinions, complaints and feedback in the comments section of whatever platform you are consuming this episode on if a comments section exists. I love interacting with all of you, even the haters.SEE YOU AGAIN REAL SOON right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always…FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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Have you ever wanted to mooove through time and space? Well, you’re in the right place because in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to unbox, assemble and play and review the game… COWS IN SPACE! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and this is the place for your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. And today we’re doing toys and games. Toys and games, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you call it? a toy with a game, a TWAG! That’s what they say in the industry, baby!
But first, I want to show you our Dandy Fun house t-shirts! They are woven from 100% heifer fur, and they’re guaranteed to keep you warm on cold nights, or at least lukewarm nights. So yeah, buy one or be square. We cut four holes in them, one to crawl your body into, two to put your arms through, and one to stick your pokey little neck out of. What do you want from me?
I’ll tell you what you want from me! You want some of the new designs at the Dandy Fun Shop, that’s right. Like LED ROBSTER, BODY BY DONUTS, and of course, SODIUM SUBSTITUTE LIFE! Just get over to the Dandy Fun Shop today!
Okay, COWS IN SPACE! Let’s take a look at it. Groovy box, baby. I’m liking this. All right, you got a couple of kids. They don’t look too young. They look kind of like preteens with grandpa over here. Grandpa looks kind of like me. What the? What’s going on with that?
I’m not sure I like that, but anyway, the front, cartoony, colorful. It’s just popping real nice. Yeah, you see the game there. It shows it, and these guys are wearing headbands with flying saucers on it, and it looks like they’re picking up cows, I assume magnetically.
And the sides are all the same. They didn’t really go hog wild on that. Nothing on the bottom. Let’s check out the back. Okay, we’ve got slimer aliens here, and they’re showing the game. “Use your magnetic UFO headband to quickly pick up cows from the spinning base.” Oh, the base spins! “It’s the best game in the universe, and out of it! The out of this world head to head race to capture as many cows as possible.”
Now, what is it with aliens and cows and crop circles? I don’t get it.
Motorized spinning base, we already know that, ages six plus… Two players… Ten plus minutes. How many rules could there possibly be to this thing? Oh, and What Do You Meme Family?
So this game, even though it doesn’t really say the manufacturer… oh, it DOES say the manufacturer! I was looking all over for it, and I just now found it, and now it’s too late for me to research the company. Usually, I like to do something about the company that makes it, and apparently the company is, it says “RELATABLE” at the bottom for the brand. Very understatable, but somehow they’re affiliated with What Do You Meme apparently, but What Do You Meme is more of an adult-oriented game, but I think there’s a family version of it as well, to the best of my knowledge.
Well, okay, we’ve had a look at the box. Let’s unbox it!UNBOXING
I did PRE-slit the tape on it, just so I wouldn’t have to fumble with it.
And…
okay, there’s not much to see from the top there. Let’s just go ahead and do a big slide out.Oh, and you can see pretty much everything! You slide it out and there’s nothing left in the box, so we’ll just go ahead and lose the box. And this is what we’ve got. We’ve got the game itself, and you got the parts of the magnetic headband. You got the UFOs here. This looks like it’s going to be real simple. This might be a short review today. A “Cows in Space” instruction booklet. How many instructions could there possibly be? We’ll look at these if we have to. I’m thinking we don’t have to. I think this thing’s pretty self-explanatory.
You got a bunch of cows in these little bags here, spotted on the top, pink on the bottom. Looks like you got seven in each bag, three bags, that’s 21 cows. And then we have a barn in a bag which apparently clicks right into the middle of the game field. Now I’ll probably never get the box closed again. Thank you very much. Oh, and the headbands! That means I’m going to have to take off my cool cow hat.
It does look like the headbands are adjustable. And I guess I really only need one headband. There’s a little notch here, and you just kind of put your flying saucer link in there and kind of shove it down there. And then you adjust your headband and strap it on. It’s a plastic headband. It’s not stretchy or spongy, but that’s good because if it were stretchy, it’d be made out of fabric. And then you’d have everyone’s sweat building up in the fabric, and you’d have to wash it. Since this is plastic, you can just wipe it off and you’re good. So I guess I’ve got to lose the cow hat on my head so I can play this thing. THIS ladies and gentlemen, is why I make the big bucks.
Oh, that–oh, wow. That most certainly is uncomfortable. The notch where you attach your springy-springy for the UFO? That digs into your head! And it’s obviously made to curl in this way, so that side’s supposed to be on your head. I’m going to opt for turning this thing around because I don’t think they thought that through very well. I’m going to go in reverse on this headband otherwise, that protrusion is going to dig into my forehead and leave a square dent.
All right, how’s this? This is why I do this show. Okay, I need a couple of batteries for this game. My understanding is that this takes two AA batteries, and of course, they put a screw over the battery compartment. Why? Why make this difficult? You could just have a little finger release on there. But fortunately, I have a Leatherman tool right here on my person.
I guess the object is to collect more cows than your opponent. And there are some different rules in the rulebook of different ways to play from the little tiny bit of research I did. And these two batteries should be enough to power it for at least a little bit for me to do this review.
Oh, the barn is an on-off switch!
Well ok! We’re ready to put some cows in our field and see if we can abduct them with our UFO! I don’t really like the term UFO. It’s a pet peeve, and I’ve talked about it on this show before, but… UFO doesn’t really mean an alien spacecraft. It just means that it’s a flying object that hasn’t been identified. Is it time for me to rethink my life choices?
Well, without further ado, I believe these cows are ready for abduction. So let’s play some COWS IN SPACE!
GAME PLAY
One cow abducted.
(…)
Two cows abducted. I guess it’s a lot harder when you’ve got another person fighting for cows against you.
(…)
But yeah, this is super easy.
(…)
Maybe a little too easy.
But it’s just so absolutely absurd, though.
This is like the stuff I live for.
(Cows Mooing)
All right, I’m going to keep going until I’ve got all these cows.
And then I’m going to let you know my final thoughts.
And I’ve got all 21 cows. Look at this.(…) All right, let’s do the wrap up here.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON COWS IN SPACE
Okay, COWS IN SPACE. What do I like about this game? What do I not like about this game? Let’s start with what I like about the game. It’s just ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous! Who could not love this thing? I mean, if this isn’t entertainment, I don’t know what is. I love the fun graphics all over the box. I love the whole cow abduction thing. This is just a whole lot of fun.
What do I not like about the game? Well, I don’t like the fact that I have to turn the headband inside out in order to use it. You naturally want to put it on with the natural curvature, but I had to put it on in reverse because the thing that you put your sproingy doingy for the UFOs would otherwise dig into the middle of my head. Also, I would have liked for it to have been a little more prominent as to who makes it. I did look on the box and it’s just so understated. I overlooked it and I would have loved to have found out more about this company.
But I’ll tell you what, you want to have a good goofy time? Get yourself some COWS IN SPACE! And watch your step!
SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE!
By the way, if you like what we do here and you want to help me buy more stupid games like this, maybe I’ll do COWNADO next. Maybe I’ll do a whole cow theme! Maybe every game I review this year will be cow themed.
Anyway, if you like what we do and you want to help me buy more stupid games like this, I encourage you to visit the Dandy Fun House website where you can visit our patronage page and support future productions!
Supporters will get exclusive access to bonus features not available to the general public
and…
Super Supporters will get all that. PLUS, I’ll mail you something really special from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios. But you got to send me your mailing address if you do that.Podcast Listeners can support through the donation button in their listening app of choice if the app offers it…
and your five star reviews anywhere you can leave them always get my undying gratitude.
All right. I’m going to play more COWS IN SPACE and we’re going to hit the outro right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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It’s time to close out yet another year of the Dandy Fun House. While all those “other shows” are slacking off and giving you retrospectives of everything they’ve already done in the past year, it is instead our tradition here at the Dandy Fun House to leave the past exactly there… in the past and instead look ahead to the brand spankin’ new year coming at us like Frehley’s Comet and take a glimpse at the coolest stuff we’ve been able to find that’s waiting for us in 2026!
We’re going to look at theme parks, movies, pinball and of course the TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2026 Toy of the Year Awards! Are you ready to get your kicks in 26? Then LET’S step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2025 year-end extravaganza where we wear the hats and blow our hooters about the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode we’re going to look ahead at WHAT’S HOT ON THE HORIZON FOR 2026 in the worlds of theme parks, movies, pinball and my personal picks for the 2026 TOTY AWARDS (Toy of the Year).
BUT FIRST! I have to show you these amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts before time runs out! Perfect for swaddling the baby new year, They have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com before the Dandy Ball Drops!
Alrighty, hold on tighty and let’s get right into what’s hot on the horizon for 2026 starting with…
THEME PARKS!
And up first is going to be UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD (which isn’t actually in Hollywood, it’s in Studio City kind of like the LA Angels baseball team is actually in Anaheim and how they call the Embassy Suites here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee “Nashville South” which we absolutely are not. But anyway that’s a rabbit hole rant for another day.)
Anyway, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS in the greater Los Angeles, California area is breaking ground on a new roller coaster where each individual car experiences its very own 360 degrees of rotation. The coaster is called FAST AND FURIOUS HOLLYWOOD DRIFT themed after the Fast and Furious movies obviously. This one is expected to peel out in 2026!
And Legoland California is busy building the Lego Galaxy space-themed land including an indoor roller coaster.
Over at Kings Island in Ohio they’re opening what they are calling a new “dark ride” in 2026 called “PHANTOM THEATER: Opening Nightmare.” It’s in the location that has most recently held an attraction called Boo Blasters but is apparently the site of a previous attraction also called PHANTOM THEATER and this is apparently the return of that attraction with some various upgrades.
I went to the Kings Island website to get more information and there’s just a teaser video showing two girls walking into Boo Blasters and ending up in the Phantom Theater which appears to be a very loose sendup on the Phantom of the Opera. The cartoon phantom character they show in the teaser graphic is obviously based on the classic Lon Chaney silent film character, and visitors ride inside cars that resemble opera boxes. So… yeah.
Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (my neck of the woods kinda sorta) will be undertaking a $50 million expansion and also opening the world’s first ever hybrid indoor family coaster and whitewater river raft ride called the “Night Flight Expedition.”
Then under at Sea World, Orlando Florida they’re diving into a new dark ride called SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep. If you don’t know what a dark ride is, it basically means it’s indoors and you get moved from scene to scene. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually dark. Anyway, this new dark ride at Sea World Orlando will be what they are calling a suspended dark ride. The only information about this ride currently is that the rider will “discover dazzling ecosystems, legendary sea life, and breathtaking stories of resilience and wonder.”
NEW MOBILITY DEVICE POLICY AT SEA WORLD!
And speaking of Sea World, they have a controversial new policy which has been making the news lately that has just rolled out regarding mobility devices for the disabled. It appears that rollator walkers with seats are no longer permitted. The official updated policy from the Sea World website is as follows:
“For the safety of our guests and employees, rollator walkers with seats on them are not permitted at SeaWorld Orlando. Alternative personal transportation options, including standard wheelchairs and Electric Convenience Vehicles (ECVs), are available. Walkers without a seat are permitted.”I’m guessing that more than a few guests were using their rollators like wheelchairs and it was causing some sort of safety concern in the parks. As someone who transports disabled people as my profession and handles mobility devices all day long, I can tell you from personal experience that a wheelchair itself is something you need to exercise caution with while pushing someone around. A rollator walker would be very, very easy to tip over if someone were attempting to use it as a wheelchair.
So while I am disappointed at the inconvenience some disabled guests are going to face with this new policy, I want to be very careful not to demonize Sea World too quickly on this new policy. Guests can still borrow suitable mobility devices from guest services.
Ok, time to work our flippers over to the world of PINBALL!
Here are the rumored pinball releases expected in 2026 that caught my eye during the research for this episode. Please keep in mind these are only rumors…
AMERICAN PINBALL is rumored to be releasing a CUPHEAD pinball machine in 2026 based on the wildly popular video game featuring some amazing vintage animation styles. I’ll admit I’m not familiar with the character or the video game but I do love this vintage cartoon style!
SPOOKY PINBALL is said to be working on a MOTORHEAD pinball machine for 2026. NO offense to guitarist Wurzel or drummer Mickey Dee (now playing with the Scorpions) who were crucial to keeping the band going in its later years, but I’m really hoping it honors the original lineup of Lemmy, Philthy Phil and Fast Eddie!
BARRELS OF FUN PINBALL appears to be cooking up some GOONIES pinball for the new year!
RAMPS PINBALL will be coming out with LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS! Oh please let the carnivorous plant eat the ball!
And last but not least in our pinball 2026 rumours we have PINBALL ADVENTURES bringing us SUSHI MADNESS! Ni Ohashi Kudasai !
And if you’re REALLY a pinball nut as we know you are, you’ll want to put March 20th through the 22nd on your calendar because that’s when Frisco, Texas braces itself for the annual TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL! Over 440 games. One incredible weekend!
The website says tickets go on sale October 4th 2026. I have to imagine that’s a typo and they really mean 2025 otherwise only those with the ability for reverse time travel will be able to attend. There will be tournaments and challenges, special guests and panels, exhibitors, parts, memorabilia, new games and there will be a special tech day for those trying to upgrade and/or fix their own machines. That’s the TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL 2026! Rope you a ticket today! Yeehaw!
Alright, I think we’re ready to “steer” away from pinball and “drive” this herd into…
MOVIES!
First I’ll start with letting you know a few of my favorite movies of 2025 before we get into what’s ahead for 2026:
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: Ok, it was pretty much par for the course but it had Scarlett Johansson carrying the entire movie on her shoulders alone and she pulled it off amazingly!
MICKEY 17: This is a movie about a guy who signs on to do very dangerous grunt work in space for a corporation and every time he gets killed, the company just prints out a new copy of him with all his same memories. The crux is that the new copy never knows if he’s actually the person being reborn every time or if he really dies and the new copy just has his memories and merely thinks he’s the same person. Weird stuff.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS – After many fantastic fails at trying to make this work on the big screen, they finally got the Fantastic Four right! The retro future vibe was spot on and all the actors were perfect!
SUPERMAN: I was really upset about losing Henry Cavill as Superman, but James Gunn came back with a fresh new fun feel on this one starring David Corenswet, even bringing in Supe’s dog Krypto! This movie was just a great time! More please!
THE SMASHING MACHINE: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a dramatic role co-starring Emily Blunt. It’s the story of Mixed Martial arts and UFC Champion Mark Kerr and how he conquered his biggest opponent: addiction.
And finally in my roundup of my favorite movies of 2025 I bring you… BUGONIA! This movie was a crazy trip with some really wild twists and many moments of pure cringe and I loved it! Starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons who seems to be showing up in everything lately! It’s a story about two conspiracy nuts who kidnap a corporate CEO thinking she’s a space alien trying to destroy the Earth. This was easily my biggest delightful surprise of 2025.
But before we get to 2026, I’d like to give a special nod to TRON: ARES because I always expect anything starring Jared Leto to suck eggs and this did not!
And SPINAL TAP II: The End Continues… Rest in peace Marty DiBergi.
MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2026!
THE ODYSSEY Expected Jul 17, 2026: After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Circe along the way. starring Matt Damon, Mia Goth, and Anne Hathaway. This could be really good or it could be really stupid. I’m betting this is going to be good and double or nothing that Mia Goth will be a siren or maybe Medusa. I think she’d make a good Medusa!
EVIL DEAD BURN Expected Jul 24, 2026 – I’m a sucker for the Evil Dead movies. This one is not likely to have any Bruce Campbell, but they’re keeping the details under tight wraps for now so who knows?
COYOTE VS. ACME Expected Aug 28, 2026 PG A story set in the ACME warehouse, the manufacturer of anything and everything used by the Looney Tunes characters. And apparently John Cena is voicing one of the characters! Oh please oh please oh please get this right! If 2025’s “The Day The Earth Blew Up” starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig is any indication, I think we can have high hopes here! Ooh, that’s another one of my favorites from 2025 I left off the list!
INSPECTOR GADGET – No details are available but I think we’re long overdue for some Go Go Gadget action!
DUNE Part Three Expected Dec 18, 2026 It follows Muad’dib, heir to unimaginable power, as he brings to fruition the ancient scheme to create a superbeing ruler among men, not in the heavens. And according to imdb it’s starring Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet and Anya Taylor-Joy. Did you pick up what I just picked up? Zendaya is not listed as a cast member on IMDB! How can this IMD Be!? You tell me!
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (untitled) – That’s all we know folks. Hopefully they got things squared away with Johnny Depp. That is if they want to sell tickets.
I AM LEGEND 2 – Military scientist Robert Neville seems the sole survivor in virus-ravaged New York. He’s waging a fight against “Darkseekers”, mutants resembling vampires trying to capture him as he searches for a cure. Starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan Alright! I could go for a sequel to I AM LEGEND! Especially when you add Michael B into the mix! I’d really like a sequel to iRobot but this’ll do me for now!
BLADE – That’s right they are teasing a new Blade movie for 2026 with Mia Goth listed in the cast but of course the burning question is DO THEY HAVE WESLEY SNIPES??? They gave him a cameo as Blade in the Deadpool vs. Wolverine movie last year. But Snipes is NOT listed in the cast on IMDB as of yet!
There is also an Untitled Denzel Washington Project Based on the historical figure of Hannibal, considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time. The film covers the crucial battles he led against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. You had me at Denzel, not to mention I love historical action movies. Bring it on!
THE BRIDE Expected Mar 6, 2026 In 1930s Chicago, Dr. Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman as the Bride, sparking romance, police interest, and radical social change. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale THIS IS THE ONE I’M WAITING FOR! Love Christian Bale and love the concept of setting the story of The Bride of Frankenstein in 1930’s Chicago! Let’s go!
SCANDALOUS! This will be the story behind the Hollywood romance of Sammy Davis Jr. and actress Kim Novak. I love anything related to Sammy Davis Jr. “It’s gonna be fantastic baby!”
CLAYFACE – Expected Sep 11, 2026 A shape-shifting creature made of magical clay haunts Gotham City, alternating between villain and ally of Batman. Ok, it’s a Batman villain and not a super obvious one! Looks interesting!
EVEL KNIEVEL ON TOUR – This one is going to be about Legendary motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel and apparently the drama that surrounded the run-up to his 1974 attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.Starring Leonardo DiCaprio Ok, first of all, Evel was planning to jump the Grand Canyon but couldn’t get the ok from the US Government so he made a deal with an Indian tribe to jump the Snake River Canyon seeing how it was located on sovereign tribal land. Anyway, a new movie about Evel Knievel? Heck yeah!
THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING – Expected Nov 20, 2026 This new installment of the Hunger Games will explore Panem 24 years before Katniss’ saga, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, where a young Haymitch Abernathy participates. Ok, this could be alright. I’m not super excited about it but I could be swayed since it won’t have Jennifer Lawrence in it.
And that’s it for THE MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2026!
Now for TOYS!
What I like to do this time of year is see what toys from 2025 have been nominated in various categories for a coveted TOY OF THE YEAR award otherwise known as a TOTY and let you know my personal picks, not that anyone in the industry is giving me a vote. Maybe someday.
BUT TODAY I bring you MY PERSONAL 2026 TOTY AWARD NOMINEE PICKS!
ACTION FIGURE OF THE YEAR: I like Avatar Interactive Shoulder Banshee by Disney Consumer Products – This thing looks pretty cool. It’s basically a small, colorful looking dragon that sits on your shoulder and attaches via a magnetic base you wear under your clothing. A handheld controller allows you to control head and wing movements as well as its voice. This thing is pretty darn awesome!
In the COLLECTIBLES category: There are two different nominees that caught my eye. One is Sticki Rolls Series 2 by Sky Castle Toys which is basically charm bracelets marketed to girls with rolls of small stickers on them with different fun graphics. The other nominee I like is Wigglitz by ZB Designs. These are tiny toy figurines of almost every type of fun character you can imagine that have some sort of wiggly aspect to them, or better put: something that moves when you wiggle them. If I had to choose between these two, I’d probably go with Wigglitz because it’s something you’ll get continual enjoyment from whereas the Sticki Rolls are only fun until you run out of stickers.
CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR: I have to give it to GeckoBot 2.0 by Thames & Kosmos, This is a kit where you build your very own robotic gecko that actually climbs up your windows. Thames & Kosmos just keeps knocking it out of the park!
CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR: Crayola Marker Airbrush has got my vote (that is if I HAD A VOTE which I don’t!). If you’ve ever dreamed of someday making awful-looking t-shirts and hats on the boardwalk, then THIS could be your starter kit! It’s an actual working airbrush sprayer courtesy of everyone’s favorite crayon company, Crayola! It even comes with various spray color cartridges so you start saying it by spraying it!
DOLL OF THE YEAR: Admittedly, I as a 57 year old man should absolutely NOT be voicing my opinion on the Doll of the Year Award (DOTY award?) but if I had to choose from the list of 2026 nominees I would hands-down pick Woof & Co by Sunny Days Entertainment. It’s a collection of fashionable dogs of various breeds who all dress FABULOUS! Yeah, this is the one I’d go for.
EDUCATIONAL TOY OF THE YEAR: In this category I am really liking the SNAP CIRCUITS SPY KIT by Elenco Electronics. This has a bunch of components that you just snap together to make all sorts of cool stuff like a vibration sensor, motion detector, trip wire, voice changer and a whole lot more. Oh the trouble I would have gotten myself into if I had something like this when I was a kid!
GAME OF THE YEAR: I’ve gotta tell you, there’s not a bad one in the bunch of nominees this year for Game of the Year!
They’ve got an EXPLODING KITTENS BOARD GAME where you actually flip the entire board and all the pieces stay in place!
There’s a Simon game (you know, the memory game Simon?) where they took it and incorporated it into a dance mat called SIMON JUMP. So you stomp out your moves on the dance mat!
Then there’s COWS IN SPACE where magnetic flying saucers dangle from your forehead via a sproingy headstrap and the object is to abduct cows from a field with your flying saucer!
But the game that caught my attention the most was TETRIS TUMBLE XL! It’s sort of like Giant Jenga except there is a base that rocks side to side and you roll a die to see what tetris pieces you have to stack on top of it and of course whoever makes the stack fall to the ground is the LOSER! I like this. It’s like a great big fun yard game you could also play in your living room. TETRIS TUMBLE XL for Game of the Year is my choice!
INFANT / TODDLER TOY OF THE YEAR: Ok, maybe another category I might not be the best judge for but I’m who you’ve got pal! And in this category I choose Pour ‘N’ Grow Pop-Up Garden by Yookidoo. This appears to be mainly a bath time toy kit but you could play with it really anywhere as long as you have some water onhand. It’s pretty simple: you’ve got three different toys, The fill and water flower, Peek A Bee and Pop Up Worm. You pour water into them or onto them and the water turns some internal mechanisms to make the flower open, the worm come out and wiggle or gets the bee to play peek a bee with you! Very unique and inventive and in my opinion, the absolute best of this year’s bunch!
KIDULT TOY OF THE YEAR: Kidult? That means it’s made for ages 14 and up. And I’m really torn down the middle between two nominees on this one.
I like the Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 by MGA Entertainment which is an art kit for making your own food minis that you control the designs and colors of. Have you ever walked past a restaurant that had fake food on display showing examples of their most popular dishes? Well that’s what you’ll be making with this kit only really, really small. The name is way too long though.
Or if you just want something cool to play with that doesn’t really take any time and effort, I offer you the ZipString Aracna, which is a newer version of the ZipString string loop toy, but it attaches to your wrist so you can shoot it out like Spiderman! (although they obviously aren’t allowed to actually invoke Spiderman but they sure are bending over backwards suggesting it as extremely as they legally can!) The really cool feature of this Kidult toy of the year nominee is the glow feature! Flip a switch on the ZipString wrist launcher, turn off the lights and do all sorts of awesome tricks and shapes in the dark with a glowing string loop.
So… Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 or the the ZipString Aracna! The Miniverse Make it Mini Food Diner Series 4 triggers me relentlessly with that obnoxiously long name, so on that basis alone I am giving the nod to the ZipString Aracna!
OUTDOOR TOY OF THE YEAR: I think there should really be two sub categories here. One for younger kids and one for older.
For the older kids, I was really blown away by the Crazy Cart Shuffle by Razor USA. This thing is like a Big Wheel or a Green Machine on steroids. Not only can you pedal around in this thing but you can spin and also drift. It’s really neat.
And speaking of neat, for the little ones I absolutely love the Outdoor Kitchen by Hape. It’s not a real kitchen of course but it’s a really cool miniature toy version of an outdoor kitchen setup! Come on TOTY Awards, let’s break this one up by age groups!
PRESCHOOL TOY OF THE YEAR: Ok, there were some good ones in here and maybe I’m judging on my own male bias from a bygone era but my favorite here was the Little Tikes Creative Construction Power Cuts Set by MGA Entertainment. It’s a woodworking shop playset with an actual working , low-powered plastic chop saw which cuts through foam 2x4s and also comes with a play hammer, nails, measuring tape and carpenter pencil which is actually a marker. In the video demonstration I watched, the chop saw did struggle getting through the foam wood, but when you’re talking about preschoolers, that’s probably about the best you can hope for. We desperately need more encouragement and inspiring of our youth towards the skilled trades in my humble opinion and this is a refreshing step in that direction. Nicely done!
SPECIALTY TOY OF THE YEAR: I was truly taken by the Yes & Know Original Invisible Ink Trivia Game Books by Tree Town Toys. These are basically activity books where different things are revealed with the use of a special invisible ink pen. This looks fantastic for keeping the younguns busy on a road trip or maybe in a waiting room or anywhere you want to keep them distracted. That is until you run out of invisible ink and invisible ink activity books!
And those are my picks for the 2026 TOTY AWARDS and THAT’S our look ahead at what’s hot on the horizon for 2026! What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know!
If you’re enjoying this episode on one of the socials, leave a comment. Otherwise you can email me at neil @ dandyfunhouse . com
And even though I said I wasn’t going to do a retrospective of this past year, I will tell you my favorite Dandy Fun House episode from this past year of 2025: Oh, who am I kidding? It’s always the Halloween episode where the Dandy Fun House becomes the Dandy Spook Shack and I get to dress up like a ghoul.
But my second favorite might have to be the deep dive into the iconic toy company WHAM-O! I learned so much doing that one! You might think I just come on here and already know all this stuff I talk about but on the contrary, I do a great deal of research in the weeks leading up to producing an episode and I’m constantly learning amazing new things which is why I really love doing this!
DANDY FUN HOUSE Plans for 2026? More of the same of course! We’re getting really close to monetization on YouTube. Technically we’re already supposed to be there but YouTube gives conflicting information on this and is notorious for constantly moving the goalposts. So while we love publishing to YouTube, we certainly don’t put all our Dandy Eggs in that basket.
We also publish to Instagram, Facebook, X, Tik Tok and Rumble as well as our very own DANDY FUN HOUSE WEBSITE AT dandyfunhouse.com where you can watch the video, listen and subscribe to the podcast or read the entire episode in written form along with pictures! Who does that!? WE DO! THAT’S WHO!
And we do it by hand. No AI stuff. Okay, full disclosure, we DO use AI to help transcribe the episodes into written form and also the captions for the short form videos, but it always gets things wrong so we always go over it personally and make the needed corrections.
But while you’re on our website checking out all the episodes and buying stuff from the Dandy Fun Shop, be sure to visit our PATRONAGE PAGE where you can support future productions with your modest financial gifts!
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And your 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them are always highly appreciated!And THAT ladies and gentlemen sticks a fork in 2025. Please don’t forget the reason for the season, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and come on back next year for some amazing new frivolities in 2026! You never know what kind of crazy trouble we could get into, right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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It’s scary season once again which means it’s time for the Dandy Spook Shack Halloween Special! This year we’re haunting the Spirit Store to see what’s new. We’ll also have a look at the new MUPPETIZED Monster Cereals with one very conspicuous absence and I will share my favorite fright flicks of 2025 along with what’s hot on the horizon! It’s alive! Halloween 2025! Let’s step into the SPOOK SHACK!
Hello and welcome to the DANDY SPOOK SHACK annual Halloween special! 2025! I’m your ghost, Necro Neil Dandy and in this season’s spooktacular, we’ll be visiting the Spirit Store to see what’s new this ghoul year. We’ll also talk about the most notable scary movies of 2025 thus far and the ones to watch out for on the creepy horizon. And last but not least, we’ll feast!… Our eyes upon the new box designs for the classic Monster Cereals by Jim Henson Studios with one very notable character that has apparently been given the deathly cold shoulder!
BUT FIRST! I’d like you to drink in these frighteningly fashionable DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirts!
Woven from the threads of my dungeon spiders, you’re going to look drop dead fabulous. They come with fronts AND backs because nobody should be backless walking through the chill of a nighttime graveyard alone don’t you agree? Want to abscond with one for yourself? Simply visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the official Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and orders yours this evening. And if you’re watching closely watching on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there as well! Absurdity is Amplified at the Dandy Fun Shop!
Ok, let us begin with a visit to the Spirit Halloween store to see what’s freshly alive for 2025!
SPIRIT STORE 2025
We visited the Spirit Store in Nashville’s Opry Mills where the legendary theme park Opryland used to stand… but that’s a story for another time. We wanted to see what was new for Halloween 2025 and we were not disappointed.
As we entered, we noticed the centerpiece for this year was haunted subway system. Very original. Of course it was monster rat infested which was quite a shock to the conductor.
Once we escaped the train we took in a little animatronic target practice on a decapitated clown. Mama’s not gonna like this! Scary clowns seem to be a thing this year.
Moving on from the animatronics, we find an assortment of un-welcome mats for the front door including the Bates Motel complete with bloody footprints, Mars Attacks, with Killer Klowns and Pennywise keeping the clown theme alive.
M3gan seems to still be holding her own with the young ladies (you know it’s the dance)!
And for the little ones we have the cutesy line of dolls known as Tiny Terrors with adorable baby versions of Chucky, Frankenstein’s little monster and Little Mikey Meyers.
Moving on to more costumes we find many food items like pizza and ramen which is about all you’ll be able to afford after blowing your paycheck in this place, hard tea and you can also make yourself a few fries short of a happy meal dress as a pack of french fries.
For the couples you can be chips and salsa, plug and socket, peanut butter and jelly or milk and cookie Awww!
There’s also a great assortment of inflatable costumes like the inflatable banana, penguin, alien abduction, blow up chicken, big rubber chicken so you can throw yourself at Svengoolie, chicken abduction and giant balloon animal! Also I didn’t realize that Spongebob was still so popular but there’s an entire wall with every sort of Spongebob Squarepants character you can imagine
and you can even buy your own supersized spatula perfect for flipping your crabby pattys and also for scraping your carcass out the door and back into the mall once your cash has all run dry in the Spirit Store 2025!
Ya know, every year I always wonder just how the Spirit Store is going to top itself from the previous year and they always do. The animatronics get better, the products overall get better and there’s always something new like for example, I don’t recall seeing the Terror Tots before this year and I just thought making those iconic movie monsters into cute dolls was just a really neat idea. And speaking of movie monsters, I think it’s time we have a look over…
THE MOST NOTABLE SCARY MOVIES OF 2025!
Ok, now why am I calling this the most NOTABLE scary movies of 2025 instead of my favorites? Quite honestly it’s because, while I have seen my fair share of them, I haven’t seen them all. There’s just too many and when it comes to certain types of scary movies like vampires, zombies and themes that have really been beaten into the ground, it’s tough to motivate me to go see a show about a type of monster I have already seen a thousand times before. Therefore I’m going to do a rundown of the notable ones that stand out to me whether I’ve seen them or not and also give you my thoughts on the ones I have seen, then at the end I’ll let you know which upcoming scary movies I’m looking forward to in 2026! Sound good? Alright, let’s get started!
SINNERS: I have not seen this one but it tops Rotten Tomatoes as the number one scary movie of 2025 and stars Michael B Jordan. It’s set in 1932 and revolves around a pair of criminal brothers who return to their hometown and find themselves confronted by a supernatural evil which turns out to be vampires. I’m sorry but I’m sick of vampire movies. I’m sick of zombie movies. I like the fact that it’s set in 1932 and has a great lead actor but come on, let’s do something more original here.
COMPANION: Ok, I haven’t seen this one either but after reading the synopsis, I’m intrigued and thinking I need to pull this one up at home and give it a watch! Companion is a science fiction thriller about a couple, Iris and Josh, who go on a weekend getaway with friends to a remote cabin. The trip spirals into chaos when Iris discovers she is a companion robot controlled by Josh, leading to a series of violent and shocking events as she fights for her autonomy! I like it!
WEAPONS: I did see this one and I must say, it was pretty good! It’s about an entire elementary school classroom that goes missing except for one child. It’s an investigative part thriller , part horror movie involving witchcraft. The ending is fantastic and fantastically hilarious dark comedy.
28 YEARS LATER: I did not see this one mainly because it’s a sequel of a sequel of a sequel and I’m just over it, not to mention it’s just another zombie flick. The only reason I’m mentioning it here is because it has been a very successful franchise thus far so it is actually notable. I just have no interest in it at all.
THE LONG WALK: This is one that has been recently in the theatres and has a somewhat original plot in that there’s this group of people being forced to walk no slower than 3 miles per hour and whomever is the last one remaining is the only one who is allowed to live. Ok, it’s original. It’s just not interesting, at least not to me. I live near the historic trail of tears. You want to make a horror movie about people being walked to death? Make a movie about that because it actually happened!
LONGLEGS: I saw this one which co-stars Nicolas Cage and revolves around an FBI investigation which turns up some very disturbing occult happenings. Nic Cage turned in an amazing performance as if one would expect anything less. By the way, if you’re wondering why Nic Cage has been turning up in a million oddball B-Movies as of late, it’s because he supposedly racked up a mountain of debts from living like… Nic Cage and he decided that instead of declaring bankruptcy that he would pull himself out of the red by taking on every oddball role he’s offered until he gets his finances back in the black. I for one am hoping he never gets his finances back in order because I am thoroughly enjoying all these whacked out mini productions he keeps popping up in!
A QUIET PLACE DAY ONE: I saw this one and thought it was fantastic! If you’re familiar with the Quiet Place series of movies then you already know that Earth was invaded by blind aliens who hunt by sonar. SO if you want to live, you have to stay completely silent. There’s a terminally ill woman with a kitty cat and all she wants is to get across town for a slice of her favorite pizza before her time runs out, when the alien invasion happens. Along the way, she happens to team up with a young businessman who decides in the midst of sheer hell on earth, that he’s going to help this woman get her dying wish of achieving her favorite slice of pizza. I’d have to say, this was easily my favorite scary movie of 2025 even if it was the third installment of a sequel. Great original story line and fantastic acting.
SMILE 2: I’ll just say it, I didn’t care for the original so I didn’t bother with this one.
NOSFERATU: This historically was the silent film that Dracula was derived from and has many, many similarities. The only big name actor here is Willem Dafoe and he is mainly relegated to a supporting role. I suppose it’s neat in that they brought the original vampire movie to life for modern audiences, but my opinion is that they got the story polished and perfected with Dracula and while I can respect what they’ve done here, it’s just not really needed.
ABIGAIL: A little kid vampire who likes to toy with her victims. Once again, I’m sick of vampire movies so I didn’t subject myself to this.
ALIEN: ROMULUS: I saw this one. It was the same ol same ol. A bunch of people in space encounter the aliens. A bunch of them die and a couple of them make it out alive.
ARCADIAN: Here’s another one of those Nic Cage clawing out of debt movies! I saw it and it was decent. In a post-pandemic world a single father (Cage) and his two teenage sons try to survive in a a world where they have to hole up in their fortified farmhouse at night to protect themselves from bloodthirsty creatures who hate the light so they only hunt at night. It was ok. Just ok.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE: Yep, I saw it. Was it as good as the original? Nope not hardly. Was it still good? Yes it was good and worth seeing. Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton were both amazing. Nothing really stood out about it however other than the fact that Michael Keaton can still deliver a character this physically demanding after all these years. RESPECT!
METH GATOR: I know a guy who’s in this movie and happened across it while channel surfing one day and said what the heck, let’s watch it. It’s largely a mindless B-Movie that’s so bad it’s good. I will say there is a part in the movie where my friend Wade Williams delivers a monologue which I thought was an incredible bit of acting. And about the only bit of acting in this movie at all. It’s a fun, campy, bloody escape. If you liked Cocaine Bear, you’ll like Meth Gator. I’m still waiting for Crack-o-dile!
M3GAN 2.0: I really like the premise of M3GAN and I saw the first movie but didn’t see this one. I have caught a few clips online however. My feeling is that they accomplished what they needed to in the first movie and bringing her back as the hero instead of the villain was a misstep and the clips I have seen have only bolstered that opinion.
And then you have a smattering of movies which have taken classic characters who have aged out of their copyright protections and have been gloriously turned into Scary Sendups! Some examples would be PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE, SCREAMBOAT (which is a horror sendup of Steamboat Willie which is where Mickey Mouse made his debut to the world),
and last but not least we have POPEYE THE SLAYER MAN which is one I had in my list of upcoming must-sees from last year! Well… I saw it. And while it is quite gory, I thought it was overall pretty decent. Popeye has holed himself up for decades in an abandoned warehouse by the docks living on tainted spinach which has made him homicidally crazy. Basically anyone who dares to enter the warehouse he lives in gets their head crushed by Popeye’s bare hands. In a nice twist revealed towards the latter part of the movie, he and Olive Oyl’s daughter tries to rescue Popeye from his addiction to glowing spinach but ultimately fails and Popeye continues on as a murderous maniac with hopefully many sequels to come.
There were also two other Popeye horror releases this past year: POPEYE’S REVENGE which I attempted to watch on TV but it was so bad I turned it off about a quarter of the way in. And then there’s SHIVER ME TIMBERS which I have only seen the trailer for and it appears to be the worst one of the three.
And that mummy wraps up the scary movie rundown of 2025! But what am I looking forward to in 2026 you ask?
THE BRIDE: (March 2026) THIS is the one to watch for! Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Annette Bening, Jeannie Berlin, Julianne Hough, Peter Sarsgaard and more. It’s an all-star modern interpretation of the Bride of Frankenstein and the trailer looks amazing! I absolutely cannot wait!
EVIL DEAD BURN (July 2026), Ok, I’m a sucker for the Evil Dead movies even without Bruce Campbell, but of course they would be better with him it goes without saying.
And that’s our Dandy Spook Shack Scary Movie Rundown but we’ve got just one more item to get to before we close the coffin lid on this year’s Halloween Special and that would be the very special treatment the Classic Monster Cereals have gotten this year from Jim Henson! That’s right, they have muppetized Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute. And the characters look amazing! They really did a fantastic job… BUT! I have a skeleton bone to pick with General Mills! They left out their newest monster, coolest monster and while I’m not a particularly social warrior type of ghoul, it’s notable that the character they left out is the first and only female monster they have ever introduced. Basically what I’m trying to say is…
WHERE THE HECK IS CARMELLA CREEPER!? Did General Mills actually discontinue her? Carmella Creeper was amazing! Was it because her cereal wasn’t very popular? Granted, caramel apple flavored cereal isn’t exactly the most appealing flavor in the world, but let’s be honest here. With the exception of Count Chocula, all the monster cereals taste like cubes of sugar-coated styrofoam! I’m sorry, they just do! Nobody buys these for the cereal. The only reason people buy them is for the monsters. And Carmella Creeper was a fantastic new monster and I’m upset that she wasn’t given her due.
I’d like to know what YOU think about the notable exclusion of Carmella Creeper from this year’s Monster Cereal lineup. Please let me know in the comments of whatever platform you may be devouring this special Halloween 2025 edition of the Dandy Spook Shack or just drop a line through the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll also find our Dandy Fun Shop along with the PATRONAGE PAGE should you wish to support future productions.
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SUPER SUPPORTERS get all that same stuff PLUS I’ll mail you something ghoulish from right here at the Dandy Spook Shack IF you provide your mailing address! Maybe a ball of fluff from Carlamity the Dogsaster!
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OK, that closes the coffin lid on yet another Halloween Spectacular edition of the Dandy Spook Shack! Come back and haunt us again real soon right here where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! Stay Ghoul!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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Hula Hoop. Slip n Slide. Frisbee. Super Ball. What do these names mean to you? To many, these are just the names of some fun toys from years gone by. But to others, these names all culminate into just one… WHAM-O! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to tell their story, have a deeper look into some of their most iconic products and discover what’s on the horizon for this epic company! Bam-O Slam-O let’s dig into WHAM-O! And let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! This is where we slam right into the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode, we’re going head first into the world of Wham-O!
But first! I want to stick your head into one of these slammin’ Dandy Fun House t-shirts!
Woven from the leftover strands of recycled superballs, you’re gonna look like a million bouncin’ bucks or no money back! They’ve got a front and a back because winter’s on the way and we very thoughtfully cut four very strategically – placed holes in em! That’s right! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! How much would you pay for luxury like this? It really doesn’t matter because we’re not changing our price! Just head over to our Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and see for yourself! And if you enjoy this show on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there too! That’s the Dandy Fun Shop where we have Absurdity Amplified!
OKAY! WHAM-O! Where do I even begin with an enigma like this? Wham-O is THE toy and sports product company responsible for such instantly-recognizable products such as Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Hula Hoop, Hacky Sack, Super Ball, Boogie Board, Trac-Ball, Silly String and many, many more! You might think of Wham-O as a classic novelty company from the 70s and 80s but their history actually goes back farther than that. MUCH FARTHER!!!!!
The year is 1948 and two eager upstarts freshly graduated from the University of Southern California named Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin who were friends found themselves frustrated with their post-grad occupations and decided to team up and start of all things a business making extra-powerful slingshots out of Richard’s garage.
Why slingshots you ask? Both being falconry enthusiasts, they would use slingshots to shoot food up into the air for their birds.
They called their line of slingshots the WHAM-O Slingshot and it was made from ash wood. They promoted and sold the Wham-O Slingshot by visiting various sports clubs and holding demonstrations. Both men were very skilled slingshot marksmen and their product quickly popular amongst these clubs for competitive target shooting and small game hunting.
DANDY FUN FACT! The name Wham-O was derived from the sound of a slingshot hitting its target!
Knerr and Melin quickly outgrew the garage and rented their first proper business location on S. Marengo Avenue in Alhambra, California where they remained until 1955 when they once again found themselves in need of a location that could handle and even greater capacity of manufacturing. So they relocated to the neighboring town of San Gabriel, California where they would remain for the next 3+ decades.
With a greater capacity for manufacturing in place, they began looking to expand beyond the business of slingshot-making and came across the idea of re-branding the Australian bamboo exercise hoop, producing them from a type of plastic called Marlex and trademarking the name these hoops had been loosely called by since the 18th century “Hula Hoop.” And the rest is history.
Within 4 months of releasing the Hula Hoop onto the world it became literally the largest toy fad in history, catapulting Wham-O to 25 million units sold. Within 2 years, sales of the Hula Hoop would exceed 100 million units. Hula Hoop mania continued to rage through the end of 1959 and by the time the world stopped spinning, the 1950’s came to a conclusion with Wham-O netting a staggering $45 million (which would be around $500 million today). These two college friends who just a few years earlier were making slingshots out of a garage found themselves riding into the 60’s on a gravy train with biscuit freaking wheels!
Not ones to rest on their laurels, as the Hula Hoop fad was beginning to wane, Wham-O was looking for their next big thing and they found it in 1957 when they purchased the design of a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter from an inventor named Fred Morrison, quickly changed the name to Frisbee And once again, Wham-O had another hit on its hands!
ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! The name Frisbee was adopted by Wham-O after learning that this was the name students were using for the Pluto Platter on the east coast in a reference to pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Tin company which the Pluto Platter closely resembled in shape.
ANOTHER ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! As the Hula Hoop fad waned and the Frisbee literally took off, Wham-O found itself with warehouses full of unsold Hula Hoops. So what did they do? They melted them down and made Frisbees! They were recycling before recycling was cool!
Wham-O also released some rather questionable products around this time which would probably never even be considered for production and marketing to kids today. We’re talking about such products as the Apache Throwing Tomahawk “An Ancient Indian Weapon For Killing Game.” The Borneo Hunting Blowgun “Kills Without Poison” and the Throwing Dagger “A Powerful, Silent Weapon that can split a 1” board from a distance of 30 feet!”
In 1961, Wham-O released the Slip ‘N’ Slide which was invented by an upholsterer. The Slip N Slide as we all know is a long sheet of plastic which gets lubricated by water from a garden hose and then you run, jump and slide onto it and get hurled into the patio furniture and bird baths.
Here in the South where I live, you actually haven’t lived until you’ve almost lost your life at a Summer party experiencing a redneck slip n slide which is basically a long sheet of industrial plastic, usually what they install as a moisture barrier underneath homes, run it down a hill, throw the hose on it and then a bunch of suicidal idiots take turns injuring themselves on it or they don’t take turns and just injure themselves enmasse. It’s really quite a spectacle. Almost as interesting as Cat-Fisting!
The Slip N Slide was indeed taken out of production once lawsuits started springing up over serious injuries including one death and two broken necks over people above the recommended age the product was intended for using it in very unsafe manners. Yes, idiots ruin everything!
As the 60’s further took hold Wham-O released yet another smash hit in 1965 called Superball which was a high-bouncing ball created by a chemical engineer supposedly by accident from a hard elastomer polybutadiene alloy called Zectron. This elastomer alloy held a very interesting trait whereas it held a 0.92 coefficient of restitution when bounced on a hard surface. Basically it could bounce really, REALLY high! The Superball became wildly popular, sold 20 million units throughout the 60s. In fact, the Superball became so popular that the NFL renamed it’s championship game, the Super Bowl after the Wham-O Superball!
ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! A bowling ball-sized Wham-O Superball was once accidentally dropped from 23 stories high during a demonstration where after hitting the ground, it bounced back up an amazing 15 stories! That’s a lotta bounce! It unfortunately also landed on someone’s sportscar parked below. No word on who was made to pay the damages.
Now while they had quite a few successes, as we all know, success is the result of a series of failures and boy did Wham-O have some failures! And none of them failed bigger than INSTANT FISH! It was the early 1960s and Wham-O founder Arthur “Spud” Melin was on an African Safari where he learned of a special fish that would lay it’s eggs in mud during the dry season and when the rains eventually came, the fish would hatch overnight. Arthur had the brilliant idea to turn this into a Wham-O product consisting of an aquarium tank with fish eggs and mud. The product flopped miserably and the only one ending up in the mud was Mr. Melin. And they never let him out again.
Another Whamtastic flop would be the EGG RAKE which was designed to help a person sift out small pieces of eggshell from a cracked egg. I can’t imagine why the fabulous egg rake didn’t rake off!
Just kidding. Wham-O’s marketing strategy was simple: Maintain a handful of basic, inexpensive products like the Frisbee, Super Ball and Hula Hoop while developing new products for trial runs. Retire the products as they wane in popularity. But since the products were simple and fairly inexpensive they could be carried almost anywhere from big fancy departments stores to small mom and pop shops. And this was a huge key to their success!
As the 70’s disco’d onto the scene, Wham-O stayed true to it’s core with such products as Silly String, Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, Magic WIndow and Trac-Ball which was a lot of fun. Trac-Ball was and still is a racket game where the players each have an oversized scoop-shaped racket with a plastic basket of sorts built into it and a trac with small teeth on it. As you use your racket to throw the ball, the track puts an excessive amount of spin on it which causes the ball to travel in a crazy curve.
As Wham-O wound up in the 80’s, it released the Roller Racer and introduced Magic Sand to the world which is sand coated with a hydrophobic material which keeps water from being absorbed by it. But their biggest hit in the 80’s was undoubtedly a design they purchased from a duo of inventors in 1983 which took the world by storm and continues to be played by dirty hippies at music festivals worldwide. I’m of course referring to the HACKY SACK! For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the past several decades, I’ll quickly explain what a hacky sack is. It’s a small bean bag maybe a third larger than a golf ball in which the object is to keep aloft without the use of one’s hands. It’s easy to carry and fun to play with friends especially when you realize that you have unwittingly found yourself at a Grateful Dead tribute concert and need to kill some time while you wait for the ummm… ATMOSPHERE to dissipate before you drive home.
In 1982, Wham-O was purchased by Kransco Group Companies and they largely just held the course with existing products until their acquisition by Mattel in 1994 which lasted 3 years until a group of independent investors purchased the brand from Mattel and Wham-O became independent once again!
Arthur “Spud” Melin
Richard Knerr
Sadly, in 2002: Founder Arthur “Spud” Melin passed away with his lifelong partner Richard Knerr following suit just a few years later in 2008.
In 2009 Wham-O was sold to the Aguilar Group investment firm and since that time has passed through a few more ownerships of the boring corporate type and since the early 2000’s has largely just handled the manufacturing side of licensed products like Sea-Doo, various lawn games, an e-Bike called the Smacircle (very odd name), several variations of the Slip ‘N’ Slide and also the iconic Boogie Board!
And their big 3 super hits from the golden age The Superball®, Frisbee®, Hula Hoop® have all been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame!
And there you have all you ever wanted to know about the toy company Wham-O! Tell me YOUR favorite Wham-O memories, old or new in the comments on whatever platform you happen to be enjoying the Dandy Fun House on. I’d love to know.
And if you love what we do here at the Dandy Fun House and wish to support the production of future episodes, I encourage you to either visit our Dandy Fun Shop or our Patronage Page at dandyfunhouse.com.
Supporters get access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public
And…
Super Supporters get the same PLUS I’ll mail you something Whamtastic from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios in beautiful Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA IF you provide your mailing address!
Podcast listeners may support via the donation button in your listening app of choice if the app supports that feature
And five star reviews anywhere you can leave them would just make our little hearts go pitter patter and would be greatly, greatly appreciated as we try to grow the show.
Alright, speaking of growing, I gotta get growing myself! While you wait for the next episode, feel free to browse our past ones at our website or any of the major socials. But most of all, don’t forget to come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?
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Death, Taxes and new Jurassic Park movies. 3 things that apparently are certain to continue forever. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’ll be giving my thoughts after seeing the new Jurassic World Rebirth movie starring Scarlett Johansen while I simultaneously unbox, assemble and review the Jurassic World version of Hungry Hungry Hippos where the hippos are replaced with Velociraptors entitled RAVENOUS RAPTORS! That’s right! It’s all things Jurassic today! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House where we get all archeological on retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and today we’re doing something special: It’s a movie review intertwined with a game unboxing, assembly and review! And there will be some Dandy Fun Facts along the way… BUT FIRST!
How about we DIG on these Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Woven from 100 percent fake dinosaur hair, you’ll not only feel extra toothy but JURASSIC gonna look great! And you’ll help put my kid through community college. Want one? Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll find the Dandy Fun Shop with tons of other absurd designs because the Dandy Fun Shop has ABSURDITY AMPLIFIED! Oh and FYI – there’s also a mini Dandy Fun Shop on our YouTube channel if that’s where you like to enjoy the show. That works too!
OK, let’s start with the new movie (at the time of producing this episode) JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH! Starring Scarlett Johanssen whom I must say is still in absolutely incredible shape. Not only that but she’s also a great actress which is important when your profession is acting I suppose. Unfortunately she is THE ONLY big name actor listed. I won’t give any spoilers about whether there are or are not any special cameos that one might expect but Scarlett is indeed the only A-list actor being promoted. But honestly, when you have Scarlett Johansen, do you really need anyone else? Let me know your thoughts.
I will give away the very first line of the entire movie however and this will be the only real spoiler I’ll share so cover your eyes and ears unless you’re driving. The very first line of dialogue in the entire movie is someone saying and I quote: “How many times are we going to keep doing this?” Which I thought was hilarious seeing how this is what the 5th or 6th sequel of the franchise??? It was like they uncovered the wooly mammoth in the middle of the room right off the bat and I respect them for that!
We’ll dive into the movie some more as we go along but let’s go ahead and start having a look at this game of RAVENOUS RAPTORS. I usually like to a littly blurb about whomever produces the games I review on this show but in this case, there is no toy or game company listed, just the JURASSIC WORLD branding. So I guess we’re skipping our history of the manufacturer for this one.
Looking over the box, the front has cartoon velociraptors from the movie looking sort of Saturday morning breakfast cereal looking. They’re sort of smiling which raptors never do. But whatever. Looking at the little picture of the game on the front, it’s obviously a version of the classic HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS game but honestly in the picture, the raptors look more like alligators to me. It’s like they made an alligator farm version of the game, scrapped the idea and repurposed the molds for this. It also shows the Jurassic World logo in the center of the game field which is nice touch as well as some metallic fencing reminiscent of the habitats from the movie.
On the back, there’s a picture of a couple of older kids playing it and very oddly they are both sitting on the exact same side of the table. I mean there’s not much more to say here since it’s really just a retooled version of HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS, but there is a QR code on the box that takes you to a video on how to build and play the game. I find that also very thoughtful.
Now upon clicking the QR code it takes you to a 1:08 YouTube video on the ToyMonster channel, (so now we know who makes it) which very concisely explains how to do exactly what it says. It shows you how to unpackage, prepare the pieces, how to set it all up (which appears much simpler than when I reviewed Hungry Hungry Hippos) and even the added bonus of how to properly pack the game up when you’re all through. That last one is something I NEVER see a game manufacturer pay any attention to. It’s so frustrating to set up and play a game and then you can never get it back in the box. THAT is amazingly helpful. THANK YOU TOY MONSTER!
JURASSIC FUN FACT!
in Jurassic Park, the Lost World, the Japanese tourists running from T-Rex in San Diego are saying in Japanese, “I left Japan to get away from this!” An obvious hat tip to Godzilla.
Ok, back to the movie. Product placement? Yep! Lots of it. Mainly Snickers and Altoids. In fact, a littered Snickers wrapper actually causes a person’s death!
UNBOXING RAVENOUS RAPTORS!
I’m gonna pop the tape on this. Doesn’t look too complicated. I will tuck the little adhesive thing. And hopefully there’s no more tape binding us. Good, good, good. And not much to see once you open the actual box. So we’ll just start pulling things out and showing stuff.
So I’m gonna go ahead and toss the box, because that’s what we do. And hopefully not have to look at any instructions. The video that explained it all looked pretty simple. Okay, so we’ve got the game field here, and it’s got the little Jurassic dinosaur logo right there, which I like a whole lot.
The Velociraptors and the ball pits, they’re all one piece, which is really super nice. They’ve made it very convenient to set up.(…) We’ve got four Velociraptors here. They’ve all got names. I don’t really care what their names are. If you wanna look them up, you can. Here’s the fences for it. And then we got the balls. I think this is gonna go fast.
VELOCIRAPTOR NAMES: Well, let’s go ahead and figure out what their names are. Okay, as long as we’re here, Delta, Charlie, Blue and Echo.
So Delta is the teal one. Well, let’s get them out of their packages and we’ll identify them from there. You do have to kind of stretch the neck out.(…) You have to kind of stretch the neck off there. There it goes.
And then you snap it in. And I think that’s all there is to it. Here we go like that. Oh, okay, okay, okay. The front of it snaps in, okay. That nice and easy. Okay, I like it. I like it. They snap very, very easily into place. I think we’re gonna be up and playing in no time at all. This isn’t gonna take millions of years or anything.
Okay, bag for the fence pieces. Okay, it’s not sealed, but it is taped, which is as good as sealed, which means I gotta bust it open. I don’t care. We’re just gonna toss it all back in the box when we’re done anyway. Four fence pieces and I think we’re ready to play. I think it’s just that easy, folks. Ravenous Raptors. And I think we’re gonna raptor this thing up pretty quickly, to be honest with you. Dump the balls in the middle and raptor away.
And it works like a Jurassic charm. And of course, there’s different ways to play.
And that’s it. That’s the whole game. I just played an entire game of Ravenous Raptors. What do you want from me?
ANOTHER JURASSIC FUN FACT?
Okay, you got it. Velociraptors, they were real, but they were smaller feathered dinosaurs, closer to the size of a turkey or a wolf. And they resembled nothing close to what’s depicted in the Jurassic movies.
Ok, back to the movie again! The visuals are amazing as they always are in these movies. The script is also very formulaic and predictable. You have your corporate sleazebag who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. And if you’re one of those people who like to predict who is going to die in a movie, I promise you’ll be 100 percent correct throughout this entire flick. Literally every single character I thought would die absolutely did. It also has a bigger, badder apex predator dinosaur which you don’t see much of until the climax.
It’s a great popcorn movie if you don’t take it too seriously. If you’ve seen one Jurassic movie, you’ve seen them all, just not with Scarlett Johanssen. Did I mention she’s fantastic!? Predictable, formulaic script. It’s really just a Summer spectacle popcorn movie and if you come at it from that angle, it delivers!
As far as the game of RAVENOUS RAPTORS goes, I’ve already review the classic Hippos game and this is just a repackaging. The classic is a classic for a reason. It’s lots of fun and if you’re a fan of the whole Jurassic movie thing, this is just icing on the cake. ToyMonster took some of those extra little steps with the QR code and the very simple video for assembly, game play and I really like the instructions on how to put it away. I’m disappointed that ToyMonster got no love at all on the packaging. They deserve it. Also the raptors look more like gators to me but I guess there’s a practicality at hand where the functionality comes into play. Mainly the fact that they have to be able to successfully grab the game balls. Overall, I think they did a wonderful job with the whole thing and for that reason, I’m giving high marks to the game as well. Both the movie and the game are worth your hard-earned money in my opinion.
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Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features
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Super Supporters get that same access PLUS I’ll mail you something from right here at the Dandy Dino Shack IF you provide your mailing address.Podcast listeners may donate via the donation button in your listening app of choice if the app offers it
…and Five Star Reviews anywhere you can leave them always get our prehistoric appreciation.
Alright, I’m out of Dino-puns and I’m also out of here! Please come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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America the beautiful! Home of the brave! Home of the free! And most certainly Home of the weird! With summer on the way (at least at the time of this production), gas prices going down and Summer break on the horizon, we can expect road trippers to be loading up the ol Winnebago and rolling across the country in record numbers! And they’re gonna have to make at least a few stops along the way! Some of these stops will be mundane. Others, not so much. And others yet… downright weird! Therefore, we find it prudent to dedicate THIS episode of the Dandy Fun House to counting down the Top Ten Weirdest Roadside Attractions in America! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we seek the strangest retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can whack yourself out on!
In this episode, we’ll be counting down the Top Ten WEIRDEST ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS IN AMERICA!
But first! Bend your bean brain around these abnormal DANDY FUN HOUSE T SHIRTS! Specially woven from beard trimmings, we promise you’ll look amazing! But that’s not all! We’ve even cut 4 “special holes” in them for added entertainment. 1 to crawl your body into, 1 to poke your head out of and two to stick your arms through! Want one? Just head over to www.dandyfunhouse.com to get yours or if you’re watching on YouTube, we have a mini fun shop set up there too!
10: WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE, Cawker City, Kansas
This one grabbed my attention because I’ve always loved the song by Weird Al Yankovic, Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota. So naturally I assumed that the world’s largest ball of twine would indeed be in Minnesota, but… no. Apparently it’s just the biggest ball of twine in the STATE of Minnesota because the actual World’s Largest Ball of Twine resides in Cawker City, Kansas! The full and proper name would be the World Largest Ball of Sisal Twine which was started by a man named Frank Stoeber in 1953. After dedicating 4 years of his life to enlarging this twine ball, he got it up to 5000 lbs and a height of 8 ft!
Once a year in August the residents of Cawker City get together and have a Twine-A-Thon where everybody adds more to the ball. So it gets bigger every year! The World’s Largest Ball of Twine currently weighs in at over 27,000 lbs!
9: BIG IDAHO POTATO HOTEL, Boise, Idaho
This is exactly what it sounds like. A giant potato in Boise, Idaho that you can book as a hotel room. What!? Why? How!? I have so many questions!
It’s 6 tons of steel, plaster and concrete placed in the middle of 400 acres of farmland with a custom-built queen-sized bed and a small seating area inside and air conditioning! The restroom and shower are in a nearby converted grain silo however.
But why? Well… in 2012 the Idaho Potato Commission COMMISSIONED it’s construction as it’s main attraction for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Idaho Potato Commision. It then traveled the country on the back of a large truck for 7 years spreading the gospel of the Idaho Potato for all of America to hear and see!
Upon the end of it’s 7 year journey, Potato Commission employee and tiny home builder Kristie Wolfe took charge of the large spud and put it to good use in the middle of some prime Idaho farmland, transforming it into a destination accommodation that spud lovers from near and far come to drift away to starchy dreamland in.
8: WORLD’S LARGEST CEDAR BUCKET, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Ok, this one is in MY hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Home of the Dandy Fun House Studios! The World’s Largest Cedar Bucket lives in a quaint recreation of a pioneer town known as Cannonsburgh Village.
The one currently on display is actually a replica of the original which was built in 1887 by the Tennessee Red Cedar Woodworks Company which was the only company in America making cedar buckets at the time. It was created over the course of an entire year as a promotional attraction for the company who took it on tour to fairs around the country winning a blue ribbon at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair as well as the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair who filled it with beer as one might expect in St. Louis. 1,566 gallons of it in fact.
In 1950, a man named Charles White purchased the bucket at an auction and later donated it to Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1976.
The bucket was partially destroyed in 2005 due to a fire but was lovingly crafted back to life by the Rutherford County Blacksmith Association and rededicated back to Cannonsburgh Village in 2011.
DANDY FUN FACT!
Did you know that Murfreesboro, Tennessee is the exact geographical center of the state!? We have an obelisk that says so! (an obelisk is basically a tall, pointy pile of rocks erected to signify something of perceived importance)
7: FUTURE BIRTHPLACE OF CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK, Riverside, Iowa
True Trekkies know that in the original series, Captain James T. Kirk’s birthday is March 22nd, 2228 in the town of Riverside, Iowa. In the year 1985, a local Star Trek fanatic in town suggested to the city council that they erect a proper memorial in the Captain’s honor. The council agreed and it’s been a destination for Trekkies worldwide ever since!
6: CORN PALACE, Mitchell, South Dakota
The Corn Palace is a multi-purpose facility and event arena located in the lovely city of Mitchell, South Dakota. While that isn’t exactly anything very impressive, the fact that the entire building is completely covered in “crop art” meaning all the designs and artwork are made from corn, various grains and other decomposable organic materials very much IS! Because the architectural designs and external artwork is continually breaking down, an entirely new design is created each and every year making the Corn Palace almost an actual living, breathing event venue! Over 500,000 people visit it each year to behold it’s corniness and the town of Mitchell celebrates it’s biggest attraction with the Corn Palace Festival during harvest time.
5: MYSTERY SPOT, Santa Cruz, CA
According to the Mystery Spot’s website at mysteryspot.com “The Mystery Spot is a gravitational anomaly located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California. It is a circular area of effect around 150 feet or 46 meters in diameter. Within the Mystery Spot you will be stunned as your perceptions of the laws of physics and gravity are questioned.”
Discovered in 1939 by a group of surveyors and opened to the public in 1940, what it actually IS is a gravity hill, tilt-induced visual illusion resulting from a tilted environment. This causes misperceptions of the height and orientation of objects including balls rolling uphill and people leaning farther than normally possible. Of course there’s no actual defying of gravity. It’s just that everything in the immediate surrounding area is all tilted in the same direction and to the same degree causing your brain to misinterpret the true horizon. Regardless, the place is a total mindfreak and is absolutely on my list of places to check out should I ever dare venture again to California.
4: SPAM MUSEUM, Austin, Minnesota
Did you know that Minnesota has an entire museum dedicated solely to Hawaii’s favorite breakfast meat? That’s right, the city of Austin, Minnesota is home to the one and only SPAM MUSEUM! Best of all, it’s completely free! Even better, their SPAMbassadors give guided tours to groups of less than 10 people and virtual tours are also available. I don’t really know what they mean by virtual tours though. I’m not sure if you can simply do that through the internet from wherever you are or if it’s simply a recorded guide you listen to while you follow a predetermined route in person while visiting. They also hand out free SPAMples. I’m at a loss for words here but if you’d like to visit the SPAM museum or just learn more, you can visit their website at Https://www.spam.com/spam-museum but please refrain from emailing unwanted solicitations to them.
3: HAINES SHOE HOUSE, Hellam Township, Pennsylvania
The Haines Shoe House is a five story house built in the shape of a work boot by Mahlon Haines who owned a shoe business. It was basically created in 1948 as a marketing stunt and was rented out exclusively to elderly couples and newlyweds in the beginning. In more recent years it has been a museum, ice cream shop and also an Air BnB. This oddball attraction received a historical marker from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in July 2023 and is visible when driving down US Route 30!
2: IGLOO CITY, Cantwell, Alaska
Igloo city is a giant 4 story building in the shape of an igloo which was created in the 1970s for the initial purpose of being a unique destination hotel sitting almost exactly at the halfway point between the cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks. Unfortunately due to repeated failures at getting the unique structure to adhere to required building codes, Igloo City was never opened. Ownership has changed hands many times over the years but it has largely just sat abandoned all this time. The most recent ownership change occurred in 2023 with the new deed-holders announcing plans to turn it into a distillery.
1: AL JOHNSON’S GOATS ON THE ROOF, Sister Bay, WI
This is bangin’ or should I say Baaaaa-ngin’ Swedish restaurant that just so happens to have a grass covered roof with goats on it! The restaurant itself is famous for being the greatest of all time at making delicious lingonberry pancakes. But how did a bunch of goats end up on the roof?
Well… Mr. Johnson had a friend named Wink Larson who put a goat named Oscar on the roof one year as a birthday prank. It was so well received that Mr. Johnson decided to go ahead and incorporate roof goats as a permanent feature of his restaurant. Because who wouldn’t want livestock near the ventilation shafts of a place that makes and serves food? But I’m sure they have that all worked out with the health department and I digress!
And for all you PETA warriors out there, the goats are not exposed to the harsh Wisconsin winter elements as they are only on display from late May through mid-October and every night they are chauffeured back home to Goat Farm Manor where they are lovingly and tenderly tucked into little goat beds and read cute farm stories until they bleet themselves to sleep. But not until the farmer checks under their little goat beds to make sure there are no scary Swedish Chefs lurking and hiding.
And there you have it! The Dandy Fun House Countdown of the Top Ten Weirdest Roadside Attractions in America!
Honorable mentions also include:
PEZ VISITOR CENTER, Orange, CT
World’s Largest Catsup Bottle, Collinsville, Illinois
Wild Blueberry Land, Columbia Falls, Maine
Klown Doll Museum, Plainview , Nebraska
The World’s Largest Chest of Drawers, High Point, North Carolina
But don’t take my word for it! Get out there on the road this Summer and see it all for yourself and let me know what your favorite weirdo roadside attractions are by sending me a message through the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll also find our DANDY FUN SHOP where absurdity is amplified as well as our…
PATRONAGE PAGE where you can support the productions of future episodes!
Supporters get exclusive access to special bonus features not accessible to the general public
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Podcast listeners may donate via the donation button in your app of choice
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And speaking of hitting the road, I think it’s time for me to put the pedal to the floor and fly on out the door! Thanks for hanging out and come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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The Game of Pickleball! It seems like a fairly recent phenomenon the way it’s been sweeping the land by storm doesn’t it? It seems every community is building Pickleball courts at breakneck speeds but still can’t keep up with the demand! If you’re having trouble fighting the rabid crowds of pickleheads just to get on the courts and wish there was a way to enjoy the game at your own home, at your own kitchen table where you can wear your favorite pickle costume without being ridiculed, I just might have the answer you’ve been looking for! It’s the tabletop game of PICKLEBALL BLAST by Moose Games! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to unbox this sweetly sour barrel of fun, show you how to assemble and play it, give my honest thoughts and also share the history of the game of pickleball! Time to pucker up and step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we scrape the bottom of the pickle barrel to bring you the juiciest retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can dill with!
Today I’ll be doing a full-on unboxing, assembly and review of the game PICKLEBALL BLAST while also bringing you the history of the game of pickleball.
BUT FIRST! I wanna marinate your cucumbers in a jar of these puckerrific DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They might not come in a jar but they ARE crunchtastic and WILL make all your friends GREEN with envy! Manufactured by the briniest of sourpuss garment printers on the planet, everyone will instantly know that your taste is pure bread and butter. And I’m not just gherkin you around when I tell you that we also cut four specially designed holes in each tee for your comfort and practicality! One to climb your torso into, one to squeeze your head out of and two to poke your green little pimply arms through! Want one? Just head over to the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com to spin the lid off one of your own!
And while you’re there, check out our other amazing designs including our COFFEE BADGER tees, mugs and bags of harshly ground french roast! If you like to badge in, caffeinate and badge out, then the coffee badger is your roast!
Once again, head over to www.dandyfunhouse.com and get cranked up today!
Ok! THE GAME OF PICKLEBALL! Maybe you’re like me and you’re wondering what all this recent hubub is about surrounding this game with the weird name, Pickleball! I just started hearing about this a few years ago. Everyone buzzing about playing it, every community installing courts in every recreational facility and absolutely nobody would explain it to me. It’s like everyone else knew what this was and I had to figure it out on my own. So I went down to my local park and saw these weird little miniature tennis courts with people holding giant ping pong paddles whacking whiffle balls back and forth. And I said to myself… This is pickleball? Where’s the pickle? Why is it called pickleball? When did all this happen and why am I the only person they didn’t tell?
This prompted a bit of research on my part and I was very surprised to learn that while the current pickleball craze is a fairly new phenomenon, the actual game itself was invented in the 1960s! 1965 to be exact, on Bainbridge Island, Washington by a man named Joel Pritchard (who would one day go on to become a US Congressman as well as Washington’s Lietenant Governor) and his two friends Barney McCallum and Bill Bell. Together they devised the game and established the rules.
The name Pickleball is inspired by the pickle boat crew where the oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. Whereas the game of pickleball is sort of an amalgamation of the court from badminton, the paddles from paddleball, a whiffle ball and the net height of tennis.
They decide to establish Pickle Ball Inc. to market the game, bring it to the masses and of course, sell the necessary equipment.
By the mid-70s, pickleball tournaments began springing up around the country and by the early 90’s became a feature of the Senior Olympics.
The Pickleball Hall of Fame opened in 2017 and two different professional tournaments became established in 2019.
In 2022 Pickleball became the official sport of the state of Washington, signed into law on the very court the sport was first devised.
DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that the game of Pickleball even has it’s own tv channel? That’s right! PickleballTV is co-owned by the Tennis Channel and the United Pickleball Association. You can find it at pickleballtv.com as well as on a variety of streaming services.
Ok, I don’t really want to get into all the rules of Pickleball because that’s not really what we’re here for! What we ARE here for is to dig into this game of PICKLEBALL BLAST by Moose Games!
So here we have our box and we’re gonna have a good look at what we’re working with here! Good design here. It’s got a pickle flying through the air and it’s getting whacked by a paddle from a seated position and there’s these white things with flippy lids I think those are supposed to be pickle barrels. I think it’d be better if the white things kind of looked like pickle barrels but it says blast the pickle into the pickle jars. The pickle smackdown game! The hottest new paddle sport
Step one: blast the pickle! Two: slam the pickle jars! and Three: flip the lids to win! Alright. Well not much more to go on for the packaging. I really like the fact that they incorporated pickles into the packaging. That means a whole lot to me. But let’s go ahead and open this thing.
I’ve already popped the tape on it, but that’s all I’ve done So I haven’t personally had a look here.
And on the inside there’s a bunch of nothing to see. There is some printing on the inside. They did good with the packaging. They didn’t really cheap out on it. They’ve got the assembly instructions in the lid. We’ll look at that if we have to. This looks pretty straightforward though.
This must be the game field. Oh, we’re seeing the underside of the game field! So let’s have a look here And they’ve made it easy. Look the the pickle barrels are already mounted and the flippy lids Look at that. Okay. Okay. All right. All right, so there there’s not gonna be a whole lot of assembly here. We’re gonna get to the game plan pretty darn fast. This is going to be a pretty quick episode.
Okay, you got different colors on different sides and you flip the lids and you reveal the pickle image. And the court itself is a big pickle.
You shoot the pickle across you try to get it to land in one of the pickle jars and flip the lid. That’s pretty self-explanatory. So let’s see what we’ve got here… It’s a little cardboard spacer in there.
Okay, and We have our whack paddles and is That the(…) Pickle or is I don’t know what this thing is Oh, that’s the net and there’s something that waves back and forth and does it try to keep you from Doing what you’re supposed to do. I don’t know what the heck is okay So we got the net and there’s some kind of weight here and there’s something flying around the top… Oh… It’s the pickle!
Oh So the pickle doesn’t fly across the court on its own. You’re just not shooting a pickle. It’s actually tethered to a metal rod and there’s a weight at the bottom that makes it behave properly and kind of keeps everything in check. Okay, that’s that’s kind of cool. That’s kind of genius.
Okay Not really sure how that’s going together But now we’ve got to get our paddles separated out of here and there’s some other little thing like in white parchment paper So we’ll look at the instructions if we need to but in the meantime I’m gonna get these paddles out of here and I’m not really sure how(…) They’re supposed to .
The paddles have thumb flippy doos to operate the paddles with. Not really sure what’s going on there, but let’s open this parchment paper and see what we’ve got here…
We have these little clips which I guess have to be used to Keep the court together. They go underneath. Oh, we’ll start we’ll start underneath and see if it likes that. And I think these are just little scorekeepers and then you just hold the paddles with your hand. I really think that I think we got it here guys I think we’re ready to play some Pickleball Blast! I Don’t really think we need to read any instructions here. I think we’re pickleball blasting!
Look at that. I already already flipped a lid there…
So there are two images on the little flippy lids; One is a white one and it looks like the label from a barrel of pickles and when you hit it it flips it over to show the picture of the cartoon pickle going “ow I’ve been hit in my pickle head!”
(Neil continues to play)
How much how long can you do this and have fun with it? I really don’t know. I guess you’d really have to be playing with another person to determine it but okay, well, I mean that I don’t really know what else to tell you that’s pretty much the game of pickleball blast it’s
It’s a fun distraction, I mean look at this pickle…
It’s a fun concept.
Is this gonna be hours of fun? I don’t think so but was it fun to put on a pickle costume and tell you all about the game of pickleball while I Whack this thing around and do my thing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s fun. You know kids will like it. They’ll have fun with it. Is it the greatest game I’ve ever reviewed? No Is it is it neat? Yeah, am I glad I got it and did this review? Yeah on a scale of one to ten pickle jars I’ve got to give this game of pickleball blast… Six and a half pickles!
And if you’d like to help keep ME from scraping the bottom of the financial pickle barrel, please consider supporting future productions of the Dandy Fun House by visiting our Patronage Page at www.dandyfunhouse.com
SUPPORTERS gain access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general population
and
SUPER SUPPORTERS get all that same stuff but I’ll also mail you something extra sour from right here at the Dandy Pickle Jar IF you provide your mailing address!Podcast lIsteners may support via the donation button in your listening app of choice if provided
and 5 star reviews anywhere you can leave them always get my undying gratitude!
DUDE! Thanks for crunching with me and the game of PICKLEBALL BLAST today! Hope we DILL-Ivered the goods for you! Don’t forget to come on back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
I’m gonna smack my pickle around for a while You know it’s actually kind of easier to do this game if you just hit it with your finger Oh
It’s kind of unpredictable because it’s on this tether Crazy and you don’t know where it’s gonna go I Like you know I do like it. Maybe I’ll give us seven seven pickle jars Maybe I think seven pickle jars it might be into too(…) Generous here. I don’t know that I kind of the paddles are I don’t know
And if you’d like to help keep me from scraping the bottom of the financial pickle barrel Please consider supporting future productions of the dandy funhouse by visiting our patronage page at dandy funhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features not available through the general pickle population and super supporters get all that same stuff But I’ll also mail you something extra sour from right here at the dandy funhouse pickle jar if you provide your mailing address Podcast listeners may support via the donation button in your listening app of choice if provided and five-star Reviews anywhere you can leave them always get my undying gratitude dude Thanks for crunching with me and the game of pickleball blast Hope we dill ever the goods for you. Don’t forget to come on back here real soon right here to the dandy funhouse Where everything is always fun and dandy!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
watch the video below!
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Once upon a time there was a man who perfected the art of the pie in the face. This man hosted a 1950s and 60s children’s show where one day he got a wild hair encouraging the kids to steal money from their parents and send it to him in the mail promising a post card from Puerto Rico in return. This ill-advised stunt got the man in lots of trouble as you might imagine but also made him notoriously next-level famous almost overnight. So, in true show business fashion, he was allowed to keep his job. Throughout the decades to follow, he went on to appear in countless television, movie and music productions keeping his unique brand of silly humor and slapstick alive all the way into the 2000’s earning his rightful place in the pantheon of comedic legends. In this, the BIG 50th episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to tell his tale and learn some amazing Dandy Fun Facts along the way about someone you might think you know. Oh, his name! Milton Supman. But you might remember him better as… SOUPY SALES! Let’s go behind the slapstick and let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! THIS is where we slurp a mega-smoothie of retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this BIG episode number 50 we’re going to take you Behind the Slapstick and into the story of SOUPY SALES! THIS is a show I have been wanting to do for a very long time!
But not as long as the longing you’ll feel once you check out these soup-a-riffic Dandy Fun House t shirts! Designed by yours truly and expertly modeled by stock image personalities, you’re going to love the way you look, I guarantee it! We even cut 4 holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and 2 to poke your arms through! Act now and get zero percent off! This deal WILL last long so hurry!
As long as we’re shirt-talking, we might as well get jacked up on some COFFEE BADGER harshly ground french roast coffee! As well as our Coffee Badger t-shirts and mugs! Badge in! Caffeinate! Badge Out! Find all our amazing stuff in the Dandy Fun Shop located within the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com . We also have a mini Dandy Fun Shop at our YouTube channel. Just search for Dandy Fun House and that’ll getcha there!
Alright! SOUPY SALES!
If you’re really old, you’ll probably remember this comedian from his 1950s and 60s children’s show LUNCH WITH SOUPY SALES where he pulled an infamous stunt that almost ended his career but ultimately brought him additional fame and notoriety. If you’re just a little bit old, you’ll likely remember Soupy Sales from his countless appearances as a panelist or celebrity participant in multiple game shows in the late 60’s through the mid 70’s. Then in the late 70’s through early 80’s as a full cast member of the hit tv show, SHA NA NA. And all the way into the 2000s as a radio show host, recording artist and author. With roots firmly in vaudeville and slapstick the tale of Soupy Sales goes back farther than you might think… MUCH FARTHER!CHILDHOOD
The year, 1926. The town, Franklinton, North Carolina. A little boy named Milton Supman was born to Hungarian immigrants Irving and Sadie Supman. His father a dry goods merchant. He had a couple of older brothers named Leonard and Jack who had some wacky nick names like Ham Bone and Chicken Bone. Milton was dubbed Soup Bone and later shortened to just Soupy.
Catching the performing bug early in life, he found himself auditioning for and acting in a variety of elementary school plays. Moving on to high school Soupy attended Huntington High in Huntington, West Virginia where his performing continued, his popularity grew and he was even voted Most Popular Boy In School.
MILITARY SERVICE
Upon graduating from high school in 1944, Milton Supman enlisted in the US Navy serving honorably aboard the USS Randall during the latter part of World War II and becoming known amongst his shipmates for commandeering the PA system with comedy routines hoping to keep up morale while at war. During the Battle of Okinawa the ship was under constant kamikaze attack. His time in the service instilled a fear of flying stemming from his being assigned to “clean up duty” following a fatal plane crash at the San Diego Naval Base.
SOUPY STARTS HIS POST-MILITARY CAREER
After exiting the Military, Milton Supman completed his college education at Marshall University earning a Masters Degree in Journalism. While there, he further honed his performing skills in nightclubs as a comedian, singer and dancer.
Upon graduation, Milton managed to land a job as a script writer and disc jockey with WHTN Huntington, West Virginia, choosing the stage name Soupy Hines, in part to disguise his Jewish heritage which is something many Jewish performers did during that era.
Charles “Chic” Sale
However, there arose another concern around confusion with the food company Heinz especially since Soupy was already a food-related name, so shortly after launching his DJ career the choice was made to change the latter part of his stage name to Sales in honor of vaudeville legend Charles “Chic” Sale. And thus Soupy Sales was thrust upon an unsuspecting post-war world, or at least the local listening audience in Huntington, West Virginia.
SOUPY MOVES TO CINCY!
Always determined to take his career to the next level, he soon followed an offer to relocate to the larger market of Cincinnati, Ohio where he became a morning radio DJ and regular nightclub performer.
Soupy Sales eventually became popular enough around town that he was offered his own local television show on WKRC-TV as the host of Soupy’s Soda Shop which is regarded as television’s first ever teen dance show and soon thereafter adding a second late night comedy variety show called Club Nothing.
LUNCH WITH SOUPY SALES
But the show that really launched the version of Soupy Sales that became known and loved the world over was his kid’s show LUNCH WITH SOUPY SALES. It debuted in 1953 from the studios of WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan.
It was originally-albeit-briefly called 12 O’Clock Comics and was filled with celebrity special guests, slapstick comedy, jokes galore, smart aleck puppets and lots of what would later become Soupy’s hallmark, pies in the face.
And it wasn’t just a pie in the face, this was developed into a full art form with variations such as a pie on top of the head, pies to both ears from behind, being thrown into a pie. In fact, over the span of his 50+ year career, Soupy Sales estimated that he and his guests had been hit with over 20,000 pies!
PIE-RELATED INJURY!
In one notable pie-related incident, Soupy was knocked to the ground and injured when an enthusiastic young fan threw a pie by surprise at him. It turned out to be a frozen pie, hard as a rock which caught Soupy in the neck and sent him down to dirt-kissing town. The pie police swooped in and now that young fan is about to be released from Pie-rison to live out his final days as a crusty… filling… station… clerk… That’ll teach him!
THE SOUPY SHUFFLE!
And there was also the signature dance… the Soupy Shuffle which was basically a cute little move where Soupy would sort of hop back and forth dragging one foot on the ground while singing the song “Do the Soupy Shuffle!”
SOUPY’S ON!
In addition to all of this, Soupy also hosted a late night show in Detroit called “Soupy’s On” where he featured Detroit’s jazz performers who would often sell out their own shows after appearing on his.
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Billie Holiday
Miles Davis
Some of his most notable jazz guests included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis!
SOUPY GOES NATIONAL!
CAPTAIN KANGAROO
In 1955 Lunch With Soupy Sales went national when it was picked up by ABC television to run on Saturday mornings in direct competition with the Today Show and Captain Kangaroo.
SOUPY INVADES LOS ANGELES! (and gets canceled)
In 1960 after 5 succesful years, Soupy relocated to Los Angeles where the network was based, but just one short year after relocating, ABC canceled the show and poor Soupy was sent to the soup lines with the exception of KABC which kept him on as a local program.
SOUPY SALES BECOMES A TONIGHT SHOW HOST!
SOUPY SALES with JERRY VAN DYKE
In 1962 Soupy Sales became an official-albeit-brief guest host of the Tonight Show during the period between Jack Paar leaving and Johnny Carson taking the helm.
THE SOUPY SALES SHOW!
Then came 1964 through 1966. WNEW-TV in New York City picked up the Soupy Sales Show and syndicated 260 episodes to local stations outside the New York market.
FRANK SINATRA Get A Pie In The Face!
This would mark the pinnacle of popularity for Mr. Sales and he would host such top Vegas talent as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr. whom all lined up with bells on just begging for the status symbol of getting a pie in the face!
During this time he would also contribute his writing talents to the TV series “Here’s Edie.”
DANDY FUN FACT! Soupy was more famous than the President!
During the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s Soupy Sales had become so famous that it was said he could walk down the street next to President Eisenhower and more people would recognize Soupy!
ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! Soupy offered $10k to anyone proving he worked “blue.”
Urban legend had it that Soupy Sales would sneak off-color or “blue” humor… (dirty jokes) into his kids show for the amusement of adults (and apparently his adult following was quite sizable!). Although the allegation has been repeatedly disproven as completely false, the rumors persisted to the point where Soupy once had a standing offer of $10,000 to anybody who could prove he worked “blue” on his kids show. Nobody ever collected that prize.
SOUPY’S PUPPET FRIENDS!
WHITE FANG
The Soupy Sales Show was also known for it’s puppet characters like White Fang, the biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA which appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw appearing from the side of the screen and usually armed with a pie for Soupy’s face.
BLACK TOOTH
Black Tooth, the biggest and sweetest dog in the USA which was a giant shaggy black paw that would pull Soupy offscreen and drown him in kisses!
POOKIE THE LION
HIPPY THE HIPPO
Pookie the Lion who was a hipster lion who would appear in a window and ask riddles and Hippy the Hippo who only made occasional appearances as a friend of Pookie.
OK, IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT “THE INCIDENT”
It was during his time at WNEW-TV that Soupy Sales pulled a stunt that would make him the enemy of parents nationwide and also notoriously next-level famous!
It was New Years Day 1965. The station would not allow Soupy and his staff to take the holiday off and Soupy was not happy about it at all. So he took his hostilities out by encouraging all the kids watching his early morning program to sneak into their parents room while they were still sleeping off their New Years Eve festivities and remove those funny green pieces of paper with pictures of US Presidents from their pants and pocketbooks, put them in an envelope and send them to Soupy. Promising to respond with postcards from Puerto Rico!
In the days to follow, bags of mail containing cash started to arrive at the television station adding into the thousands of dollars! Some of it was Monopoly money, but a lot of it was real. Soupy tried his best to backtrack, claiming it was only a joke and whatever actual money arrived would be donated to charity. But parental complaints increased and Soupy was suspended from the station for two whole weeks with no allowance! As news of the stunt spread, Soupy Sales obtained a level of notoriety and a certain “cool factor” which only increased his ratings and celebrity status.
GAMES GALORE!
Board games and card games were all the rage in the mid-60s. Did you know that Soupy Sales had a variety of them around this time, all of which have become highly collectable? He had at least three that I’ve been able to find:
Soupy Sales Sez Go! Go! Go! from 1961 which was a car racing-themed board game.
Then you have “the Soupy Sales Game” which is also a board game and from the looks of it, you have a spinner and presumably a game piece you move along and it appears you’re supposed to collect the most pies or something like that. It’s a highly collectable item and one eBay seller has it priced around $400 at the time of this production.
And lastly we found the Soupy Sales Mini Board Card Game which appears to have pegs you move along a small board with pictures of pies until you reach the goal. If you can get your hands on any of these in the wild my advice would be to jump on it, not literally. $400 is a bit rich for my blood so I’ll just keep scouring old lady’s yard sales and see if I get lucky!
DANDY FUN FACT! Soupy Voiced A Monkey!
Did you know that Soupy Sales was the original voice of Donkey Kong?
RECORDING CAREER
Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records signed Soupy Sales to a record deal in 1961 releasing two albums: The Soupy Sales Show in 1961 and Up In The Air in 1962.
SOUPY DOES THE MOUSE!
Sales would later release a novelty dance record in 1965 called The Mouse which he performed on the Ed Sullivan Show as well as Hullabaloo. The Mouse reached #76 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold a quarter of a million copies in New York alone.
Soupy Sales would surprisingly sign with Motown Records in 1969 if you can believe it, releasing a parody of the song MacArthur Park entitled “Muck-Arty Park” along with a full-length album called “A Bag of Soup.” He also recorded a comedy and singing story record called “Spy With A Pie.”
MOVIE CAREER
Soupy also appeared in a number of movies, rarely in a leading role but usually prominent. His biggest role however was in the 1966 comedy “BIRDS DO IT” where he did star as a janitor who experiences a freak accident and gains the ability to fly.
SOUPY BECOMES A FULL-TIME “GUEST STAR”
In the late 60s through mid 70s, Soupy Sales was a regular panelist on such game shows as “What’s My Line”, “Match Game”, “The Gong Show”, “Pyramid” and countless others. In fact during my childhood growing up in the 70s I didn’t know him as a host of anything. I only knew him as a guy who always appeared on game shows and made guest appearances on schlocky tv series like The Love Boat and I thought it was the oddest thing that he was famous for just sitting in a seat cracking jokes or doing a walk-on while cutting up with a group of c-level comedians and actors. But all the adults knew exactly who he was and to them he was an icon!
SOUPY STRUGGLED IN THE SEVENTIES!
But he struggled to find more prominent roles during this time because he had become typecast as the goofy kids show host and Hollywood would not take him seriously.
SOUPY SWOOPS ON SHA NA NA!
But fortunes changed a bit when in 1978 Soupy Sales became a regular cast member of my own favorite TV show, Sha Na Na as a wisecracking guy in the neighborhood. This lasted until the conclusion of the show in 1981.
SOUPY SETS A FORGOTTEN WORLD RECORD!
During the time when the Sha Na Na show was winding down, I witnessed Soupy Sales appearing on Wide World of Sports going for the world’s record of catching the most cream pies dropped from a helicopter and I must say it was spectacular! He wore his trademark sweater and some protective goggles. The helicopter went up to a respectable height, enough to where the rotor wash wasn’t sweeping people away on the ground and I remember those pies coming down really fast and hard splattering all over him. I have scoured the internet for any video, photos or even a mention of this stunt but have come up completely empty-handed. But I swear on everything good and holy that I did indeed watch this happen and I’m pretty sure it was live tv. I have sent a message to the manager who handles the licensing for Soupy’s reruns and am currently awaiting a reply.
RETURN TO RADIO
Soupy Sales would return to his radio roots in the mid-1980s taking the midday timeslot for WNBC New York in between Don Imus and Howard Stern with whom he was believed to have a very acrimonious relationship.
MORE MOVIES!
Soupy Sales dove harder into acting in his later years. His most notable roles during this time would be the role of Moses in “The Making of ‘and God Spoke'” in 1993, Professor Prophet in the TV series “The Black Scorpion” in 2001, Grandpa Franken in “The Innocent and the Damned” in 2005. And he contributed a song to the soundtrack of the movie “A Dirty Shame” entitled “The Backwards Alphabet” in 2004.
THE SONS OF SOUPY!
TONY and HUNTER SALES
TODD RUNDGREN
IGGY POP
DAVID BOWIE
Soupy had two sons with his first wife Barbara Fox. Tony and Hunter Sales. They became professional musicians and made up the rhythm section for Todd Rundgren in the early 70s, Iggy Pop in the mid-70s and then David Bowie from the late 80s through the early 90s.
SOUPY SALES MEMOIR
In 2003 Soupy Sales at long last published his memoir entitled SOUPY SEZ! My Zany Life and Times where he opened up about his history, behind the scenes secrets and the inner workings / good, bad, and ugly of the entertainment business. You can still find this book today through a variety of book sellers on the internet.
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
Soupy Sales received the ultimate honor with his long overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 7th, 2005. You can find it in front of 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. It would be the only major award he would ever receive in his career. That’s right. No lifetime achievement Emmy. No Marconi award. No Grammy. Just a lifetime of making people smile!
SOUPY SALES’ PASSING (2009)
Mr. Soupy Sales passed away on October 22, 2009 from cancer at the age of 83 at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York. He currently rests at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Mr. Sales is survived by his 2nd wife Trudy who along with manager Janet Oseroff handles the affairs of his estate and licenses reruns of over 100 of Soupy’s shows which you can still find as of the date of this episode February 2025 on Jewish Life Television and also the Retro Television Network. And he continues to live on in the form of various DVD collections which allow you to bring ol’ Soupy right into your living room any time you want!
And THAT ladies and pie faces, is the story of one Mr. Soupy Sales! May he live in our merengue-flavored memories for all time! SOUPY, the Dandy Fun House salutes you!
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Ok pie-faces, that’s going to do it for our big 50th episode! I can’t believe we’ve come this far together! Seems like yesterday we were tiptoeing through Dollywood with our covid 19 masks on and receiving mandatory antibacterial sanitizer squirts from crusty carnival barkers. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been honored to have been able to spend some time with you. And there’s a lot more to come because I don’t plan on stopping any time soon! So come on back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! (I need a towel).
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Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures that didn’t cost an arm and a leg? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures that didn’t cost an arm and a leg AND you could eat the ball when you’re done playing!!?? Well have I got a TREAT for you!? In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to learn about the educational toy making powerhouse of the company THAMES AND KOSMOS who are currently nominated in several categories for a coveted 2025 TOTY (Toy of the year) AWARD AND we’re going to unbox, assemble, play and review their 2025 TOTY AWARD NOMINATED STEM experiment kit: PINBALL MACHINE MAKER – GUMBALL RALLY! Are you ready to rally my pinball-loving friends? Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House, video show, podcast and blog! This is where flop our flippers and flappers for the most frivolitizing retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can chew with your mouth open! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is our first episode of the year of our Lord and Savior and I’m kicking things off with a full-on review of PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY by Thames and Kosmos! If you’re watching the video version of this show you might notice my background isn’t quite as snazzy as it usually is and that’s because instead of having colorful draping or a graphical animated background, I just have what’s actually behind the Dandy curtain which is my production and tinkering room that’s currently being overhauled for increased efficiency, productivity and capability. But for today it just kind of looks like a mess. If you wanna make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs, folks.
OK we’re going to get into this review of the PINBALL MACHINE MAKER GUMBALL RALLY… BUT FIRST! I want to rally your attention over to these sweet Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Let them know you’ve arrived ready for 2025 looking oh-so Dandy! As you might have guessed, for your wearing convenience we’ve included a front and a back so you don’t get cold! But wait! There’s more! Not only do you get a front and a back, but we’ve also custom-cut 4 special penetration-points perfect for poking your arms, head and torso through! Now how much would you pay? Prices are subject to change so I can’t really tell you here, otherwise a hundred years from now I’d have to sell them to you at 2025 prices, but head over to the Dandy Fun Shop at dandyfunhouse.com or if you are watching on YouTube, we also have a Dandy Fun Shop there as well!
While you’re there, you can check out our bags of harshly-ground French Roast Coffee as well as mugs and t-shirts for our coffee brand: COFFEE BADGER! If you work from home, but your jerk boss makes you come to the office for no other reason than to validate the overhead expense of the space. YOU my friend are a Coffee Badger! You badge in, Caffeinate, badge out and go home to actually get stuff done or just hang out with your dog and pretend you’re getting stuff done! Either way, Coffee Badgers of the world… the DANDY FUN SHOP salutes you! Once again, get over to dandyfunhouse.com and see all that we have for you in the Dandy Fun Shop where you will find ABSURDITY AMPLIFIED!
Alright! PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY by Thames and Kosmos! I first heard about this company Thames and Kosmos while I was putting together the year-end episode for 2024. I had never heard of these guys but they were nominated in several categories for TOTY Awards. (Toty stands for toy of the year). I was looking over all the different toys and picking the ones I found most interesting in each category and Thames and Kosmos not only kept coming up over and over, but I kept picking their products as the ones I found most interesting. And I was so intrigued by one of their products in particularly, the PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY where you assemble your own actual working tabletop pinball machine that you can reconfigure at will and you shoot a gumball that you can actually eat when you’re done. Of course how are you going to play after you’ve eaten all the gum balls? That will be another issue for another time. But anyway, for the longest time, I have been wanting to incorporate pinball into this show. I would really like to have an expert in the industry send me segments on exciting new machines and retrospectives on pinball classics and make it a regular occurrence here on the Dandy Fun House. If that’s you, please reach out. I want to make this happen. Anyhoo, this seemed like a great way to start dipping this show’s toes into the pinball waters.
Now before we unbox, assemble and play this thing, I’d like to dig into this cool company Thames and Kosmos.
THAMES AND KOSMOS HISTORY
Thames & Kosmos was founded in 2001 when a small science center and toy store called the Thames Science Center, located in Newport, Rhode Island, teamed up with the publishing house Franckh-Kosmos Verlags to create science kits for the U.S. market.
Kosmos was originally founded as a book publisher in 1822 by Johann Friedrich Franckh.
After 100 years of publishing, In 1922 Kosmos published its first science kit aimed at children and young adults with hands-on experiments. We’re talking chemistry sets, physics labs, electronics kits and much more. These days, in conjunction with Thames, Thames and Kosmos has diversified into almost every area in science and have been a virtual and literal conveyor belt of award winning science-based toys and games loved the world over.
I could start naming off products of theirs but I would seriously be here all day and honestly they’ve got so much cool stuff I wouldn’t know where to start. If you’d like to explore for yourself, just head over to thamesandkosmos.com and check them out for yourself.
As for me, I think it’s time to check out this little goody of theirs that I actually picked up at HOBBY LOBBY because that’s where I found the best price and they had it in stock along with a very good selection of other Thames and Kosmos educational kits. Sort of in the area with the model car kits. This right here is the (as of the time of this production) TOTY AWARD NOMINATED PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY kit!
Supposedly this kit right here not only lets you build your own actual working tabletop pinball machine, but supposedly you can configure it in about ten different ways. Well, we’re going to find out right now! Let’s crack it open but first let’s uh let’s have a look over the box.
OUTER PACKAGING:
Looking at the box here I’m gonna say the front is rather sterile. When I first started looking into this I didn’t really realize that it was an educational kit and the the looks of it sort of seemed to imply that it’s got kind of a Sharper Image kind of look about it. You know it’s got that kind of educational toy thing going on. Ages six through twelve plus. Well you know that plus is good. The hobby lobby sticker is still on it.
You know most toys and games I get have got a little snazzier packaging but Thames and Kosmos kind of has their own thing here. I do think they should jazz it up a little bit though. I think they could uh stand with some good marketing. Now looking at the sides you get a picture of one of the configurations on the side it it looks like they’ve got nutritional facts for the gumball.
That’s hilarious um that’s right because it does have an edible part of it and and all the the different sides look pretty much the same. Let’s check out the back here. A whole lot of stuff to read… Engineer the ultimate gumball rally. Alright sounds good works for me! 88 pieces 10 experiments and 20 manual pages! I don’t really want to read 20 pages of a manual here. I just want to check this thing out and play with it and show it to you guys otherwise we could be here all day…
UNBOXING:
Let’s go ahead and pop open the packaging here and get our first look. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
And not much to see just just brown packaging but let’s see what happens when I unveil stuff. OkaY NOW we’ve got some color! Oh boy look at all this stuff!
This looks like stuff for the backboard. We could be here a while doing this…
All kinds of colorful parts and tubes and runways and this looks like part of the part of the playing field here. I think I might want to just do a box dump! There’s so much stuff in here!
I don’t really like reading instructions so wherever the instructions are we’ll set those aside. I’m just going to start see if I can actually put this thing together without reading a whole bunch of instructions.
ASSEMBLY:
Now that it’s all put together, I think the only thing left to do is to play some pinball!
And I will say it tends to work very very well the the way that they channel the gumballs down into the into the mover-a-longer. They can get stuck though…
It actually flipping works! Oh this is great!
I mean it’s not a good pinball machine by any stretch of the imagination but it is a pinball machine and it works.
And you can’t get too crazy with it otherwise the the gumballs fly all over the place and then you’ve got an ant problem.
FINAL RANKING:
My thoughts on this? Well… it needs more attractive packaging for the marketing purposes but it’s an educational toy and it’s packaged like it’s an educational thing to take more seriously. It’s something to where a teacher could bring this in for their kids at school and not be looked at like they’re having nothing but play time. They can still look like they’re doing their job which I guess might be the point.
Is it what I expected? In some ways yes in some ways no. I thought it was going to be battery powered somehow for lights and sounds and audible effects. I didn’t expect it just to work under its own kinetic power and springs and things like that although I am happy that it did. I’m happy it didn’t take batteries. I think it’s a great lesson in physics and engineering.
Did it spark my imagination? Heck yes! I think kids are going to have a great time with this and they’re going to get a gumball.
So how am I going to score this on a scale from one to ten? I got a deductive point for a little bit of lackluster packaging. Although I think I understand why it might be this way. Oh there’s a bunch of decals I didn’t stick on it I should have. Maybe another time.
But other than that the fact that you can make an actual working pinball machine and it actually works okay. I bet you if I got some little silver ball bearings I bet something that were properly round I bet you that it would work a lot smoother and a whole lot better. You really have to lock things in and it’s real thing really easy for things to come unlocked off the cardboard backboard but I mean it actually works. I’m giving this a nine out of ten.
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Okay well how’s 2025 treating you so far? Maybe you’re listening to this or watching this in 2026 or 2027 or beyond. Hello year 3000! Does everybody speak in echoes echoes echoes? Do you live underwater water? Water water like the Jonas Brothers song song song song? All right I gotta get along. You guys stay dandy. I’m gonna play more pinball. Come back here real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
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In this edition of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to close out 2024 by looking ahead to 2025 and seeing what’s on the horizon for theme parks, movies, pinball and my favorite TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2025 Toy of the Year Awards! All this ahead! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2024 year-end extravaganza where we celebrate retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and while most shows are just mailing it in this time of year and giving their audience a “best of” mishmash of what they’ve already done over the past year, this show is instead going to take the opportunity to look ahead into the New Year of 2025 and explore the most exciting things on the horizon.
But first! I have to show you these futuristic DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts! They do have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them with the rattiest pair of scissors we could find! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! All because we care! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com
While you’re there, be sure to load up on all the gogo juice you’ll need for the new year with our Coffee Badger t-shirts, mugs and bags of harshly-ground dark French Roast coffee! You don’t have to love France to love their harshly-ground coffee, but it helps! Just get your oui-oui over to dandyfunhouse.com and get busy!
Alright, let’s get into this new year we’re starting down the barrel of. There’s a lot of amazing stuff on the horizon and we’re going to explore that right now starting with…
THEME PARKS!
And I’m going to start with the big thing everyone is talking about because it really is the attraction that is sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now as far as theme park chit chat goes and that is…
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, Orlando Florida – EPIC UNIVERSE.
This is a brand new theme park located adjacent to Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure and it’s going to include 5 different specially-themed areas: Celestial Park, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.Let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the REALLY interesting part of this new theme park and the only part that makes me want to visit: DARK UNIVERSE!
This is a special land within Epic Universe that is dedicated exclusively to the classic Universal Monsters, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man! Sorry, no live for the Mummy or the Creature From the Black Lagoon. I mean someone has to recreate the movie theater attack from THE BLOB at some point don’t they?
Anyway, First off we’ve got an incredible looking ride called MONSTERS UNCHAINED: The Frankenstein Experiment. This one takes place inside Frankenstein’s Castle! Dr. Victoria Frankenstein continues the work of her ancestors deep below the family estate. A demonstration of her experiments to control monsters goes awry when Dracula leads a revolt of enraged monsters including The Wolf Man, The Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and more!
Then we have CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF! This appears to be a roller coaster where you ride in gypsy wagons to escape a pack of hungry werewolves. One thing that stood out to me in the renderings was a picture showing people sitting sideways, forwards and backwards on this ride. The information doesn’t divulge whether or not the cars spin or if you merely have different choices on the type of seating, but further investigation into the animated tour of the overall land of Dark Universe actually does show the cars spinning freely from side to side. It has a top speed of only 37 miles per hour so as long as you can handle the werewolves, I think pops can probably handle this one with you!
THE BURNING BLADE TAVERN: Upon first viewing from the outside looking in, this appears to be fashioned after the climactic final scene from Frankenstein where he (supposedly) meets his end in a burning windmill tower. It is indeed an eatery where you can enjoy burgers, wings, bratwurst and pretzels. But just the fact that they have the burning windmill from the movie Frankenstein with the windmill ACTUALLY ON FIRE is just blowing my frankin’ mind!
Another eatery in this portion of the park is DAS STAKEHOUSE: (notice how STAKE is spelled). This is apparently the more upscale dining option in the area and is a Vampire-Themed dungeon filled with vampire artwork and artifacts.DARKMOOR MONSTER MAKEUP EXPERIENCE: This appears to be a laboratory where you, the visitors can yourself become on of Doctor Pretorius’ mad experiments and be transformed into werewolves, vampires, mummies and more!
So, basically, two rides, two places to eat and a makeup shop. You’re not likely to spend your entire day in Dark Universe, but if the other lands, especially Nintendo, in this park interest you, then this very well may be worth your hard-earned theme park dollars.
Regardless, you absolutely have to visit the Universal Orlando Website and see the animated tour renderings for yourself! They are amazing!
Okay, let’s go to Sandusky, Ohio and CEDAR POINT: If you know anything about Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio then you know this is the Mecca for all things roller coaster. I don’t usually exhort about coasters on this show BUT they have a new one coming out for 2025 called SIREN’S CURSE based on the mythylogical Lake Erie lore of the sirens of the lake who lured sailrs to their doom with their sweet, seductive songs. Okay, a sea monster-themed roller coaster. Yawn! What’s the big deal about that? Well, this particular roller coaster is what is known as a “Tilt Coaster” meaning that the cars come up to a ledge where the track ends and then the entire track the riders are on tilts forward until they are all looking 160 ft straight down. The track then connects to another section of track which is also straight down and releases the cars to go hurtling at pretty much the highest rate of speed possible. Maybe some of you enthusiasts have seen tilt coasters before, but I personally have never seen anything like this before and it just looks absolutely sick!
2025 also marks the 40th Anniversary of DOLLYWOOD in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! Of course there will be all sorts of special shows going on for the year-long celebration, but I’m really not noticing anything new here except they are touting a bigger and more spectacular drone and fireworks show. Come on Dolly, step it up a little!
Moving on to PINBALL – Ok, I’ve been trying to find some lists of the best new pinball machines we can expect in 2025 but in my research, all I’m finding is old articles about 2024 and the search results are otherwise completely clogged by some website called The Pinball Spot with misleading headlines and what appears to be articles written by A.I. that don’t deliver the promise of the headline. Not sure how the search engines are allowing this, but it is what it is. But being the professional that I am, I trudge on.
The most anticipated new pinball release I’ve learned about coming for 2025 in my opinion would have to be from Spooky Pinball: THE EVIL DEAD featuring the actual voice of the man himself, Bruce Campbell. Evil Dead Pinball is the 4th game by the designer duo “Spooky Luke” and Corwin “Bug” Emery. It features a double barrel shotgun ball launcher and more goodies than you can imagine. The shack, the basement, the hand and a life-sized version of the old lady even pops out of the top of the backboard! This thing just looks absolutely bonkers! I can’t wait!
Dutch Pinball is highly rumored to be releasing an all-new version of Back To The Future expected to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the film’s release and this would also mark 35 years since the release of the first Back To The Future Pinball release by Data East Pinball in 1985.
I did learn via knapparcade.org of a likely new release from STERN PINBALL which would be X-MEN ’97.And if you’ll be around the Frisco, Texas area this coming March, you might want to flap your flippers into the 2025 TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL happening from March 21st through the 23rd at the Embassy Suites. This will have an abundance of exhibitors where you can see the latest and greatest along with long lost classics, tournaments and just about everything pinball your feeble brain can handle. Learn more and register to attend at www.texaspinball.com !
I also stumbled across the 41st Annual Pinball Expo which will be happening from October 15th through 18th in beautiful Schaumburg, Illinois at the Renaissance Shaumburg Convention Center Hotel. At the time of this recording it’s a bit soon to tell you about everything this expo will have, but after 41 solid years of holding this event, I’m pretty sure they know how to do it right and this one should be worthy of your time and attendance should you be able to get your shiny silver balls to Schaumburg!
Are you ready for some MOVIES?
Before I get into the movies I’m looking forward to in 2025, I want to acknowledge a few of my favorites from 2024.
First off: JOKER Folie A Deux with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gag Gag. This movie was panned so hard I thought it would get a flat nose and I don’t see how this one is not going to receive a Razzie Award. It really is hands-down the biggest box office flop of the year. Knowing how everyone was screaming about what an absolute dud this thing was, I decided to go see it, clear my mind of all expectations of the payoff of finally getting to see Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker run around Gotham doing Joker stuff like everyone wanted to see him do. Instead, I let all of that go, cleared my mind and allowed the movie to take me where it wanted to and tell me the story IT had, not the story I wanted it to have.
What I came away with was a magically tragic tale of the prison life of Arthur Fleck, his experience with a mentally unstable woman with a romantic prisoner infatuation combined with a burning desire for personal fame and attention. And no second thoughts whatsoever about using Arthur Fleck for however much of this she could wring from him.
And finally the courtroom drama of Fleck’s mass murder trial and his ultimate, quite unspectacular demise at the hands of a fellow prisoner with a shank. It was an interesting-yet-uncomfortable tapestry of tragedy, fantasy and the human condition interwoven into a mega box office flop of preposterous proportions! And for the chutzpah of taking everyone’s expectations (and money), wadding it all up, tossing it in the garbage while extending a huge special finger to all the built-up pretense surrounding this sequel and the audience along with it, JOKER FOLIE A DEUX has indeed earned the respect of THIS moviegoer! What say you?
Another one that surprised me was WICKED. I did not expect to like what I thought was going to be just some silly chick-flick. I tried not to like this. But I did. This is an adventure beyond measure, a massive undertaking from the visuals to the acting to the music. It’s just filled with performers that I don’t like who are blowing it all out of the water anyway and shoving their raw donut licking talent right in my face and making me eat a heaping helping of spectacle pie whether I wanted to or not. This movie abused me and I liked it! Fantastic all around, and this was just part one. Grab your broom and go see it!
And speaking of broomstick riders, Demi Moore in THE SUBSTANCE! Wow! I mean just wow! If you’ve ever wanted to see Demi Moore in the craziest horror sci-fi film you’ve ever experienced, you have to see THE SUBSTANCE but don’t take the kids cause she’s nekkid in it.
OK Moving right along to the movies I’m looking forward to in 2025!
Lilo and Stitch, the live action remake. This could be good or it could burn like a kerosene-soaked tiki hut.
Jurassic World Rebirth – I don’t know… I’m pretty over the whole Jurassic thing but I’m sure this will be a fun popcorn movie.
Then we’ve got the new Superman movie entitled… Superman. As you probably know, Henry Cavill is out and David Corenswet is in. Henry was a fantastic Superman and was set to reprise this role and for some reason, Director James Gunn recast the part which I’m really troubled by. I was really enjoying the harder edged, darker places they were taking things with Henry Cavill and now I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I will say I like the new emblem which looks more like an alien symbol than the letter S, which in my opinion is exactly what it should have always looked like.
A Minecraft Movie – This is the big Jack Black flick of 2025 and it looks like a fun one for the kids that adults can also enjoy. I’ve seen the trailer and to me if looks like one of the new Jumanji movies repackaged in that 4 people get sucked into the game and connect with an expert builder who helps them survive the endless challenges and pitfalls of this crazy, crazy digital world (zeros and ones!)
Then there’s the live action remake of Snow White. There was a lot of ridiculous controversy this past year over a picture of a group of actors who were portraying the dwarves and people were wringing their hands and clutching their pearls in that they didn’t look like the dwarves they grew up with. And I’m going to say it, they were upset that the actors portraying the dwarves weren’t white and believing that they weren’t white because of the woke diversity-pushing agendas of Hollywood.
I don’t even know where to begin with this except to say, These were pictures of the MOTION ACTORS BEING REPLACED WITH CGI ! They used these real actors to play against and to capture better human movements and interactions between the characters! It didn’t matter what they look like! I can understand being sick of identity being interjected for the sake of an agenda but for the love of God, get a clue before getting offended by every picture you see floating around the internet people!
This stated… speaking of looks… The premise that the gorgeously stunning Gal Gadot playing the evil queen would be jealous of a Dora the Explorer-looking Snow White with clammy skin and a giant hairy mole on her face (still cute, I’m just saying in comparison to Gal Gadot) is beyond credibility. It’s like that SNL skit where Chris Farley competes with Patrick Swayze for the last open Chippendales spot. What are we doing here folks?
Captain America – Brave New World : OK I’m not crazy about the title. It’s not bad. It’s just not good or interesting. That said, the upgrading of the B-level superhero FALCON finally putting on his big boy pants and taking up the shield of Captain America is an interesting angle that I’m looking forward to. It’s about time FALCON got his due. Too bad it will not be in the form of a true FALCON movie (I guess you could argue that this is a true FALCON movie in that it combines his strengths with the remaining assets of Captain America to take him to the next level), but this is pretty close and I’ll take it! I think what I’m reserved about is that I feel this movie is telling me that FALCON couldn’t measure up the way he was and needed Captain America’s leftover technology to bring him up to snuff. And to me, that hints of a disrespect for the legacy that’s been built up over several movies for the FALCON character. Regardless, it’s an interesting dynamic, I’m looking forward to seeing it. I just would have at least liked a better title. Brave New World is just sort of lackluster to me.
Guillermo Del Toro’s new adaptation of Frankenstein which will star Mia Goth is also coming in the new year. There’s not a lot of information out about this one, much less a trailer but I’m of two minds about this one. Half of me us saying Do we really need another Frankenstein movie? Let’s move on to something new and fresh. While the other half of me is screaming with joy like a little teenaged fangirl. If course we need a new Frankenstein movie!
Then we have Popeye the Slayer Man (yes, you heard that right) who was apparently misconfigured and physically altered by a chemically tainted batch of spinach. He now lurks in the shadows of the old abandoned spinach factory on the docks and metes out his horrific punishments on any who might dare trespass. I’m guessing the rights to Popeye have recently become public domain. Umm… Yeah .
There’s a whole lot more in the world of movies but honestly it’s mostly sequels, remakes and reboots but hey.. Dogman is finally getting his own feature film and that’s Hollywood throwing us a bone!
2025 TOY INDUSTRY NEWS!
Ok it’s a bit tough to get a list of next year’s most anticipated toys when we’re in the middle of Christmas season for this year, so in the TOY category what I thought I would do instead is to let you know some of the most interesting toys of 2024 that are currently nominated in various categories for a coveted 2025 TOTY Award (Toy Of The Year).
ACTION FIGURE OF THE YEAR
Probably the coolest nominee in this category I found had to be the Godzilla x Kong 13″ Mega Figures by Playmates Toys, Inc. How can you go wrong?
COLLECTIBLES
In the COLLECTIBLES category, the one that caught my attention the most would have to be Deddy Bears Plush in Coffin by Innov8 Academy which are cute stuffed bears that come in coffin-shaped boxes and I suppose the idea is for kids to get comfortable cuddling corpses?
CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR
For CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR I’m giving the nod to Gecko Run: Marble Run by Thames & Kosmos which is a playset where you set up a series of tracks, tubes, funnels and loops to hurl your marbles through crazy adventures and scenarios!
CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR
In the category for CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR I’m really liking the Clixo Tropical Birds Pack by Toyish Labs which consists of various colorful foam parts that you snap together to create your own flock of tropical birds! Now that’s neat!
DOLL OF THE YEAR
There’s also a category for DOLL OF THE YEAR which I’m going to skip because as a 56 year old man I don’t feel quite qualified to make a pick here but I will venture to say the doll collection NAME I found the most interesting in this category would have to be YUMMILAND!
EDUCATIONAL TOY
For the best EDUCATIONAL TOY I’m thumbs-upping the National Geographic Epic Circuits Science Kit by Blue Marble. I’m looking at pictures of this kit and I couldn’t tell you what half the things are here but it looks cool! Way cooler than the science kits I played with when I was a kid. I just want to dig in and geek out like crazy on this thing!
GAME OF THE YEAR
For the best GAME OF THE YEAR, honestly the only one nominated that I found interesting was SNAP 2 IT by Elenco Electronics which looks like a bunch if components you snap together to make various electronic gizmos that do electronic gizmo types of things. I’m not really sure how this is a game but I’m guessing it must be competitive in some nature for it to be in this category.
GROWN UP TOYS
In the category of GROWN UP TOYS I didn’t see much that really caught my attention except this line of high end hot wheels cars with crazy teal-colored tracks to run them on called Hot Wheels x Daniel Arsham Collection. This just looks like a super nice set of collectibles for the adult Hot Wheels enthusiast. The cars appear to practically be jewelry! Or if Hot Wheels and Faberge eggs had babies…
INFANT / TODDLER TOY
Speaking of babies! For the tiny tots in the INFANT / TODDLER TOY category, I found the Ms. Rachel Surprise Learning Box by Spin Master to be the neatest thing. It looks like you get a colorful box that you stick your hand into and pull out a variety of different toys. Because teaching kids to stick their hands and fingers into dark hidden places with the promise of a toy surprise is always a great idea dontcha think?
OUTDOOR TOY
In the OUTDOOR TOY category I’m really liking the EastPoint Sports Premium Axe Throw Target Game by Buffalo Games. It’s a freaking home version of axe throwing! How can you not want this!?
PRESCHOOL TOY OF THE YEAR
Fisher-Price Rockin’ Record Player has this one hands down! I mean, it has to be! It’s a modern version of the classic toy record player from the 60’s and 70s but instead of just being a glorified windup music box, this thing plays real recordings and scratches like a record when you move the tone arm and has a great modern look! Nicely done!
SPECIALTY TOY OF THE YEAR
I absolutely have to not only go with Pinball Machine Maker: Gumball Rally by Thames & Kosmos but I don’t see how I could stand to live with myself if I didn’t get my hands on one of these and do a full-on review for this show! It’s a kit where you put together your own actual working pinball machine that uses gumballs! It’s pinball and a treat! This WILL be on my show agenda for early 2025!
TECH TOY
In the TECH TOY category I don’t know if I actually like this thing, am creeped out by it or a little of both, but I found the Hero: Sound-Sensing Robot by Thames & Kosmos to be the neatest thing going here. You basically assemble a 6-legged robot that responds to audible cues via a handheld clicker not unlike robot toys we had in the 70s, but this thing is a bit more sophisticated I believe and it also dances. It looks kind of like a mechanical cyclops spider. Definitely something you want to point towards your sister’s bedroom and march right in there after dark!
And that’s our look ahead at the amusements to watch for in 2025! What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know! If you’re enjoying this episode on one of the socials, leave a comment. Otherwise you can email me at [email protected]
MY FAVORITE DANDY FUN HOUSE EPISODE OF 2024!
I don’t usually like doing retrospectives but I am going to look back at 2024 for just a moment here and would like to say my favorite episode was undoubtedly the Halloween episode. It’s always the Halloween episode and it’s always the episode that results in my lowest ratings as far as viewership and listenership. But I don’t care. I love Halloween and this year we had the amazing return of Count Drahoon which just put everything on a whole nuther level!
DANDY FUN HOUSE Plans for 2025
I would love to start including content from YOU! Yeah YOU! Like your theme park visits, toy and game reviews, favorite retro amusements. I would really like someone in the pinball business to show off new pinball machines as well retro classics. Just remember, while this show is not aimed at kids, it is family-friendly and made to be something you can enjoy with the kids! So don’t be raunchy. You can be gross, just don’t be raunchy! Feel free to include a quick plug for yourself and/or your business as long as the whole thing isn’t just one big commercial. Sound interesting? Send me links to your SHORT FORM videos at [email protected] or just use the contact form on the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com
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And THAT ladies and gentlemen puts a bow on 2024. Come on back next year for some amazing new adventures in 2025,right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! See ya next year!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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In this very special Thanksgiving episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to count down my TOP TEN FAMILY FUN FAVORITE GAME IDEAS FOR TURKEY DAY! And we’re gonna get to gobblin’ down on ’em… right now! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we always go for extra helpings of your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! Today I’m going to count down the very best family fun game and activity ideas I’ve been able to find and I hope YOU’LL find them absolutely Dandy as well.
But before we go any further, I do want to extend a very big thank you to the legendary Count Drahoon for batflapping into the Dandy Fun House Studios here in beautiful Murfreesboro, Tennessee to co-host our annual Halloween episode last month. I have to say he’s the only guest this show has ever had that literally appeared from a cloud of smoke.
And speaking of smoke shows… I think it’s time to check out these smokin’ hot Dandy Fun House t-shirts. They’re super absorbent and perfect for soaking up all that giblet gravy dribbling down your chin at the dinner table this month. And not only are they super-stylish, but they also come with 4 holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your turkey neck out of and two to poke your wings through! Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours before the big bird thaws!
And while you’re there, you might as well pick up one of our infamous Coffee Badger t-shirts and / or coffee mugs and/or bags of dark french roast coffee! I’ll let you figure out what a coffee badger is for yourself. I’m tired of explaining it. Once again, head over to dandyfunhouse.com to visit the Dandy Fun Shop and see all the frivolities we have waiting for you!
Okay, without any further delay, I believe it is time to kick off our Turkey Day Top Ten Countdown of our favorite family fun game and activity ideas sure to make your Thanksgiving and absolute hoot! Ready? Let’s do it!
#10: Corn Shucking Race: This is obviously a competition best suited for the early birds helping with the meal prep. As the name implies, everyone competes to see who can shuck corn on the cob the fastest. I personally shuck corn on a weekly basis and I’m still terrible at it. I’m always digging out those corn silk strings with a fork. But I will tell you my secret to super quick corn on the cob! Leave the husk on, cut off the ends with a serrated knife so that not only is the husk completely unattached, but also so that you can stick your cob-holders in. Then microwave your corn cob with the holders stuck in and the husk still on for 2 minutes. When it’s done, simply hold it by one of the holders upright on a plate and use a fork to pull away the husk and silk threads. Voila! Two minute corn on the cob! I make it every week!
#9: Roll A Turkey Dice Game – This is a fun one. It involves game dice with arts and crafts. First you need to print out the game sheets with a turkey body on it along with the various parts of a turkey corresponding to the numbers on the dice. Secondly you need to print out sheets with all the turkey parts on them. Thirdly, you give everyone a pair of child-safe scissors so they can cut their various turkey parts out.
Basically, everyone takes turns rolling the die. If you roll a one, you’ll put eyes on the turky, two you’ll put the beak on your turkey, three the feet and so on and so forth. Of course if you roll something you already have, you do nothing and the next person gets their turn. Whomever succeeds at completley building their turkey first is THE WINNER, WINNER TURKEY DINNER!
You can find the game sheets ready to print at www.playpartyplan.com/roll-a-turkey/ I’ll leave a link in the episode posting for this show at dandyfunhouse.com if that’s too much to remember in your tryptophan fog!
#8: Thanksgiving Charades – If you’ve had enough of Thanksgiving parades, maybe it’s time to try THANKSGIVING CHARADES! TheSavvySparrow.com website calls this an easy, low-prep game that’s simple to understand and play. I like it already! Just like traditional charades except players act out Thanksgiving-themed words and phrases for others to guess.
All you need are the cards with the words and phrases which you can print out at www.thesavvysparrow.com/thanksgiving-charades (or you can just make your own, but these look amazing and they’re already done for you!). A one-minute timer (there’s one on your phone), a box or basket to jumble the cards in for blind-picking and cheap dollar store prizes to throw to or at the winners!
#7: Pumpkin Sweep – This is a great yard game and a great use of your decorative gourds! To play Pumpkin Sweep, you give each player a pumpkin and a broom and set up a finish line on the other end of the yard. The object is to maneuver your pumpkin using only the broom across the yard and over the finish line before your opponents! Losers could have their pumpkins smashed (that last part’s optional and reserved exclusively for Extreme Pumpkin Sweep).
#6: Turkey, Taters, & Terror, a Thanksgiving-Themed Murder Mystery Game
This is the ultimate Thanksgiving Murder Mystery Dinner Party Game! It does require 8 to play and they say it’s best suited for grownups.It’s Thanksgiving dinner, and you’ve been invited to the home of Marissa Baron, one of the most innovative television producers in the past 20 years. Marissa has produced almost every successful show on Cluster, the entertainment industry’s most popular network. She has expressed interest in collaborating with a member of her inner circle and has invited her closest friends and family to pitch ideas for a new show at her holiday dinner. You find yourself at her mansion of a cabin in northern Minnesota. Shockingly, just before dinner, Marissa is tragically found dead! It seems she was electrocuted by a short circuit in the electric whisk while masking her beloved pumpkin pie filling. Let’s say she decided to “mix things up” a bit too literally! As you investigate the faulty wiring, you and the rest of the guests begin to wonder: “Could someone have tried to ‘whisk’ away this successful television producer on Thanksgiving?” That will be up to you and 7 of your closest friends and family to find out when you play TURKEY, TATERS AND TERROR – A Thanksgiving-Themed Murder Mystery Game! Find it at www.vanbiermurdermysteries.com
See I told you this was going to be good! Just hang with me! Because now we’ve counted down to…
#5: The Game of TRAFFIC YAM!
This is a race you can win with your face! You’ve done the egg roll at a picnic before where you hold a spoon in your mouth and try to roll an egg across the lawn and over the finish line faster than anyone else? Okay, same thing but with… YAMS! And yams are a lot harder to control than eggs because of their odd shapes. Just ask Popeye! (I yam what I yam!). And the best part is… you can eat your yam when you’re sick of rolling it! (disclaimer: this game is best played with raw, uncooked yams only, but that’s really your business not mine)#4: Chicken vs. Hot Dog – A Flip it and stick it party game!
This game is like bottle flipping but waaay more fun! This is something everyone can play without learning loads of rules. Basically you get a flippable stickable chicken and a flippable stickable hot dog and a stack of challenge cards which will tell you exactly how you are supposed to flip and stick your hot dog or chicken. This isn’t necessarily a Thanksgiving game, I just came across this thing and thought it was amazing, so amazing that I might actually do a full review on it. It’s by a company called BIG POTATO and you could buy it directly from them on their website, but I went to their website and was instantly accosted by popup after obnoxious popup and I don’t want to inflict that on anyone, so just do yourself a favor and go online to just about anywhere else to buy this thing. I found it listed at just about every major retailer. I’d prefer to support the company directly, but when they drive me away with a pitchfork for the crime of visiting their website, they’re pretty much asking for it. Anyway, this is indeed an awesome game!#3: THANKSGIVING BINGO – This of course is a turkey-day rendition of the game of BINGO. I think this is great because it’s something everyone young and old can play after dinner and spend some quality time together playing. You can do a search online to find plenty of printable Thanksgiving-themed bingo cards which is great if you already own a bingo set. You can also purchase a wonderful Thanksgiving Bingo set over at www.bigdotofhappiness.com
#2: Turkey Bowling – The only reason this did NOT make #1 is because the true version of this sport is not something you’re likely to play with your family on the actual day of Thanksgiving.
Anyway, the true version of this game is with a frozen Turkey and ten 2-liter plastic bottles for bowling pins. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Two strikes in a row is a gobbler, a 7-10 split is a wishbone, and a spare is a hen. If a turkey is too heavy to handle, a Cornish game hen is also acceptable.
But another actual practical version of turkey bowling also exists in the form of creating a set of turkeys out of plastic solo cups decorated with construction paper and googly eyes to resemble turkey bowling pins and rolling a whiffle ball or a small pumpkin at them on the living room floor.
I also found this amazing professionally-manufactured turkey bowling set at Oriental Trading Company that has plastic turkey legs as the pins and comes with two small bowling balls! What could possibly be more fun except…
#1: The Turkey Leg Wrap Game!
Have you been looking for the perfect excuse to bind somebody up and sic the dog on them? Okay, maybe don’t feed them to Fido, but The Turkey Leg Wrap Game is not something you can buy off the shelf, but if you have two rolls of burlap fabric and two chef’s hat, then you have the makings of an amazing Thanksgiving day race activity you’ll want to do over and over. Simply split into two teams of two players and see who can wrap their partner from head-to-toe in the burlap and then jam a chef’s hat on their head at the end to make them look like a turkey leg the fastest! I really don’t know why I was so drawn to this game or why it’s number one, but it’s just so simple, silly and stupid where else could I possibly put it???And speaking of places to put it, I think it’s time to put this Thanksgiving episode of the Dandy Fun House away, but not before I grovel for your spare change!
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Have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone and don’t forget to be extra Thankful for everything the good Lord has blessed you and yours with over this past year! Come on back real soon. Right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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In this extra creepy Halloween 2024 edition of the Dandy Spook Shack, we’re gonna try the all-new Monster Cereal, Carmella Creeper. Also, we’re going to unbox, figure out how to play, and do a full review on the brand new extra creepy board game, Finders Creepers! Let’s step into the Spook Shack!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Spook Shack! I’m your ghost with the most, your ghoul of cool, Neil Dandy. And welcome to my haunted studio!
Today, we’re going to dig into some Carmella Creeper cereal as well as review the board game Finders Creepers…
BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about the brand new extra creepy Dandy Fun House t-shirts! They come with a front and a back so you don’t get cold and also four holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to poke your hopefully not decapitated head out of, two to poke your arms through! How’s that? I couldn’t have done better with a pair of scissors! Go to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours today!
Oh and while you’re over at dandyfunhouse.com, check out the all new gear for the all new line of products, Coffee Badger. Why Coffee Badger? Well, a Coffee Badger is somebody who works remotely, but has to go into the office once in a while to make an appearance for absolutely no apparent reason, because their boss doesn’t want to feel like they wasted all that money buying the office space. So if you’re a coffee badger, you go in, you make your presence known, grab a cup of coffee, throw it down the old pipe, and then you badge out, wave adios and go back home to get all your real work done! Back to your own little haunted mansion, dungeon, whatever you’re doing. Maybe you live in a tree and hang outside down with all the bats. I don’t really know what you do. Hey, speaking of bats…
CARMELLA CREEPER MONSTER CEREAL
Before we dig into this box of Carmella Creeper, it might be a real good idea to call upon someone who knows their bats!
Who knows bats better than…Count Dracula!?Hey, do you think if we try real hard, we can summon Count Dracula? Let’s try it.
Calling Count Dracula!
Calling Count Dracula!
(Smoke fills room and Neil starts coughing while a vampire who is not Count Dracula appears…)
Neil: Uhhh… You’re not Count Dracula…
Count Drahoon: No, no, I’m Count Drahoon. Sorry, Dracula couldn’t make it tonight. He’s actually on vacation right now, so they sent me.
Neil: Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t you the vampire that took over my show a couple of Halloween’s ago and reviewed all the monster cereals?
Count Drahoon: I sure am!
Neil: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Count Drahoon!
(Audience goes wild with applause)
Neil: The powers that be must have seen that we were introducing the new monster cereal, Carmella creeper and thought that you might be the better fit.
Count Drahoon: Well, I don’t know. It’s been a while since I’ve actually ingested human food, but I’ll be happy to give it a try.
Neil: Well, that sounds great. I’ll try it with you. I’ve actually got two blood red bowls!
Count Drahoon: Oh, beautiful. No milk, though. We’re eating this depression era style.
Neil: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Of course.
I found this box of Carmella Creeper in the grocery store just last week. I was checking out the monster cereals. I was like, I have not seen this monster cereal before. Is it brand new? I don’t know. So I took it off the shelf and I learned a little bit about Carmella here. She’s a zombie.
Count Drahoon: Okay… Oh, so she is.
Neil: She’s Frankenberry’s long lost cousin and she’s a DJ and she likes to spin at parties at the haunted mansion. And apparently her flavor is caramel apple.
Count Drahoon: Okay. It sounds good on paper, but…
Neil: yeah… that’s pretty much what I was thinking there myself. All right. Are we ready?
Count Drahoon: I’m ready if you are.
Neil: Hey, you guys want to open this box of Carmella creeper???
Count Drahoon: Let’s do it. Let’s dive right into it!
Neil: Wait. We didn’t really look at the box too closely.
Count Drahoon: Let’s examine.So we have the Carmella Creeper. She looks pretty hip, I’d say. Yeah. Yeah. This is what the kids are into.
Neil: Yeah. She’s got kind of a Latina vibe going on.
Count Drahoon: Yeah, I could see that. Especially with the name like Carmella. Maybe we’re saying it wrong. Maybe it’s not Carmella creeper. It’s kind of a creepe. But that’s like if you’re eating crepes. Maybe she can have like a French alter ego when they do like a crepe flavored cereal.
Neil: Looks like she’s holding a swirly bat.
Count Drahoon: Yeah. It’s really green though. And I’m a little concerned about that because sometimes this color green, it could be really hit or miss. Maybe some of your spooks and spookettes know better than me. I’m old, but this is kind of like standard club lighting, isn’t it? Like this kind of green or just more like a traffic light.
Neil: I don’t know. I’m more worried about what sort of chemicals they put in there.
Count Drahoon: Oh, no, for definitely!
Neil: I mean, you being being what? Three thousand years old…
Count Drahoon: Well, not quite. More like a thousand.
Neil: I don’t know if it would preserve you longer than you’d like to be preserved. I mean, formaldehyde, I don’t know.
Count Drahoon:It might preserve me less.
Neil: It looks like we have some skulls in there, a swirly bat. I mean, she’s even got a little snake friend up there.
Count Drahoon: And he and the snake friend’s got stitches, too. So it’s like zombies. Yeah, a zombie snake or a franken snake. However, you want to spice that.
Neil: What’s on the rest of the box? I think she’s holding up a certain finger on one of the sides I’m looking at.
Count Drahoon: Oh, I didn’t even see that. Oh, yeah. She’s pointing up.
Neil: It’s more of a more of a number one. Not the other finger.
Count Drahoon: This is a kid’s cereal. And she’s got black fingernails!Neil: She does. And another zombie snake friend.
Count Drahoon: So, yeah. And the fingernails, it’s like, is this a fashion statement or is this her corpse? You know, because they could be rotting fingernails. Maybe both. I don’t know.
Neil: They don’t look like they’re falling off her hands.
Count Drahoon: No. So they probably are manicured that way. So that’s that’s a good sign. Yeah. We got a franken snake down here and and it’s with frightful friends, marshmallows. Oh, yeah.
Neil: What’s on the back?Count Drahoon: I kind of like the back. So it’s like different rooms in the house and each of these pets are doing different things. So you’ve got the snake. He’s doing a little the DJ scratch as it were. And then see, there’s an Igor, Count Chocula, fearless guard spider who’s fiercely loyal. Can you find his teddy bear? So it’s like a little scavenger hunt on the back of the cereal box. So that can keep you preoccupied for a couple of minutes.
Neil: I like it. I like it. So this is the haunted mansion where she throws all her DJ parties. She’s got the Frankenberry and Count Chocula and Boo Berry and a little kitty cat.
Count Drahoon: Yes. Meowberry. Oh, I like puns. I appreciate. I appreciate a good pun from time to time.
Neil: All right. Well, let’s let’s try Carmella’s cereal!
(pours cereal)
That is some bright green cereal right there!Count Drahoon: It’s very, very bright green. That’s just really not right.
Neil: I remember the last monster cereals we had. They tasted like styrofoam covered with sugar.
(Neil and Count Drahoon taste the cereal)
Count Drahoon: That’s not bad. I’m really not getting the caramel apple thing though.
Neil: I’m not either. It’s sugary.
Count Drahoon: There’s a very slight hint of the caramel apple towards the end. It’s more like an aftertaste, but it’s basically like fruit striped gum. It’s here and there.
Neil: I’m going to try one of these marshmallow bats.
Count Drahoon: It’s more like a shriveled dried up corpse of a marshmallow.
Neil: Mine’s seen by the days as well. I tend to be getting more of the caramel apple thing off the marshmallow, but still not much. It’s more. I feel like we’ve been taken in by another gimmick.
Count Drahoon: No, I think you’re right. It’s funny because I don’t taste the caramel apple with the shriveled up bat. Let me try the shriveled up… There’s also a shriveled up jack-o’-lantern??? Kind of looks like a really deformed bear.
Neil: Actually, that’s not a jack-o’-lantern.
Count Drahoon: It’s not? What is that?
Neil: That’s Frankenberry. Oh. She’s Frankenberry’s long lost cousin.
Count Drahoon: That’s right. Well, Frankenberry looks like he’s seen better days.
Neil: Yes. I think they all have.
Count Drahoon: But I’m not getting I’m not getting the caramel apple and the marshmallows. It just tastes like straight sugar marshmallow to me.
Neil: This is indeed General Mills’ very first female cereal monster.
Count Drahoon: Stunning and brave.
Neil: That’s what I was going to say. That’s what we have to say by law.
She was introduced in 2023, but I did not see her.
Count Drahoon: I completely missed that.
Neil: I didn’t see her on the shelf until this year, so I don’t know where they were keeping her.
Count Drahoon: In the dungeon…
Neil: What what are we rating this cereal?
Count Drahoon: So… not as good as Count Chocula. Count Chocula is just the best. You can’t beat it.
Neil: Well, I wouldn’t know because you ate the whole box.
Count Drahoon: I did eat the whole box. I’m sorry. I owe you a box of Count Chocula. But Count Chocula is by far the best. I think I said that Frankenberry was a close second. Frankenberry was decent. But then once you get into Boo Berry and then oh, what was the other one? The fruit… It was the fruit one with the werewolf on the cover of it.
Neil: Frute Brute!
Count Drahoon: Oh yes! They tasted eerily similar. I will put Carmella Creeper above Frute Brute.
Neil: Yeah, I would too.
Count Drahoon: There is some semblance of a caramel apple flavor to it, but it’s very, very faint. So I would rate it better than Frute Brute but not quite as good as Boo Berry.
Neil: Not quite as good as the classics!
Count Drahoon: That’s right! Exactly.
Neil: OK, well, then there you’ve got a Carmella Creeper, everybody. And I believe we’re going to continue snacking on Carmella Creeper while we check out the game of…
FINDERS CREEPERS AUGMENTED REALITY BOARD GAME REVIEW!
Neil: Let’s look at the box…
Count Drahoon: That looks kind of fancy.
Neil: Look at the packaging. They have a little thing here. You move it around and find things on the box by moving this little viewfinder around.
It’s by Micro Games of America, MGA. It’s an app-vanced game. Now, what that means is that it uses augmented reality with your phone. And in addition to finding monsters in the game, you also find monsters out in the real world. You basically hunt digital monsters with your phone.
Count Drahoon: So we’re giving kids more of an excuse to use their phone!
Neil: That’s pretty much the idea.
Count Drahoon: Wow.
Neil: Now, normally on this show I shy away from board games in particular and anything that doesn’t have a tangible object that does something interesting. But since this is the Halloween episode, I figured this had an interesting box and you’re going to be able to find animated ghouls and spooky things in here with your phones. I figured it might make for an interesting episode.
Count Drahoon:I think so.
Neil: Or we might find out that this is a complete piece of garbage.
Count Drahoon: A complete dud. Just like the Carmella Creeper.
CHECKING OUT THE BOX
Neil: So here we’ve got the Finders Creepers box. I really like the way they’ve done this.
Count Drahoon: It’s pretty eye catching.
Neil: That’s what caught my eye was the eye catchiness of it. So you’ve got the front of it here where you can kind of use this viewfinder kind of thing to move around and discover things on the box. I think it’s just a piece of white cardboard behind it that makes stuff show up a little better. But still good packaging.
Have a look at the sides here. They are pretty much all the same. Good graphics though. And then on the back you have a shot of the board itself.
Count Drahoon: Uh, how you would use your phone?
Neil: Looking at the board… Apparently you see the monsters jumping out of the board at you. That’s how you find them.
Count Drahoon: And you’re supposed to hunt monsters?
Neil: I believe you capture three of them to win. And then apparently the monsters can also appear around the room.
Count Drahoon: This is already starting to feel like a Black Mirror episode.
Neil: What is the black mirror?
Count Drahoon: It’s this show that’s kind of like the modern Twilight Zone minus a host, but it’s like cautionary sci-fi and horror tales in an anthology format. And I just feel like the idea that you’re playing with monsters that come out of your phone just strikes me as a Black Mirror episode.
Neil: By the way, you have just flown back from Hollywood.
Count Drahoon: I did.
Neil: And your bat wings must be very, very tired.
Count Drahoon: That’s why I said I had a really long flight getting here.
Neil: Ok, I’m here trying to open this box of Finders Creepers and I’m not having much luck with it. I cannot figure out how they’ve got this thing sealed up. I don’t see any tape on it.
Count Drahoon: It must be packed in really tight. Oh, I think you got it. Yeah, you got a little bit of it.
Neil: Ahhh… here it is! There’s a flap on the end with two pieces of tape. But that also means I have to find a sharp object to cut the tape. Sing a song. I’ll be back with something sharp.
Count Drahoon: Um, how about a poem instead?
Once upon the midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary over a many-acquainted and curious volume of forgotten lore, while I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping as if someone gently rapping at my chamber door. Tis some visitor, I muttered, only this and nothing more. Ah, yes, I remember it was the bleak December and every dying ember wrought its course upon my books, sir cease of sorrow for the lost Lenore. (Edgar Allen Poe)
Neil: (back with a knife) All right, let’s slice it open and see what we’ve got!
Count Drahoon: Slasher rules applied.
Neil: There we go. Time to open the coffin lid. Oh, it magnetizes closed! They’ve really gone all out on the presentation here.
Count Drahoon: Wow.
Neil: (opens box) Look! It’s an entire graveyard!
Count Drahoon: That’s beautiful artwork, actually.
Neil: (reading the text over the graveyard) It was the fateful night the relentless members of Invisible Inc. had been waiting for. The paranormal hunters tracked down the tombs. 12 of the most horrible monsters you could imagine. Was it a mistake to open their graves and release them onto the world? Let’s not quibble about that now. There are monsters to be caught! Each member wants to prove they are the best and find and catch these creepers inside the horrible haunted house. Get ready to join the mission!
(Looking at the graveyard) Now, this is kind of like an advent calendar.
Count Drahoon: It does kind of look a little bit like it.
Neil: You want to do the honors?
Count Drahoon: Sure. So you peel open the first flap and you find Abby Stabby! Battery included is what the first gravestone says. You get this little number, this little chip right here (holds up an Abby Stabby game token). And let me tell you, she is she is a beaut, just an absolute beaut.
Neil: Now, she one of the monsters?
Count Drahoon: Yes! Next we have Papa Poppets. He’s a little like a professional wrestler from the 90’s named Papa Shango, who was like sort of like a voodoo guy. And that’s kind of what he reminds me of a little bit. Some of these characters however don’t they don’t feel entirely original.
Neil: I will say they’re not flimsy!
Count Drahoon: Next we have Curse the Cat.
Neil: I see they’re they are on cardboard, but they’re on nice, thick cardboard. I’ve reviewed some games where it’s just like little cheap flimsy floppy things and this seems to have much better quality.
This Curse the Cat character appears to be just a scary black cat. And I like that.
Neil: Cats don’t really get scary on their own. I think cruel humans make them scary.
Count Drahoon: Right. Especially when you’re walled up with one like in the movie The Black Cat! Next up, we have Harper the Hag. Is it a boy?
Neil: I think a hag is usually reserved for a female.
Count Drahoon: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
Neil: Like the sea hag from Popeye.
Count Drahoon: But I guess nowadays a hag can be gender neutral.
Neil: Well, you know, once you visit the Vanderbilt Clinic, anything goes!
Count Drahoon: Next we have Sir Henry Chestershire. It’s like a werewolf cat.
Neil: A werewolf cat?
Count Drahoon: That’s what it looks like to me.
Neil: Nah, that’s just a werewolf.
Count Drahoon: That’s a werewolf. But but but Chester, that’s kind of very cat name.
Neil: Yeah, it’s a very cat name, but it’s kind of British. So, you know, the whole werewolf of London kind of thing.
Count Drahoon: Our next monster is Slimm Grimm. This is more of a more of a ghoul kind of. It looks like Bat Boy all grown up and working as an accountant.
Neil: (lifting out the cardboard graveyard and finding a large booklet) Well, I guess these are the instructions. The rule book. Now, I DID take the liberty of going online and watching a video on how to play. The video was 12 minutes long and there were five million rules to this things. And it was just the most convoluted, complicated thing I’d ever seen in my life.
You know, I kind of just want to pull out the board game, flash my phone at it and look at the cool monsters. And you know, it should just be obvious how you play it. But from what I saw, it’s very involved.
Now, I’m hoping once we actually get in and play this thing that everything will become real obvious. But first you have to download the app and I have already done that. And I’m going to launch it now.
Count Drahoon: That’s a neat looking app I must say!
(APP INTRODUCTION VOICE)
Welcome members of Invisible Inc. The premier paranormal investigation organization. I’m your assistant, Boogle.
Count Drahoon: Run!
(App continues) your guide through your mission.
Neil: You’ve got a tutorial here and it is 12 minutes long. We’re not going to do that today.
Count Drahoon: What? A 12 minute tutorial?
Neil: I’ll skip and scan through some of this.
(App continues) 12 monster tombstone tiles, eight run special action chips and eight gear special action chips. You can pause. I’ll wait…
The monster guide shows you the gear needed to catch each of the monsters. Your app includes the monster guide as well. Each monster has an icon associated with them. Place the tombstone tiles on the corresponding icons. Find the full list of icons in the rulebook. Now get the gear tiles ready. There are six kinds of gear to collect.Separate out the six haunted objects and four holy object tiles. Set four of the haunted object tiles aside. Shuffle the upside down gear tiles and make 12 stacks of three tiles. Now shuffle up the remaining six gear tiles, two haunted object and four holy object tiles and randomly deal one to the bottom of each of the piles.
Neil: Be sure to hold your left earlobe while standing on your right leg…
Count Drahoon: and be sure to scratch there. Sniff that.
(App continues) Haley, Ruth or Diego.
Count Drahoon: Who are these people?
Neil: They’re the monster hunters.
(App continues) If No one has spotted a spirit, The oldest player goes first.
Count Drahoon: Well THAT’S discriminatory!
(App continues) Place your hunter figurine at the enter gate. Now let’s use the app to set up a mission. One player must be the host and the other players will join their mission.
Neil: So you would have to download the app and then join my mission with your phone.
(App tutorial continues despite Neil desperately trying to stop it)
Neil: I’m trying to stop this thing.
Count Drahoon: You can’t. It doesn’t stop. It never ends.
(App continues) Once everyone is done, it’s time to start the mission.
Neil: I mean all that and we haven’t even started it yet. (Neil finally makes the app shut up!) I had to swipe the whole app away to get it to stop! 12 minutes. 12 minutes of that and it’s really complicated how you move from room to room, find things and if you don’t do something right, it sends you back to the start.Okay, there’s a bunch of cards here and I guess you have to punch them all out.
Count Drahoon: Okay. Oh, it’s like demonic Beauty and the Beast.
Neil: Fire extinguisher. You’ve got the Necronomicon.
Count Drahoon:vYeah, this is a lot to break down.
Neil: There are nets, Ghostbusters cannons and these are all the things you use to catch the ghost when then you’ve got a blowtorch and some kind of spike.
Count Drahoon: So you so everyone gets these or do you get to choose?
Neil: I’m not really sure and it would take you so long to learn what you have to do, I’m not quite sure I want to sit through all that. I will say they’ve gone all out on the graphics.
Count Drahoon: They really have.
Neil: I’m sure maybe once you spend some time with this and really get into it, you’ll understand what’s going on. Here’s the instructions on how to play. Several pages! (turning pages) We’re still going here. Still going… Still going… And do you really want to read all that?
Count Drahoon: Out of curiosity how how long do most instruction manuals last for your basic board game?
Neil: Most games that I review are usually just a one sheet thing and at the most it’s maybe two pages. You know what I haven’t found yet?
Count Drahoon: What’s that?
Neil: The board. The game board. Where’s the actual game board itself?
Count Drahoon: Is it under that white cardboard flap?
Neil: OH There’s a slot in the bottom of the box where it just slides in!
Count Drahoon: That’s kind of neat.
Neil: I was about to rip this whole thing apart.
Count Drahoon: Wow.
Neil: You want to give instructions? That’s what you should give the instructions on! I’ll tell you what. I absolutely refuse to read all these instructions in a game review. It’s just not going to happen. We’re just going to open the board and have whatever kind of fun we can have with this thing and leave it up to our audience to decide if you want to explore further.
But wow! Look at the size of this game board!
Count Drahoon: That’s a beautiful board. That’s amazing.
Neil: Here is our game board. And I’m going to host the game. You can choose a high intensity or a low intensity version with the app. I’m going to choose high intensity.
(Game asks for age verification for the high intensity mode)
Count Drahoon: Nosey question. And it’s showing some interesting graphics here. I’ve never done anything like this.
Neil: I haven’t either.
Count Drahoon: So apparently you choose which hunter you want. I’m feeling Diego.
(App starts game play) Get ready. Game is starting. Scan the board first… The monsters are out!
Neil: OK, so you can see the monsters on the board with your phone.
Count Drahoon: That’s that’s kind of neat.
Neil: I think you’re supposed to memorize what rooms they’re all in.
Count Drahoon: It’s my turn. I’ll try to catch a monster.
(app instructs player to touch a room to search for monsters)
Count Drahoon: Sure. I’ll touch a room and search for Numbskull the Clown monster. (zombie comes out and eats the player) Oh, what? What? What just happened? A zombie came out and ate me!
Neil: So basically, I think the bottom line to Finders Creepers here is that this takes some time and attention.
Count Drahoon: Yes. You have to be willing to get into it, get into the instructions, get into the game, learn the different nuances of it and really spend some time.
Neil: And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Count Drahoon: No, it’s not. This is probably a game for somebody that has like intermediate gaming experience, both online and with board games. So if you’re good at both of those or if you have intermediate expertise with board gaming, I think this could be a good game for you. But for somebody that just maybe plays Monopoly casually, you’re probably going to need to make room in your schedule to sort of sit down and really learn how to do this because it does seem a bit complicated. I think it would probably be worth it, though, because it’s really neat how the whole game is set up. It really integrates AI very well. The designs for everything are really top notch. This is a high quality game. But yeah, it does seem a bit complicated.
Neil: I agree. This game is more for the board game enthusiast. Somebody who wants to roll up their sleeves and dig into something. And it’s something that I don’t think they’ll get bored with it quickly because there seems to be a lot of things going on. And if you really want to sink your teeth into it, there’s a lot here to get into and sink your teeth into.
I was personally ready to give this a bad review. And the reason I was ready to give it a bad review is because while I was preparing for this show, I was watching the video on how to play it. And it just got so involved that my eyes just glazed over. I was like, you know, drool black drool started coming from the corners of my mouth.
Count Drahoon: Oh, that’s where it came from…
Neil: Yes, yes. And, and I was just like, Oh, this is horrible. This is a train wreck. Who wants to do all this? But now that I’ve opened it, and I’ve looked at the quality that they’ve actually put into this game and how interesting they’ve gone into making the packaging and the development of the app. I mean, not only do you see ghouls and goblins and things in the haunted house jumping out at you through your phone, but there are parts in it where you’re going to be able to go around the room and see them actually where you’re hanging out. And for that reason, I’ve changed my mind, I’m gonna say they’ve knocked it out of the park with this thing. It’s not for me. But it wasn’t made for me.
Count Drahoon: No, I agree. This is this is a hardcore game enthusiast game. So on that end, if you’re grading it on that curve, this gets high marks, definitely.
Neil: FINDERS CREEPERS! Find it wherever you creep!
CATCHING UP WITH COUNT DRAHOON
Neil: Count Drahoon, you left us here in Murfreesboro all by ourselves for a while. And I believe you went and spent some time in Hollywood, California?
Count Drahoon: I did.
Neil: So what were you doing out there? And I understand that you’re now back in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. So tell us about that.
Count Drahoon: Yes. So, California, I was out there just trying to sort of expand the web as it were for, you know, all things Count Drahoon. I think I did to an extent. I hosted horror films out of LA for a while. But I got homesick and I decided it was time to come back to Tennessee, because I think things are really happening out here. And I think this is the place to be. So I wanted to come back home to Tennesseevania and I’ve really started hitting the ground running and it’s almost as if I never skipped a beat! And I’m doing all kinds of stuff out here in in Murfreesboro!
Neil: I noticed you’re doing Monday night classic horror films at Hop Springs Brewery.
Count Drahoon: Yes.
Neil: It doesn’t mean a whole lot to any of you who are not in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. But it means a lot to us. So you’re hosting classic horror movie nights there. What else are you doing around?
Count Drahoon: That’s mostly what I’m doing right now. So Monday nights, I’ve dubbed it the Monster Movie Mondays over at Hop Springs. I’m doing double features every Monday for October and one Wednesday.
And then I’m also doing a few other shows around town. We just had one last night from where we’re recording at Cedar Glade Brews. Went very well. I did that with my friend Scufflemoss Treeman, who’s a forest troll. Murfreesboro is a very strange town. We did a live riff track of the Beast of Yucca Flats, which is one of the worst movies ever made. But it’s a lot of fun.
Neil: So for the people who are not in Murfreesboro who want to dig into the world of Count Drahoon, where do they go?
Count Drahoon: Yeah, so I do have a YouTube channel. It’s called Count Drahoon Presents. And I do movie reviews of horror films, but I’ve branched out a little bit. So I do like top 10 countdowns of my favorite movies of the year. And I do include non horror titles in there.
Neil: So basically YouTube is where you find Count Drahoon these days.
Count Drahoon: Exactly.
SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE VIDEO SHOW, PODCAST AND BLOG!Neil: All right. And where you find the Dandy Fun House is of course at www.dandyfunhouse.com, where you can support the show!
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Count Drahoon, thank you for stopping by.
Count Drahoon: Thank you for having me.
Neil: Right here at the Dandy Spook Shack where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!
So what do you do now? You just disappear in a puff of smoke?
Count Drahoon: You’re kicking me out.
Neil: The show’s over.
Count Drahoon: I thought we could hang out for a while. Maybe dig into this Carmella Creeper cereal. I mean, that’s a lot of it…
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
see the video below!listen to the podcast below!Riddle me this funheusers! What is squeaky clean, Mormon to the max, has big teeth, more legs than you can count, has sold over 77 million records worldwide yet you’ll almost NEVER hear on the radio? … Give up? IT’S THE OSMONDS! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to give you all the Osmonds you can eat! Let’s step into the fun house!Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog. This is where we meticulously polish all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can handle until it’s sparkly!I’m your host Neil Dandy and I hope you’re in for a wild ride on some Crazy Horses today because this episode is all about The OSMONDS!But first, I need to tell you about these funky fresh DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS!With cloth harvested from the ancient fabric mines of darkest Peru and hand-woven by enchanted pygmies, you’re going to look and feel amazing. It comes with a front AND a back so you don’t get cold and we cut 4 holes in ’em for practicality’s sake. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through. I mean who wants a shirt they can’t stick their head out of? Well you won’t have that problem here! Just get over to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours today!Oh yeah! And if you have one of those remote jobs but your boss still makes you come to the office here and there for no apparent reason… so you badge in, grab a coffee, make your presence known then badge out and go home to get your real work done… then YOU are a Coffee Badger and here at the Dandy Fun House, we salute and honor you! We also feel your pain and frustration so we made a commemorative t-shirt just for you to be relentlessly passive agressive in! It’s the unlimited edition COFFEE BADGER t-shirt! Badge in. Caffeinate. Badge Out! and if that weren’t snarky enough, we even made a special Coffee Badger coffee mug to drive the point home to your jerk boss before you badge out, wave a few inappropriate hand gestures and drive home… Or to the coffee shop… You really overdo it with the coffee don’t you? Anyway, go get your quiet-quitting self over to dandyfunhouse.com and get your Coffee Badger gear before we run out!Alright… THE OSMONDS!Wow, where do you even start with a subject like this. It’s like trying to package up the Jacksons albeit without the psychic hot line and creepy home amusement park. (Lollipops! Lollipops!)But I guess we’ll start here!It’s the story of a humble farm family from Ogden, Utah who served their church as worship musicians, eventually finding themselves becoming household names worldwide.George Osmond Sr. and Olive Osmond had 9 kids: Jimmy, Jay, Alan, Merrill, Wayne, Donny, Marie, Virl and Tom.
Virl and Tom Osmond
Those last two were both born with hearing disabilities so in 1958 brothers Merrill, Wayne, Alan and Jay began singing around town to raise money for hearing aids and also church missions. Their ages at this time were ranging from only 3 to 9 years old.The Dapper Dans
After a few years of performing locally, their father George entered the boys into a barbershop singing contest in sunny Southern California. During this trip, they went to Disneyland just for a family fun day and were being entertained by a vocal group in the park known as the Dapper Dans.Tommy Walker, Disneyland Director of Entertainment
The boys started singing along and managed to catch the attention of Disneyland’s Director of Entertainment, Tommy Walker.Mr. Walker pulled the family aside and made an offer to hire the boys to perform in the park starting the following Summer.They accepted and the following year began performing in the park as The Osmond Brothers which presented the added benefit of new opportunities such as appearances in the Kurt Russell tv series, THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS. The Osmond Brothers were also included in a 1962 episode of DISNEYLAND AFTER DARK.During the Osmond Brothers‘ appearance on Disneyland After Dark, a man named Jay Williams took notice of the group and called his son Andy and insisted that he book them on none other than THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW. The brothers became an instant hit and were invited back repeatedly throughout the remainder of the show’s run which continued until 1967.Donny Osmond
Marie Osmond
Jimmy Osmond
George Osmond Sr.
The Osmond Brothers didn’t take this newfound acclaim for granted and dedicated themselves to relentless rehearsal in a quest to be the best and “One-Take Osmonds” became their new nickname amongst the Andy Williams staff because they always showed up polished and ready to hit the mark. This discipline was largely attributed to their father George’s military background and strictness which was instilled into all the kids.During the group’s time with The Andy Williams Show, younger brother Donny was eventually brought into the fold and not too long after, Marie and Jimmy. America was falling in love with the Osmonds!What else was there to do but take the show on the road, so The Osmonds embarked on a very successful European tour with Swedish singer Lars Lonndahl.When the Andy Williams Show eventually came to a conclusion in 1967, without skipping a drumbeat, the Osmonds inked a deal to become regular performers on THE JERRY LEWIS SHOW which continued until 1969 at which time THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW came back and the Osmonds returned to Andy! It was like watching a dang ping pong match!As the 60’s came to a conclusion, the Osmonds made the bold and somewhat controversial move to embrace a more pop and rock sound which was a hard pill for father George to swallow as a devout Mormon, but he was eventually convinced and gave his blessing.This proved to be a very lucrative move because although they began making records in the mid-60’s, it wasn’t until 1971 when they released the pop song ONE BAD APPLE that they earned their first chart-topping hit.Mike Curb
Rick Hall
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
This was largely due to record producer Mike Curb taking the band under his wing and teaming them up with legendary R&B producer Rick Hall whom they recorded with at iconic Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. Mike Curb signed the Osmonds to MGM Records and ONE BAD APPLE topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks straight.Their subsequent releases during this time like Double Lovin’, Yo-Yo, Sweet and Innocent, Go Away Little Girl, Hey Girl and the classic Puppy Love also charted but none reached number one.1972 brought the cultural emergence of Album-Oriented-Rock (known today as Classic Rock or Dad Rock) and the Osmonds tried their own hand with a harder-edged sound. During this time, Donny was relegated largely to an instrumentalist role as a keyboardist due to puberty changing his voice.They released the album CRAZY HORSES which featured the hit songs HOLD HER TIGHT as well as the title track, CRAZY HORSES which was a not-so-veiled statement about vehicles and air pollution.They toured the United States and Europe where they racked up a staggering run of 13 hit songs on the UK charts in the year 1973. This global phenomenon of Osmond fever even sparked a new term: OSMONDMANIA!But you know you haven’t really arrived until they turn you into a cartoon! And cartoon the Osmonds they did with a Saturday morning series on ABC simply titled: THE OSMONDS.By the mid-70s, various members of the group found themselves becoming married and with multiple new families starting, their touring schedule slowed to a crawl and unfortunately along with it, their record sales.The younger siblings Marie, Jimmy and Donny decided to take matters into their own hands and all set out on 3 individual and successful solo careers with Jimmy hitting number one in the UK with LONG HAIRED LOVER FROM LIVERPOOL, Marie hitting number one on the American Country charts with PAPER ROSES and Donny smashing the top 40 charts with an unprecedented string of twelve hit songs. Donny Osmond was an undeniable teen idol!The Osmonds were still performing as a band, but now Donny was driving the Osmondmobile with the family band happily backing him up.In 1976 with the help of ABC, the Osmond family band was repackaged into a television variety show called THE DONNY AND MARIE SHOW which became a massive success. We’re talking a star-studded cavalcade of guest stars, lunchboxes, t-shirts, dolls and most anything else you can think of. DONNY AND MARIE WERE WHITE HOT! She was a little bit country! He was a little bit rock and roll! Together, they were a freaking cash cow!This show was so big that ABC even built Donny and Marie their own production facility named OSMOND STUDIOS in Orem, Utah where the show was filmed.But like most things white hot, they burned bright and fast and by 1979, America had had its fill of Donny and Marie and the show concluded. But that didn’t stop the brother / sister act from taking more shots starring in a movie called GOIN’ COCONUTS which went coco-nowhere and recording two unsuccessful albums, attempts at early 80’s sitcoms and a revival of their variety show. All falling flat.Now Marie Osmond as a solo artist did enjoy a string of country hits in the mid-80’s including her number one duet with Dan Seals “MEET ME IN MONTANA.” She also starred in Broadway musicials through the mid 90’s, a 1995 ABC sitcom called MAYBE THIS TIME and teamed up with Donny once again in 1998 for a new version of DONNY AND MARIE in more of a talk show format which lasted two seasons.in 2001, Marie released a book designed to help women suffering post-partum depression entitled MARIE OSMOND BEHIND THE SMILE and after gaining 40 pounds following her mother’s stroke, she followed Mom’s urging to re-dedicate herself to her health and in 2007 Marie started on the Nutrisystem plan losing 50 pounds and becoming the brand’s official spokesperson. She even developed her own program within Nutrisystem called COMPLETE 50 targeted for women 50 and older.Meanwhile, Donny got back to his solo career releasing the song SOLDIER OF LOVE in 1989 which became a hit in the UK, but in America, the Osmond brand had become a bit toxic due to the squeaky clean image and sensibilities of the modern times. So promoters in the US shopped the song as being from a “Mystery Artist” only revealing Donny’s identity once it earned some chart credibility reaching number 2. Donny followed this success with two more songs which became lesser hits: SACRED EMOTION and MY LOVE IS A FIRE which reached 13 and 21 respectively.In 1998, Donny lent his singing voice for the animated film MULAN with the song I’LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU.Then like his sister Marie, tried his hand on Broadway as Gaston in the stage production of Beauty and the Beast and then a stunning 2000 performance run as the lead in the touring production of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT.Donny also hosted games shows such as the revival of PYRAMID which ran from 2002 – 2004 and won DANCING WITH THE STARS in 2009.During this time Donny and Marie put together a 90 minute live show for the Flamingo Las Vegas which was originally only supposed to last for 6 months but became an overwhelming surprise hit to the point that the show continued for an 11 year run winning the BEST SHOW IN VEGAS Award for 3 consecutive years from 2012 – 2014. Their showroom was officially renamed to THE DONNY AND MARIE SHOWROOM in 2013 to honor the achievement.Now let’s rewind a bit back to the 80s to back up to speed on the rest of the Osmond clan. During the 80’s the Osmonds fell badly into debt due largely to teaming up with new business partners who ended up embezzling from them instead of investing in them. Many of these “partners” ultimately went to prison for their crimes but the damage was done.Due to the Osmonds strongly-held religious beliefs, father George was steadfast against declaring bankruptcy and ordered his children to honor all financial obligations by whatever means necessary, forcing the family to return to performing until all debts were satisfied.Thus the OSMOND BROTHERS reformed with Jay, Merrill, Wayne and Alan and leaned into the burgeoning movement of country pop.The Osmond Brothers enjoyed a couple of top 30 country hits but the new recordings largely fizzled with the more modern audiences.The family was also reluctant to tour and made the choice instead to set up their own theater, THE OSMOND FAMILY THEATER in Branson, Missouri and promote themselves through videos.By 1983, all family debts were satified and the OSMONDS were financially free!In 1987, Merrill Osmond teamed up with female country artist Jessica Boucher and had hit song called YOU’RE HERE TO REMEMBER, I’M HERE TO FORGET. But Merrill distanced himself from his clean cut Osmond ties by calling the duet simply Merrill and Jessica due to the lyrical content not really jiving with the wholesome Osmond image.Meanwhile, Alan Osmond retired from performing due to living with Multiple Sclerosis, but his eight sons took up the Osmond mantle performing as the OSMOND BOYS, later changing their name to THE OSMONDS, SECOND GENERATION.One of Alan’s sons, David went on to form the OSMOND CHAPMAN ORCHESTRA.Wayne Osmond survived a brain tumor in 1997 which rendered him deaf and also suffered a stroke which left him unable to play guitar.In 2002 The Osmond Family Theater in Branson, Missouri closed it’s doors for good but The Osmonds still perform in Branson, during Christmastime to this day.Despite all of the retirements and health setbacks, the entire Osmond Family came back together in 2007 to celebrate 50 years as a performing family and embarked on a European tour as well as filming a television special in Las Vegas which was their only US performance. Andy Williams even made a surprise appearance at the Vegas show.In 2018, Alan and Wayne teamed up with their family one final time at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii in what was billed as their final performance ever.Jimmy Osmond also retired that year due to a stroke.In April 2022 Merrill Osmond also announced his own retirement.These days, DONNY AND MARIE continue to tour worldwide…and Jay Osmond continues to perform in Branson Missouri with Nathan Osmond.Despite selling over 77 million records worldwide during their incredible 50+ year run, you will rarely hear an Osmond song on the radio these days or used in film or television ranking the OSMONDS as one of the most successful yet least enduring music groups in modern history as far as having their classic hits survive in current rotation. Even so, the OSMONDS contribution to pop culture history and their influence throughout the decades cannot be denied.And now YOU have the scoop on just about all the Osmond history and happenings that I’ve been able to scrape up and force feed you! How’s it tasting?Do you have any special Osmond memories to share? Are Donny and Marie one of your secret guilty pleasures? Do you turn the volume up to 11 in your car with the windows rolled up while streaming PUPPY LOVE on Pandora? I want to know! Please leave a comment, like and subscribe depending on where you are enjoying this episode!And while you’re at it, if you have enjoyed this show and found any value at all in it, please consider becoming a DANDY FUN HOUSE SUPPORTER by visiting our patronage page at dandyfunhouse.comSUPPORTERS gain access to exclusive bonus contentandSUPER SUPPORTERS not only gain that same access, but if you provide your mailing address, I’ll send you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios in good ol’ Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Not there’s an offer you won’t find every day!PODCAST LISTENERS can usually support via a donation button in your listening app of choice if the app offers it and your 5 star reviews are always highly appreciated!Ok, it’s time for me to get the Osmond outta here! Come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! And may tomorrow be a perfect day! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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Ten-year-old Cooper Dean of Valrico, Florida entered into a Young Inventors contest and caught the attention of an international toy and game company with her idea to bring a farmland pastime to kitchen tables everywhere! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to shovel in to the game of… Chicken Poo Bingo! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House! This is your home of retro pop culture, toys and games, and all the fun stuff. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and in this episode, we’re going to shovel up something amazing with the game of Chicken Poo Bingo! And I’ll tell you more about that in just a few minutes, but first, I want to show you these awesome Dandy Fun House T-shirts!
They look great! I designed them myself so you know they’re awesome, and they come with four holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of, and two to poke your arms through! That’s how we do it here at the Dandy Fun House. It’s got a front and a back so you don’t get cold. Head over to http://www.dandyfunhouse.com today and see what’s shaking!
Oh, and while you’re there, don’t forget about our brand new shirt, Coffee Badger. Are you a coffee badger? Do you know what a coffee badger is? Badge in, caffeinate, badge out. That’s how the coffee badger does it. Okay, back to the show!
Cooper Dean, a 10-year-old girl from Valrico, Florida, was on a camping trip with her parents, and she noticed a game that they were playing at the campground, with chickens pooping on a board with a bunch of squares in it, and it was called Chicken Poop Bingo. It’s pretty obvious how it plays, the chicken eats chicken feed, then it walks around on this game board in an enclosed pen, and it poops on different squares, and that’s just like the bingo caller calling out the letter and number until somebody shouts, “Chicken Poop Bingo!” and they’re the winners.
She took this idea and worked on it at home using a toy wind-up chicken that pooped little pellets out, (you’ve seen those things, the little kind that you get at the little dollar store), and she worked up a game that you could play at home that didn’t require real poop, and she called it Chicken Poo Bingo!
She then took her new game, which she and her friends had a blast playing, and entered the People of Play Young Inventor Challenge, which allowed young inventors to present their ideas to big name companies!
Well, one of these big name companies was Goliath Games, and if you haven’t heard of Goliath Games, well you should have, because you go back a couple of episodes here at the Dandy Fun House when we were talking about the game of Greedy Granny, and I brought you the love story of Adi and Margrethe Golad. It’s amazing, you got to go see it. Go back a couple episodes, check it out here.
But anyway, back to this. Goliath Games took notice of this game, and they said that’s brilliant, it’s amazing, we’ve got to work with this awesome girl, and so they did! They had zoom calls and conferences, and they cut a deal, and the result is Chicken Poo Bingo, which you can find on shelves all over the world now!
Alright, without further ado, I’m going to unbox this thing, assemble it, and we’re going to figure out how to play it. It’s just like Bingo, you already know the deal here, but I have no idea what to expect when I start cracking into this box. I made it an intentional decision to not look at it too much, because I wanted my initial reaction to this game to be exactly what appears on camera. So let’s crack into Chicken Poo Bingo!
OUTER PACKAGING
So as you can see, here’s the box, and it’s got great graphics. You never know where the chicken will go! They always do it great at Goliath Games, I’ve gotta tell you, it’s an amazing company. They didn’t do anything special on the sides, they just kind of put the same graphic on every side, but it’s an awesome graphic. They just kind of repurposed the front of the box.
On the back of course, same as you always have with these types of things, you’ve got the kids playing on the back, as well as a picture of Cooper Dean in the corner, who invented the home version of this game!
“This silly chicken has to go, so you can get Bingo. So, in this fun farm themed game, a chicken is in charge of which cute and colorful squares are chosen each round of Bingo. Just wind it up and watch it go. That’s right, the Chicken Poo tells you what to match on your Bingo card. Crazy cows, fluffy pigs, and more are waiting to be chosen every game. Match five in a row and shout Chicken Poo Bingo! to win and bring a blast of laughs to your family!”
And I did pick this up at Bass Pro Shops. The reason I picked it up at Bass Pro Shops is because it was the only store local to me that actually had it on the shelf, and I was running a little late on time. I just overhauled my whole studio here, and I didn’t have time to order it online and wait for it to come. So, hit Bass Pro Shops I did, and I paid about eight extra dollars than I would have had I ordered it online, but you know that’s the price that I pay to bring you Chicken Poo!
All right, let’s open this thing and see what we got here. And since the chicken is wind up, that was a question I had. I was concerned that I was going to have to get batteries, but Goliath Games came through once again and made it mechanical and not battery powered, and they’re really good about that stuff. So, another big shout out kudos to Goliath Games! Let’s open the box and get our first impressions here!
UNBOXING
There’s not much to see in that box, is there? It looks like a pretty empty box. It looks like I got ripped off! There’s nothing in there! Look at that! Look at this! It’s not empty, however…
Just got to do a little creative digging here. We’ve got cardboard. Let’s lose that.
Here we have an entire sheet of Poo tokens!
Oh, and here’s different game pieces. This is kind of interesting here. Various game pieces with different patterns on them. Good branding on it all.
What else we got? We have our instructions here.(…) We have a funnel…
and little nuggets of poop. Yay! Poop funnel!
And we have a chicken here. The star of the show, our chicken… and our chicken isn’t too bright. Chicken stuck its head in a plastic bag, which is not really advisable because there’s really no air holes in there for the chicken to breathe.
And then we have the game board. I like this already, and you know why I like it? Because usually when you see a game board that it’s this small, it’s usually like you’ve got half of it in one piece, and then you’ve got a half-cut part, and then it flops open into a bigger board, and I hate that little quarter cut. I like it when you just open it and there it is.
Now let’s turn it around and see what we got. All right, that’s colorful. You have a start square, and then I guess you just match up the different animals and farm features, I guess.
These have got to be the bingo cards that you hand out, and they must be because they all have different configurations.
Well, the first thing… We’ve got to fill up our chicken. And what you do is you grab it down here, probably not by the feet because the feet are motorized. So you want to grab it by the body and then just rip the head of the chicken off. And that’s pretty much how you kill a chicken anyway when you’re getting ready to pluck it for dinner. Then the poop pellets, obviously, go into this little hole right here, and I guess that’s where the funnel comes into play. You don’t really need the funnel, but I guess it just makes it easier to load your poop pellets into. I’m having trouble getting all these in here, so okay, I guess we’re not going to load them all in here for now. In our chicken head, there’s a tab to the side, and there’s a notch in the top of the chicken’s body. You want to line those up and just snap the chicken head back on.
INSTRUCTIONS
Object: Be the first to get five poo tokens horizontally vertically or diagonally and shout chicken poo bingo!
Playing the game: The youngest player goes first. On their turn, players wind up the chicken about eight rotations or until the gear feels taut and set it on the start space in the center of the bingo game. Players may choose to place the chicken facing any direction. As the chicken wobbles along, watch for those poo nuggets as the chicken poo lands on the colorful squares. Players should match them to their bingo cards and place a poo token on that square on their own card.
You never know when you might get a chicken poo bingo! If no one has a chicken poo bingo after everyone has finished checking their cards, that round ends and play passes to the left. The next player starts the next round by gathering the poo nuggets and refilling the chicken and winding it up and placing it on the start space facing any direction. Players take turns refilling and placing the chicken on the bingo game board and checking their cards each round until one player has five poo tokens in a row on their bingo card.
Okay, so you just keep it going. You keep putting poo tokens on your game card and you don’t take them off after each round. You just keep it going until someone gets bingo it like you would if you were actually playing regular bingo somewhere without poop involved. You know what… this is the second fecal themed game that I’ve reviewed this year!
HISTORY OF POOP BINGO
But while I’m popping out poop tokens here, I’m going to tell you kind of how the whole concept of poop bingo started. It actually started as cow poop bingo (for lack of a more family friendly term) out on farms. They’d make a great big grid pattern on the ground in the cow pen and the cow would walk around and do what cows do and people would mark off their bingo cards until somebody got the bingo. Everybody would pay a few dollars to play and the money would either go to support the farm or a local charity.
Well, there was a musician who was playing at a bar who had experienced this game happening out on farms and he presented the idea to his clients, the bar owners, of bringing in this game to their establishment but adapting it instead of cows (because cows can’t go to bars), chickens, which you could actually bring indoors if you needed to. The owners loved the idea and it brought in some additional revenue.
And so that’s where our young inventor came up with the idea. Not that she’s going out bar hopping with her parents, you know what I mean? She saw it at a campsite, not at a bar that let in 10 year olds.uhh… yeah. All right, now we’re ready to play some chicken poo bingo!
LET’S PLAY CHICKEN POO BINGO!
I’m going to shuffle these cards so I don’t know which one I’m going to get here. I’ll pull one from the middle. Okay, that’s going to be my card right here. Youngest player goes first. Well, that would be me! So eight turns on the chicken… Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, or until taut. I think it’s tight enough now. I don’t want to screw up the winding mechanism.
So we’ll just kind of put it here in the center start space. Now, my big question is, is this thing going to walk in a straight line or is it going to, you know, meander around in circles, which I would think it would probably be better for it to do. You know, it should be a little unpredictable…
So here we go… It dropped one in the start space on the border between the start space and on a line. I’m not going to count that one.
All right. Got eggs, tractor. Oh, I see! The poop pellets roll around and they could land pretty much anywhere as long as you’re on a level surface.
Okay. So the chicken has dropped on the tractor and the eggs. So do I have a tractor and do I have eggs? I have a tractor. I think everything’s on each card. They’re just in different formations… and I have eggs! Let’s, let’s wind up some more. I’m just going to leave the chicken right where it’s at.
Oh wait. And we, and we got one on the dog. Where’s the dog? Right there! Okay.
Then start it from right where it stopped.
We’ve already got our cards marked. So we don’t really need to leave poop pellets sitting around on the board because that could get in the way of the chicken walking around. So rip the chicken’s head off again for our funnel here. You know, chickens actually will continue to run around after you pull their heads off in real life. Don’t ask me how I know that.
They gave way more pellets than there’s room for inside the chicken. And I think that’s probably because they’re expecting you to lose some of them. Okay. Let’s, let’s go back to the start here and I am going to actually face the chicken the opposite direction this time. Go until the spring is taut. Instructions said eight turns, it probably meant eight full turns.
Okay. Looks like I’ve got a bunny. Barn. Donkey. Cow. Another one on the barn. And I think that it’s gonna be tough to get the edge of the board because the poop rolls off the edge. The crease in the middle of the board can also play a role in this because the pellets fall into that groove.
piggy…
(…)
Tractor…
(…)
I think a better idea would be to start the chicken in different positions on the board or just from wherever it stops. I think Starting the chicken in the middle start square is a losing proposition because the the chicken’s not going to walk much further than that and you’re gonna really miss the opportunity of getting droppings into the corner spaces. With this in mind, maybe we’ll start this chicken on the hay bales over here in the corner and it seems that wherever you start It’s a pretty safe bet that it’s probably gonna drop one there. But let’s ee what happens…
(…)
We got the lamb…
(…)
And of course we get the chicken…
(…)
And a cow!
(…)
Cow and chicken! I love that cartoon! I think I’m getting really close to a chicken poo bingo here… it’s kind of tedious having to rip the chicken’s head off every time I wish there was a better way to load this thing and I wish that it would you could just load it with all of the poop and not have to do this after every single winding. And it’s really easy to lose all these little pieces. I’ll talk about that more in the wrap-up.
We’ve got boots…
(…)
Bunny… kitty, I’m getting really close here on my game card. Oh Oh
CHICKEN POO BINGO!
And that’s how you play Chicken Poo Bingo!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Alright, that was a lot of fun. I like the fact that it doesn’t use batteries. Goliath games is really good about keeping a lot of their games battery-free and that’s a great thing!
This chicken… the fact that you have to pull it apart after every round to refill it with just 5 pellets and you can kind of feel plastic cracking under your fingers and along the seams and things.. I feel this translates to an early demise for this bird. I just don’t see it holding up over the long term.
I think the tedious nature of having to refill this thing so much is going to be such a pain that kids aren’t going to stick with it very long. It’s like those little wind-up toys you get in your Easter basket. They’re fun for a few minutes. Then you get sick of it and it breaks quickly too.
I could be wrong Kids could have a blast with it and the chicken could keep going for years. It just doesn’t feel like it to me. But also you’ve got these little tiny poo pellets. Is that a choking hazard? I don’t know. It’s so small. You know bigger kids are going be playing around smaller kids. Are they going find them all and put them away? Magic 8-ball says not likely. I think there’s just too much little stuff that’s going to get lost. Paper thin tokens and game cards too. It’s a great way to bring the fun of poop bingo whether it be cow or chicken to your dining room table, I just wish they made this more durable, with more poo capacity and a border around the game board so the pellets don’t roll off the side would be the only other thing on my wish list for this game. I
FINAL RANKING
So how am I gonna rate Chicken Poo Bingo here? Okay on a scale from one to ten chicken droppings…
I’m giving it a SEVEN because I love the concept. I love the back story too. I think it’s awesome! Do I regret buying this? No, not at all This actually was fun and I’m going donate this to the youth room in my church and see what reaction it gets.Especially since we just had a flood in the church. So maybe some of the games I had up there might be ruined when I go in on Sunday morning and this will be a nice new one.
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Alright, that’s gonna be about it. I’m gonna get the poop on out of here! You guys come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
watch the video!listen to the podcast! Akron, Ohio. 1973. Before new wave. Before punk rock. Two Kent State graduates, Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis found their destinies when they met up with a keyboardist from a band called Flossy Bobbitt. His name? Mark Mothersbaugh. Together they formed something entirely different. Releasing their mongoloid creation upon an unsuspecting wiggly world with spudniks designed to whip it at every turn.In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we venture to ask the eternal burning question… Are We Not Men? For THIS is the story of DEVO! Let’s step into the Fun House!Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog. This is where we whip up the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode, we’re going to carry out our Duty Now For The Future by bringing you the story of DEVO!BUT FIRST! I must tell you about these awesome Dandy Fun House t-shirts! You can show your support for this show while spreading the word oh so stylishly and the design actually doesn’t look stupid! Just buy the front of the shirt and we’ll throw the back in free! But wait! There’s more! Order now and not only do you get two holes to crawl your body into and poke your neck out of but we’ll also include two more holes to stick your arms through! Now how much would you pay?Just visit the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com and click on SHOP to order yours today! And while you’re there, be sure to check out our brand new NO ROBOTS! T-shirt! Tell Cyberdyne where to stick it! That website once again is www.dandyfunhouse.com . Order today!Alright! DEVO! If you’re older like me, you probably remember this weird, punky, electronic band going as far back as their appearances on the original Saturday Night Live in the 70’s back when it was funny. If you’re a bit younger, you might be familiar with their 80’s hit WHIP IT.Well… not only is DEVO still a creative force today, but they have quite the storied past that goes back farther than you might think!… MUCH FARTHER!It’s the late 60’s and two Kent State University art students named Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis make an art project together reflecting the theory that mankind is not only NOT evolving, but actually DE-EVOLVING! Both of them were budding modern artists and also musicians. Casale was performing with a band called The Numbers Band. Around 1970, this band began fraternizing with another local band known as Flossy Bobbitt which featured a crazy but talented keyboardist; a one Mr. Mark Mothersbaugh.The musicians began jamming around with each other and creating a more cutting-edge feel than what was around at that time during the height of hippie culture. They also discovered that they shared a love for satire. One day, Mark Mothersbaugh was sharing a pamphlet to the other musicians called “Jocko Homo Heavenbound” which featured the character of a winged devil named D-EVOLUTION. This pamphlet would later inspire the classic song “Jocko Homo” as well as the band name but we’re not quite there just yet.Then May 4th, 1970 the infamous massacre at Kent State took place and the theory of De-Evolution became all too real and far too close to home for the guys. Gerald Casale was a witness to the event and personally saw two of his friends gunned down. His life changed in an instant. He stopped being a hippie and became angry. Very angry.
Bob Casale
Bob MothersbaughAlan Lewis
Funneling his anger into artistic expression, this historical event would ultimately become the inspiration for the official coming together of this group of musicians to form a band with the underlying theme highlighting the regression of mankind. In 1973, they made it official with Gerald Casale recruiting his brother Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh with HIS brother Bob while also adding in Alan Myers, Rod Reisman and Fred Weber to round out the group. Thus SEXTET DEVO (as they were originally called) was born. Exactly when the name was shortened to simply “DEVO” is up for debate but from all the information I’ve been able to gather, it happened rather quickly during the formative years of the band.
This newly-formed ensemble threw conventionality out the window experimenting with electronic sounds mixed with sensibilities of the burgeoning roots of what would soon become punk rock.DEVO performed around the university over the next few years with various players coming and going. Sometimes as a 4-piece, other times as a larger unit and under the creative direction of Gerald Casale whom experimented heavily with the format of music videos. Devo created their first videos for the songs “Secret Agent Man” as well as their classic “Jocko Homo”.In 1975 they eventually settled in with a solid lineup of five members that would last for the next ten years.Director, Chuck Statler
In 1976, a short film including the band called “The Truth About De-Evolution” was released by a director named Chuck Statler and gained some notoriety as well as winning a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.This gave DEVO some much-needed publicity and also caught the attention of avant garde rock star David Bowie who befriended the band and ultimately helped negotiate a recording contract with Warner Music Group. And in 1977 they released their first single with Warner called “Mongoloid”. A 45 rpm record with “Jocko Homo” as the b-side. They followed up this release with their cover of “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.Come 1978, DEVO finally released their first full-length album. “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” produced by Brian Eno and proceeded to gain national exposure with an appearance on Saturday Night Live, (when it used to be funny), performing Satisfaction and “Jocko Homo”.In the following year, 1979 DEVO release the album DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE featuring the song “Blockhead” as well as a cover of Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man”Devo toured extensively in support of the album and actually opened for themselves on many dates pretending to be a Christian soft rock band called “Dove (the Band of Love). ” They would appear the following year as Dove the band of love in the 1980 televangelism parody film, Pray TV.THEN CAME THE 80s!When the 80s rolled around, DEVO had lain the groundwork to put themselves in the right place at the right time with the right quirky look and the right back catalog of videos and songs to take full advantage of the juggernaut that commanded the airwaves, MTV. (yes kids, MTV had music back when they used to be watchable).DEVO made a new album with songs that were catchier and more radio-friendly but still very much DEVO. The album? Freedom of Choice. The lead single? Whip It. The video featuring crazy red flower pot hats on the band (which instantly became synonymous with the group) and Mark Mothersbaugh using a bullwhip on everything in sight (including whipping a cigarette out of a model’s mouth) was a breakthrough hit for the band and catapulted them into new wave rock star status worldwide. The album also featured two other “medium hits”, Girl U Want and the title track Freedom of Choice.While they continued touring and releasing music and exploring deeper levels of creativity, they never did have another hit quite as big as Whip It.The Freedom of Choice tour tore relentlessly through Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and of course the United States.The following year in 1981, DEVO hit down under in a big way releasing a live EP in Australia called DEV-O Live which became a huge hit in Ozzyland landing them at the top of the Australian charts for 3 weeks solid.For you young-uns who don’t know what an EP is, it’s a 12″ vinyl record with usually just a couple of songs per side. EP stands for “Extended Play” which meant longer than a 7″ 45rpm record but still not quite a full album.DEVO continued to enjoy success in Australia for many years to come with live TV appearances, lots of radio support and their videos staying in heavy rotation. Australia in the 80’s simply could not get enough DEVO!DEVO also released a song around this time which was recorded during the sessions for the album Freedom of Choice but never made the final cut, Working In A Coal Mine. They submitted it for the soundtrack of the movie HEAVY METAL but Warner Brothers ultimately rejected it, so they released it as an independent single in the run-up to their next album: NEW TRADITIONALISTS.1981 also found the band becoming the backing band for Hollywood choreographer-turned-actress-turned-pop-artist, Toni Basil (you know that song “Oh Mickey You’re So Fine, You’re so fine you blow my mind…” Yeah, her.)And in 1982 DEVO released the album “Oh No It’s DEVO” with limited success and also contributed two songs to the Dan Aykroyd movie, Doctor Detroit.1984: DEVO put out an absolute flop of an album (commercially speaking) called SHOUT which featured a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced.” I personally loved the song and the video featuring the band wearing inflatable outfits and floating in the air with a psychedelic theme permeating throughout (with the DEVO twist of course!). But unfortunately the album tanked hard and their label wasn’t in the mood, so Warner bought out the remainder of their recording contract and DEVO was out on the street with flower pot hats in hand.Alan Meyers
This led to long-time member Alan Myers also deciding that he had his fill of whipping it and exited the group citing lack of creative fulfillment. Lack of creative fulfillment? In the band DEVO?David Kendrick
Three years later in 1987 DEVO bring in former Sparks drummer David Kendrick to replace Alan Myers and proceed to re-record the bulk of their most popular songs as easy listening muzak which they released on cassette to their fan club (club DEVO) and later as a CD entitled E-Z Listening Disc which they would play as house music prior to their concerts. However, their most notable project of 1987 would be recording the soundtrack for the horror film Slaughterhouse Rock starring Toni Basil which was released in 1988.DEVO also signed a new recording contract in 1988 with Enigma Records releasing the album Total Devo and set out on a brand new world tour with hopes running high. But unfortunately the album did not do well.In 1990 DEVO take yet another shot at glory with a new album called “Smooth Noodle Maps.” This would prove to be their absolute worst-selling album of all time. The attempted tour to support SMOOTH NOODLE MAPS also fell apart as their record label, Enigma filed for bankruptcy and ticket sales were practically nonexistent. The tour was canceled midway through and DEVO sadly devolved themselves into non-existence and disbanded.Mark Mothersbaugh would later be interviewed about the breakup to which he replied that time they did our their final tour in Europe, and were watching This Is Spinal Tap on the bus and said, ‘Oh my God, that’s our life.’ and said to themselves ‘Things have to change.’ So the agreement was made that they wouldn’t do live shows anymore.”Following the breakup of DEVO, Mark Mothersbaugh established a music production house along with the two Bobs from DEVO to form Mutato Musika. This production company enjoyed a great deal of success creating the soundtracks for such popular shows as Pee Wee’s Playhouse, the Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats and countless other television and film scores. Mark did the composing and his brother Bob was the chief audio engineer.Gerald Casale meanwhile dove headfirst into his love of video production, creating videos for bands like Rush, Soundgarden and the Foo Fighters as well as television commercials.While DEVO was no longer officially a band, they did reunite in 1995 to re-record their classic song “Girl U Want” for the terrible movie Tank Girl. (Sorry. I’ve tried to watch that tank wreck of a flick a few times but just couldn’t make it past the first 15 minutes. I mean it’s bad.)But what’s NOT bad is the fact that coming back together led to talk of performing live and in 1996 DEVO returned to the stage at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. From there, they proceeded to perform in the rotating mystery slot at Lollapalooza and also recorded a cover of the song “Head Like A Hole” by Nine Inch Nails which was used in the movie Supercop. DEVO was back!They had such a warm welcome from their Lollapalooza Mystery Slot that they were invited back for 1997, but this time as headliners.As the internet became more ubiquitous throughout the 90’s, DEVO found themselves and their music reaching an entirely new generation of fans and in 2001, a fan convention focusing on all things DEVO (including a 5k footrace) was launched in Cleveland, Ohio and continues to this day.By the mid 2000’s DEVO’s music began finding it’s way into television commercials for the likes of Swiffer (using the song Whip It) as well as Target utilizing what is probably DEVO’s 2nd most recognizable song, Beautiful World. DEVO also toured extensively throughout this time.Mark Mothersbaugh in an interview discussed how being older and deciding to tour again after several years off the road didn’t come without it’s challenges. After being a studio producer for that long, he and the band discovered they had some physical challenges performing the way they used to and decided they weren’t willing to bring the fans less than their best, so hit the gym they did and the group whipped themselves back into shape in order to be able to bounce around, invade the audience the audience and perform at the levels they once did.Their newfound dedication ultimately led to a reunion in 2009 with their former record label Warner Music for re-releases of their classic albums, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice followed by a tour playing both albums in their entirety.This reunion with Warner continued and in 2010 DEVO released their first full-length album in 20 years “Something For Everybody” and also became the recipients of the very first Moog Innovator Award at Moogfest 2010 in Asheville, North Carolina. (For those of you who don’t know what Moog is, it’s a brand of keyboard synthesizers which revolutionized music during the 60s and 70s bringing electronic sounds into our modern culture.)Bob Casale
Sadly in 2014 tragedy strikes and founding member Bob Casale dies of heart failure at the age of 61. DEVO honors him by embarking on a 10 city tour as a quartet to raise funds to support his family.5 years later in 2021: Toymaker Funko honors DEVO releasing two different versions of DEVO Funko Pops highlighting the looks from their videos Whip It and also Satisfaction. Shortly thereafter, merchandising continued with an official DEVO branded Vodka through the Trust Me Vodka Brand.2022: DEVO are nominated for the third time for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But like their 2018 and 2021 nominations, are ultimately not chosen. I’ll just say it and everybody knows it. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is little more than a pathetic joke. It’s a handful of guys sitting around a table deciding who gets in and who stays out. Their personal political and musical preferences taint the process every step of the way and the whole world wrings their hands about it every single year. It’s just sad and half the acts that get inducted have absolutely nothing to do with rock and roll while so many actual deserving rock artists are completely passed over. Hopefully now that the idiot from Rolling Stone Magazine, Jann Wenner is no longer on the board some things will change for the better and groups like DEVO, Journey, Foreigner, Iron Maiden (there is literally an ocean of people at every single Iron Maiden concert!) and dare I say Ted Nugent will receive their long overdue honors. But I’m not holding my breath nor do I actually care that much. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has in my opinion, squandered any and all shreds of credibility it may have once had over the years and it’s cost them their relevance. WHY AM I EVEN TALKING ABOUT THEM RIGHT NOW!? THEY JUST DON’T MATTER! Rant over.In 2023 DEVO toured in celebration of 50 years and in 2024 a Documentary Film about DEVO simply titled “DEVO” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Also another film entitled 50 Years of DEVO Premiered at the Marquis Theather in Park City, Utah on January 22, 2024 followed by a live performance of the band themselvesThis year was also marked with a special box set release on Rhino Records: DEVO50 YEARS OF DE-EVOLUTION: 1973-2023 featuring 4 LPs on clear vinyl with the labels spelling out DEVO when you line all the records up. An absolute must for any rabid fan!And speaking of fans, if you would like to check out the official DEVO FAN CLUB, Club DEVO, you can find it athttp://www.clubdevo.com/devo-home/ at least that’s where I ultimately found it. I tried to go simply to clubdevo.com but the website was under renovation at the time. This is also the official DEVO website.And speaking of official, DEVO has capped their 50 years with an announcement that they have officially retired from touring. Will there be any future creative output from the band? Maybe we’ll see some answers once the website is finished with it’s renovations. Only the spuds can tell.And if YOU couldn’t already tell, THAT’S the story of DEVO!And if you’d like to help me afford that nifty Rhino Records box set I’ve had my eye on, please consider supporting future productions of the Dandy Fun House by heading over to our website at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and clicking the link that says PATRONAGE!Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus featuresandSuper Supporters get those same features plus I’ll mail you a special Dandy Mystery Package from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you pricier your mailing address!Or just go to the website and buy a t-shirt!Podcast listeners can support via the donation button on their listening app of choice if the app supports it. Just look for a button with a dollar sign on it.And 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them help the show reach a wider audience and get our undying gratitude and it just makes us feel good!And on that note, thanks for hanging out here at the Dandy Fun House and come back real soon right here where everything is always FUN AND DANDY!are we not men? Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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Do you have a fat, stingy grandma? Have you ever wanted one? Well today’s your lucky day because on this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to unbox, assemble and play none other than the game of GREEDY GRANNY! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! This is where we hoard all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff we can find!
I’m your host, Neil Dandy and today we’re going to get into a game that’s been around since about 2018 and started off as a Toys R Us exclusive. Obviously Toys R Us isn’t around anymore but now this game can be found just about everywhere and the fact that it’s had the staying power to endure on the toy and game aisle shelves for this long is a testament to it’s appeal. I’m talking about the game of GREEDY GRANNY by Goliath Games (try saying THAT ten times fast!) from Deutschland.But first I want to show you these awesome DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They come with a front AND a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them at our website https://www.dandyfunhouse.com !
And while you’re there, check out our brand new NO ROBOTS! T-Shirt and tell Cyberdyne where to stick it!
HISTORY OF GOLIATH GAMES
The history of Goliath Games is actually a love story about two people named Adi and Margreeth Golad who fell head over heels for each other over a game of Rummikub while visiting the Israeli desert. We don’t know if it was the moon or the Manischevitz but in addition to their passion for one-another, they also found a burning passion for the game of Rummikub.
Margreeth soon returned home to the Netherlands where she shared this game with her family who also became consumed with an unquenchable passion for the game of Rummikub.
Margreeth and Adi soon connected back up and decided to not only join together to pursue a business desire to bring Rummikub to the world but also join together in holy matrimony and in 1980 founded GOLIATH GAMES.
Adi left his mechanical engineering career and traded in his car for 500 games of Rummikub which he sold on the streets of the Netherlands, obviously not out of the trunk of his car. I guess he set them out on a blanket and probably started a lot of conversations with “Psst buddy!”
There were challenges along the way, but when they were hungry, Rummikub kept them alive (Hey, I think that’s and Eagles song!). Nonetheless, Adi and Margreeth persisted on their all-out Rummikub rampage and proceeded to build the game into the iconic, multi-generational classic that it is today. In fact, the game eventually became so popular that it set the world record as the most number of games played per capita in a single year. Goliath Games and Rummikub still hold this record to this day!
Together, Adi and Margreeth built the foundation of Goliath Games and nurtured it into a leading global manufacturer of toys and games in over a dozen countries around the world. Their slogan? “Clever Together.”
Adi and Margreeth Golad, The Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog salutes you!
Now let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY!
For a game that’s been around since 2018, I found surprisingly little information on the backstory or origins of this game while researching for this episode. I was unable to find who invented it, what the inspiration was or anything more than simply reviews on how to play it which I avoided looking at because I wanted my initial reactions to this game to indeed be my initial reactions.
Pretty much all I know is that this is a TWAG (toy with a game), Granny sits sleeping in a chair with a tray of treats and the players take turns stealing treats until Granny abruptly wakes up and spits her teeth at you which means that not only do you lose the game, but you’re in for a round of butt whipping with a wooden spoon! (At least that’s what my grandmother, Alma used to do to me. And in full disclosure, I deserved it every single time.)
Ok, enough lollygagging! Let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY!
Here we have our game of Greedy Granny! I’llupt it here on the table and let’s look over the box here…
Great graphics on the front. You’ve got Greedy Granny jumping out of her chair. It looks like she’s spitting one of those Grandma cookies, you know the kind without much flavor in them but they’ve got this weird red dot in the middle of them? Yeah, one of those! I’m sure somewhere she’s got a bowl of little hard candies nobody likes but we eat them when we’re at grandma’s house because there’s nothing else to grab (at least until dinnertime.)
Oh wait! There’s her dentures right there! Okay, so she’s spitting out her dentures and a cookie and there’s a little hand coming in here grabbing a pretzel And over here you’ve got one of those unfrosted flavorless cookies and a tiny little picture of what the game actually looks like down here in the corner. All well and good.
Let’s have a look at the sides. And this says Will You Risk It For The Biscuit? Biscuits are what they call cookies in Europe and Goliath Games being from Deutschland… Well, there you go. And it looks like all the sides have the exact same artwork.So let’s have a look at the back!
We’ve got kids playing the game as usually it is with these games. They’re showing the spinner, a close-up of the game, how it sets up and then Granny jumping out of her chair.
“Granny loves treats and she wants to keep them all for herself. When Granny falls asleep, it’s time to make your move! On your turn, swipe a treat from her tray, but be careful… one wrong move can wake Granny up and send her chompers soaring!” Contents: One Granny in an armchair which apparently comes in two pieces, one set of Granny’s teeth, One Spinner card with plastic spinner and 12 treats complete with instructions.UBOXING
Without further ado… Let’s crack Granny open!
Looking in the box looks interesting lots of different colors going on here. Usually I pull one thing out at a time, but in this case, I think I’m just going to dump the box .
Here’s the instructions and you know what we do with instructions, right? We toss them! And we try to figure it out without them. We will refer to them if we need to so
And we’re going to start with the spinner. The spinner is well protected in its packaging and I like that. It shows that it was actually made by people who care or maybe by people who didn’t want to deal with returns. It’s cardboard, kind of thin, kind of warpy, kind of cheapy, but does it work? Not so much. Oh, okay The the back of it kind of popped out so it did it needs to be sat down on a table so it pops up correctly and then and then you can spin it. You might want to tape it into place.
We’ve got frowny faces a no-go 1x 2x 3x on the board with various arrows. And it looks like some of these arrows indicate if you land on them to get a treat. I think the green means lose a turn and the purple means proceed and tells you how many treats you take and how many treats you give back I don’t know. It looks like I’m gonna have to refer to the instructions so that I know what the heck to tell you guys to do. But now let’s have a look at these various parts
And uh, I’m starting to get a dark feeling about this game from some of the stuff I see here
Here’s Granny’s Dentures!
We’ve got three nasty biscuit cookies
Got three weird grandma red cookie things
Three pretzels (that’s what I’d be going for!)
And we got some other types of nasty rectangular biscuits that nobody wants and
Ready for this… two severed arms!
Apparently she caught one of the kids! Actually the the arms are kind of uh bony and uh… These are old lady arms actually. So obviously these are Granny’s arms and we’re gonna have to build her like a robot.
And speaking of which… Hopefully this is mechanical and we don’t need batteries. I do not see a battery compartment… That would be really cool if we didn’t need batteries for this thing and it appears we do not! I like it when it’s made just to work out of the box!
We’ve got granny’s chair with her torso has been severed apparently… And there’s her treat tray. And I guess you push the button for how many times you are required to do so. She’s got her legs sticking out.
Something tells me I’m gonna like this game! I’m not really sure what to do here but I am very very happy that I don’t see any battery compartment.
Let’s break out Granny!
Now, for her dentures… And let’s go ahead and put in her arms.You know, we want Granny to have some hands here because she needs to make dinner at some point tonight.and talk to you for an hour on your way to the car!
And then you lean her back in her chair and it makes her go to sleep. Night night Granny.
I’m going to put a bunch of treats on her tray…and refer to the instructions here to see what we’re supposed to do!
INSTRUCTIONS
Greedy Granny is a mischievously fun game that is perfect for the whole family Your mission is to swipe a treat from Granny’s tray as carefully and quietly as you can. One wrong move will wake her up and send her teeth flying! Will you risk it for a biscuit?
The youngest player goes first. Well, that would be me!
If the spinner lands on purple the player must put a treat back if they have one and press the button the number of times indicated on the spinner Okay, I have three x so i’ve got to press this button three times one two three
And I lose!
And if you land on green, that tells you how many treats you take and how many times you push the button. The aim of the game is to collect one of each treat. If granny wakes up, the player who woke her must place all of their treats back on her tray. Once the player’s treats have returned reset granny and the game continues!
And that’s how you play GREEDY GRANNY!
FINAL RANKING:
On a scale of one to ten false teeth. I’m gonna give her… I don’t know. Let’s say eight and a half dentures!
SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE
And before we spit our own dentures, I would like to ask that if you have found any value at all in this episode to please supporting production of future episodes by visiting the patronage page at our website https://www.dandyfunhouse.com
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Super Supporters gain access to those exact same features PLUS I’ll personally mail you something completely saliva-free from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address!Podcast listeners can support through their listening app of choice if the app supports it (look for a button with a little dollar sign on it)
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I’d love to stay and chew the Freedent with you longer, but now it’s time to get gone! Come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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Hey there! It’s me, your old pal Obnoxio the Clown. I know it’s been a while but I couldn’t help but crawl out of my clown hole once I heard what the Dandy Fun House had planned for this episode of their show! Not only that, but they also made the incredibly bad decision to ask ME, your old pal Obnoxio to host!They would have asked the Nebbish, but he doesn’t really talk so much. Ok, by now I have to imagine about two of you are really excited but most of you are really confused, so let me bring you up to speed. I used to be the mascot for CRAZY Magazine and I’m here to tell you the story of this wacky little rag that had a pretty good run back in the 70’s and 80’s! So without further ado, Let’s step into the Fart House! What? Oh the Fun House! Yeah that’s it!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Flop House, Fun House or whatever they call it! Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your old long-lost pal, Obnoxio the Clown and I’m here to tell you the story of an obnoxious humor magazine that existed from 1973 to 1983 which yours truly was honored to be the mascot for during it’s final few years.
But first, let me show you these crazy new t-shirts from the Dandy Fun House (did I say it right this time?) now available in the Dandy Fun SHOP! It’s got a front AND a back so you don’t get too cold and comes with 4 holes in it. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke yer arms through! You can find it at the Dandy Fun House website at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com or go directly to the store at http://www.dandyfunshop.com . Now back to this glorious freaking episode!
Ok, CRAZY MAGAZINE! We were published by Marvel Comics believe it or not and were sort of in the vein of Mad Magazine, Cracked, Sick Magazine and National Lampoon.
In the beginning back in 1953, Marvel Comics was actually called Atlas Comics and they decided to try their hand at competing with the behemoth of all novelty mags, MAD Magazine. So they published 7 issues of a comic book called CRAZY! Which skewered pop culture and included gags galore. It was a nice trial balloon, but didn’t exactly take the world by storm so they shelved the idea of publishing a satire for the next TWENTY YEARS until 1973 when it was revived for the purpose of republishing some of Marvel’s more wacky bits from their late-60’s comic called “Not Brand Echh.” What the heck kind of a name is “NOT BRAND ECHH!?”
STAN LEE
MARV WOLFMAN
For some reason they decided to give the old CRAZY Magazine another crack at success and kept things rolling under the guiding hand of the Marvel man, myth and legend himself… Stan Lee along with Co-Editor Marv Wolfman. Lee wanted to go for a straight up Mad Magazine and Cracked Magazine vibe while Wolfman wanted something more along the lines of National Lampoon. They came to an agreement somewhere in the middle and this gave CRAZY its own unique flavor. Kind of like sardine ala mode!
It was decided that CRAZY needed a mascot, and so kicked around ideas until they came up with a small, buggy looking guy in a floppy hat and some sort of black cape-looking trench coat thing and they called this guy “The Nebbish.” Later they gave him the more proper name of “Irving Nebbish.” This Nebbish guy served as the mascot for CRAZY Magazine for seven solid years and he did a fine job I must say. I mean, I eventually STOLE his job but no hard feelings Nebby! That’s show biz!
STEVE GERBER
Wolfman wasn’t the only editor Crazy Magazine had. A man named Steve Gerber took over editing for issues #11-14 with a desire to set the magazine apart from its competition and try to convince the readers that the creators themselves were crazy. Gerber’s run as editor came to an abrupt end however when he published a very dark feature called “… And the Birds Hummed Dirges” which featured high schoolers engaged in a suicide pact. I think Mr. Gerber went back to making baby food after that!
LARRY HAMA
AL MILGROM
ALAN KUPPERBERG
CRAZY Mag did alright for a while. At least good enough to keep getting published but by 1979, sales were slumping so they brought on a new editor named Larry Hama who tried something really obnoxious and created me, Obnoxio the Clown to be CRAZY Magazine’s new mascot starting with issue #63 in June 1980! Larry wanted a mascot for the mag that would be more proactive and in your face than the other humor rags, so there I was! They modeled my face after some schmuck named Al Milgrom and I was mostly drawn by artist Alan Kupperberg. Back then I had hair. Today not so much. Too many Nair pies to the head’ll do that to ya! And let me tell you, we had the best features during my run as mascot and those days were a blast!
Some of my personal favorite features were:
The Kinetic Kids where you would flip two pages back and forth to give the illusion of animation and bring gross and violent pictures to life
Howard The Duck!
The Nebbish! My old pal! No hard feelings Nebby!
The Obnoxio The Clown Fun Pages where I would bring you stupid puzzles and parodies! It’s what I do!
Page-O-Stuff – This is where they stuck all their random ideas that didn’t work anywhere else!
Comic Book Parodies – Sendups of famous comics like Kaspar the Dead Baby, Ritchie Retch and stuff like that!
Believe it Or Else!
The Eleventh Hour Special with Behemoth Jack – Where we would parody song lyrics long before Weird Al was a thing! My favorite was our sendup of Paul McFartney and the Things!
Fantasy vs. Reality, Aunty Nuke, Gross Encounters and so much more! Ahh! Those were the days baby!
A couple decades later we even made it into an episode of the Simpsons! (ok, it was a glancing mention, but still!). Come to think of it, that Crusty the Clown’s act seems awful familiar! Get my lawyer on the phone!
I had a great time corrupting the world’s youth, but like the bright burning star that I am, I got white hot and burned fast. That’s right, even your old pal Obnoxio couldn’t save the publication from all the modern distractions the world was offering. People just didn’t have time for good old fashioned gross humor anymore. CRAZY Magazine closed its covers and printed its final issue in April 1983 and I had to go back to twisting balloon animals in the old folks homes. We did have a reunion in 2019 for a one-off issue featuring new material and bringing back some of the best blasts from the past but that pretty much stuck a fork in us!
And now you know pretty much all there is to know about the brief but disgusting run of CRAZY MAGAZINE! We had a good run I suppose! Whaddaya want from me!? I come out of retirement to do a guest-host spot on this no-name production and I can’t even get a bottle of seltzer water in my trailer! I used to be a star! I used to be in command of million-dollar machines! I come back home and I can’t even get a job as a dishwasher! Say what? Oh yeah, you’re right. Sorry I Rambo sometimes.
Hey! You! Yeah I’m talking to you! If you have found any sort of redeeming value to this production at all, the producers of the Dandy Fun House would like to encourage you to show your support and help them afford seltzer water for the guest host trailer by visiting the Patronage Page at the Dandy Fun House Website www.dandyfunhouse.com
Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public. I might even show off a few highly worn-out issues of Crazy Magazine.
And…
Super Supporters get access to the exact same bonus features as the cheapskates get PLUS we’ll mail you something special from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address!Maybe a Nair Pie! Ohhhh! Nair Pie!
Podcast Listeners can donate directly from the podcast app of choice IF the app supports it (look for a button with a dollar sign on it usually)
And 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them get my undying gratitude!
THERE! Have I shilled enough for you leeches!? Give me my 20 bucks and let me go home now!
Thanks for hanging out and come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
Is it just me or does the Nebbish bear a striking resemblance to the Hamburglar?
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and Author. Aren’t you impressed? -
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If there’s one thing in this world I am a sucker for it’s snouts, fat bellies and squiggly little tails! It’s great in real life, but it’s even better when it comes in the form of a TWAG! What’s a TWAG you ask? It means Toy With A Game… TWAG!
In this episode number 40 of the Dandy Fun House we’re gonna make pigs fly! And we’re not just gonna make ’em fly, we’re gonna make ’em bounce too as I review the TWAG known as PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! Let’s step into the Fun House!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog where we use our delicate snouts to sniff out the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff!
I’m your host Neil Dandy and before we begin I want to acknowledge a milestone! Since this is just a monthly show (other than the fact that I do post daily snippets online), there are some that have expressed to me that if this show were to reach 40 episodes… then pigs will have flown!
Well, not only has the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog Officially reached 40 episodes as of the episode you’re currently consuming, but we’re going to celebrate by making pigs fly or at least bounce because I’m gonna unbox, assemble, play and review an awesome looking game from PlayMonster called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES!
But first I want to let you know that the brand new DANDY FUN SHOP online merchandise store has officially launched!
You can find it on the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and just click on “SHOP.” You may also visit it directly at dandyfunshop.com .
As of now you’ll find the all-new awesome looking DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirt with both a front and a back (because we don’t Want you to get cold) which I’m real proud of! I think it came out looking great. You’ll also find some other novelty designs I’ve created not necessarily Connected to the show just some crazy designs I like to make when I’m not cranking out these episodes.
I’m hoping that as the shop grows, it will help promote this show and this show will help promote the shop in what we in the Industry refer to as cross promotion.
But enough about me! Let’s learn a little bit more about the company behind PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES, PlayMonster!
PLAYMONSTER
Now I don’t really recall hearing of this company before, but with a game called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES bouncing out at me from the Walmart shelf, how could I not get this game and learn more about this company?
So I log on to their website at playmonster.com and before I can even see or do anything I’m instantly disrupted by this horrible pop-up right in my face asking for my name and email address so they can add me to their mailing list before I even don’t anything about them! It’s like an over eager first date and I’m in my nice prom dress. (You know what I’m talking about).
I don’t know who at PlayMonster marketing needs to hear this but PlayMonster we need to talk. Come here…
(soft music plays)
We just met and you’re already asking for all my personal information. It’s just too much too fast I’m not ready for that type of commitment at this place in my life. Let’s get to know each other a little first. We’ll take a walk down the beach maybe to the park. It doesn’t need to be all on you either. I can pack a nice lunch for two and we can just sit and talk and see where things go and if the feel is right… NO PLAYMONSTER! NOT THAT TYPE OF FEEL!Where was I? Oh, yes, if things go well maybe we can hang out at my place and watch the Hallmark Channel together and maybe… MAYBE then I’ll let you hold my hand and well… you’re making me blush PlayMonster! There goes my heart again!
PlayMonster are you hearing me? I hope so! I’m just not that kind of toy and game reviewer! I have morals and values and boundaries which need to be respected!
Okay…
So I click the annoying pop-up away and start checking out their featured image showing their most featured products and I’m having a gander over what they wish to put out front and center for their company which remains on the screen for exactly five seconds. (Yes I timed it) before the image changes to yeah, you guessed it… ANOTHER SOLICITATION TO SIGN UP FOR THEIR EMAIL LIST! PlayMonster! We just talked about this! Didn’t we just talk about this!?
At this point, I’m not just annoyed, I’m downright ticked off! I feel violated and cheap! My mascara is running and I think I tore my dress. PlayMonster! Let me out of the car! Just let me out!
This company is literally doing everything it can to make me run screaming but I decide that I must persist, put my big-girl pants back on (don’t ask) and proceed forward for the sake of you, my audience.
Upon further exploration I see something familiar; the TOTY (Toy Of The Year) award-winning game, Yeti In My Spaghetti which I actually had the pleasure to give a favorable review to just about a year and a half ago! (episode 22 if you’re playing along at home).
I’m also reminded that PlayMonster is currently the purveyor of the classic toy brands Spirograph, Playskool, Koosh, Fashion Plates and Colorforms along with a good handful of others I’ll admit I’m not familiar with, but look interesting. So I actually HAVE encountered the “handsy” PlayMonster before! I must have just blocked it out like that creepy balloon twister from my fifth birthday party.
Diving in further, I learned from their ABOUT US page (which thankfully does not bludgeon me to sign up for their spam list) that this company began in 1985 by a pair of brothers named Ryan and Bryce Patch under the name PATCH PRODUCTS. They started with kids puzzles before expanding to toys and games and eventually acquiring other brands and growing their offerings henceforth targeting both youth and adult demographics.
In the year 2014, Patch Products were themselves acquired and in 2016 changed the name to PlayMonster. They are based right here in the good old US of A in Beloit, Wisconsin and are distributed all over the world. They support the charitable foundation the TOY BANK FOUNDATION distributing joy and happiness to children in need wherever they may be! Well, there you go! Good PlayMonster! Awesome! See… I DID find something nice to say about PlayMonster after all!
Okay onto this awesome looking game…
PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES!
THE BOX
Here we are! PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES and let’s have a look over the box. I just love the graphics they did on it and it’s got like a soft look to the whole thing. It’s set out in the middle of a green field and you’ve got pigs bouncing on trampolines and landing in the mud puddles and they just they did a bang-up job on this!
You’ve got different pigs on different sides of the box which is great because what most companies do is they just mail it in and put the exact same graphic on every side of the box.
On the back you’ve got the obligatory kids actually playing the game Which everybody does, but then you need to do that because you have to see what the actual product looks like and not just the marketing graphic.
The product looks great on the box. “Yippee jump for joy with Pigs on Trampolines! Use the trampolines to bounce your pigs into the pigpen and try to land in the mud puddle. Every pig you land in the puddle earns you a mud pie! Keep bouncing your pigs until all the mud pies are gone. The muddiest piggy wins!
UNBOXING
Sounds good to me. Well, let’s open it! Without further ado… (THIS is the part I love!)
Whoosh
Here we have color instructions! The instructions are awesome-looking. They show you how to put it all together and it appears to be in very plain English and very simple gameplay. I think we get the idea. You try to get them into the middle of the mud puddle and you collect mud pies.
we have three trampolines right here and they make great little tom-toms! And The legs are all different different lengths so that the trampoline can sit at an angle to bounce the piggies the proper direction.
You’ve got the mud puddle platform trunks(which hold up the mud puddle platform) which just snap together. It’s a durable plastic. I don’t think there’s a great risk of breaking it. Not like that brittle plastic you get in some games.
We have the cardboard graphical platform for the mud puddle which fit into slots in the top of the platform. You have the mud puddle itself which is just a brown plastic cup that fits into the middle of the platform and the object is you want to try and launch your pigs into that cup.
THE PIGS
And last but not least we have our piggies! I’m a little disappointed that PlayMonster didn’t give our piggies names or any sort of fun bio. I think that would have added a real special touch. So I supposed we’ll have to give them our own names!
We have:
THE MASKED PIG!
BALLERINA PIG!
BICYCLE PIGGY!
SUPER PIGGY!
TROLL PIG!
and…
DAREDEVIL PIG!
These are your beloved PIGGY BOUNCERS! GIVE ‘EM A HAND!
MUD PIES AND HOW TO PLAY!
What you win if you actually get your pig into the middle of the mud puddle are mud pies! They look like little brown plastic splats. And you get seven of them so there is no chance for a tie game. You can also play an easier version for small children where a mud pie is awarded for simply bouncing the pig onto the platform or if an adult is playing with a small child, to make it fair the adult would have to make it into the cup and the child just has to get it onto the platform. The secret which they reveal in the instructions is to bounce the pigs on their tails. I had more than a few frustrating go-rounds before I finally discovered this pointer along with aiming the angle of the trampoline correctly.
Out of the six piggies, I landed two in the center cup and won two mud pies! Yay for me!
FINAL RANKING!
PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! More fun than a bucket of mud!
PATHETIC GROVELING FOR MONEY
And speaking of buckets… I could really use a bucket of begonias about now to help pay for all this dandiness as well as all the behind the scenes stuff I do and encourage you, dear audience that if you have found any value at all in this program to please support future productions by becoming a DANDY FUN HOUSE SUPPORTER! Just visit the patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com where you can also visit the newly launched Dandy Fun Shop, which I’m currently filling with wacky stuff, t-shirt designs (including the all-new Dandy Fun House t-shirt, which I just know you’ll love!)
SUPPORTERS receive access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public
and
SUPER SUPPORTERS gain access to that exact same stuff plus I’m gonna mail you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you send me your mailing address!PODCAST LISTENERS can donate via a button which appears on most podcast apps (you’ll see a little dollar sign on it) and sends me cryptocurrency.
And FIVE STAR REVIEWS, LIKES and SUBSCRIBES wherever you enjoy this show (including all the major social networks) always receive my undying gratitude!
Okay, well it is time for me to bounce like a winged sow! Come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… Fun and Dandy!
Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed? - Visa fler
