DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! 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! Supporters get access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public And… Super Supporters get that same stuff PLUS I’ll personally mail you a special item of my choosing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios! Podcast Listeners may support via the listening app of their choice if patronage is supported 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?      

watch the video below   listen to the podcast below 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?

watch the video below:   listen to the podcast below: 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! SUPPORTERS gain access exclusive bonus content AND SUPER SUPPORTERS gain that same access plus I’ll personally send you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you include your mailing address! Podcast Listeners may often support through a donation link in your listening app of choice of the app offers it, I understand not all do. 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?

watch video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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.  SUPPORTERS get access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public And 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! PODCAST LISTENERS may support via the donation button in your listening app of choice IF the app supports it And FIVE STAR REVIEWS anywhere you can leave them will always gain our UNDEAD SUPPORT! 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?  

 watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!                                                                       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?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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. SUPPORT FUTURE PRODUCTIONS OF THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! And speaking of hard-earned money: If you feel we have earned your patronage today, please PAY a visit to our website at www.dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll indeed find our Patronage Page where you can support the production of future episodes of the Dandy Fun House because Community College ain’t entirely free! You still have to buy pens and pencils and stuff. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features and 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?

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below!  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 And Super Supporters get all that same stuff plus I’ll mail you something extra Dandy from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you provide your mailing address.  Podcast listeners may donate via the donation button in your app of choice  And five star reviews anywhere you can leave them always get my undying gratitude.  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?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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! listen to the podcast below! 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! SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! And if YOU’D like to become a fellow pie face, I strongly suggest heading over the the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com where you can pie stuff from the Dandy Fun Shop, find all our past episodes in video, podcast and written form with full color pictures. And also our patronage page where you can help support what we do here. I mean we really went into a financial hole here with the pie and all. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public and Super Supporters get those same bonus features PLUS I’ll mail you something pie-riffic from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios in Murfreesboro, Tennessee IF you give me your mailing address! Podcast Listeners can usually support through a donation button in your listening app of choice (usually a button with a little dollar sign on it) And five star reviews wherever you can leave them always get our undying gratitude. 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).

watch the video!   listen to the podcast! 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. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! And if you’d like to be a perfect ten here with the Dandy Fun House you should visit the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com where you could support the show. If you’ve ever found any value at all in what we do here head over to the website. You can check out back episodes there and videos and subscribe to the podcast and things like that over there. So it’s not all about me just trying to get a buck out of you here although getting a buck out of you would be really nice. We do have a patronage page over there! You can support the show in many ways. Supporters will get access to exclusive bonus material that you can’t get anywhere else and Super Supporters get access to that same bonus material plus I’ll send you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you provide your mailing address! I might even send you one of these gumballs. Maybe I’ll send you the gumball I’ve already partially chewed here and then you’ll have my DNA and you could clone your very own Neil Dandy if you find a willing ovum. Podcast listeners can support via donation button in the listening app of their choice if the app supports it and five star reviews anywhere you can leave them always get our undying gratitude. 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!

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! 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  Where you’ll also find our PATRONAGE PAGE!  If you’ve ever found any value at all in the Dandy Fun House and would like to support future productions, please consider either buying some merchandise from our DANDY FUN SHOP or becoming a Fun House Supporter via a financial donation !  SUPPORTERS gain access exclusive bonus content  AND SUPER SUPPORTERS gain that same access plus I’ll personally send you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you include your mailing address!  Podcast Listeners may often support through a donation link in your listening app of choice of the app offers it, I understand not all do.  And your 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them are always highly appreciated! 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?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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! SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! If you have enjoyed this installment of the Dandy Fun House and wish to support future production, just gobble over to the Dandy Fun House Website at dandyfunhouse.com and look for the Patronage page where you can become a supporter! SUPPORTERS gain access to exclusive bonus features and SUPER SUPPORTERS gain that same access PLUS I’ll mail you something turkeyriffic from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast listers can support via the donation button in their listening app of choice if the app offers it And your 5 star reviews anywhere you can leave them always get our pecan pie flavored gratitude! 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?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   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! SUPPORTERS get access to exclusive bonus features and SUPER SUPPORTERS not only get access to those exact features, but also I’ll mail you something from right here at the Dandy Spook Shack IF you provide your mailing address! PODCAST LISTENERS often will have a little button with the dollar sign in your listening app of choice and you can donate to the show that way if you found any value at all. And if nothing else, FIVE STAR REVIEWS anywhere you can leave them get our undead gratitude! 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.com SUPPORTERS gain access to exclusive bonus content and SUPER 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?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! If you’d like to help keep this show out of the poop house, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House Supporter by visiting https://www.dandyfunhouse.com and look for the patronage page in the menu. You can donate in a variety of ways: Buy Me A Coffee, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, whatever you want to do! Supporters get access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public and Super Supporters get those same bonus features PLUS I will mail you something poopy from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast Listeners can usually donate via a little button in your podcast app. There’s usually a little dollar sign button and that gives me cryptocurrency. I take cryptocurrency, bus tokens, belly button lint… DON’T SEND ME BELLY BUTTON LINT! And if you don’t have anything to donate but still wish to support,  please leave a five-star review anywhere you can. That would be really really appreciated because it helps the show grow! 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 themselves This year was also marked with a special box set release on Rhino Records: DEVO 50 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 at http://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 features and Super 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?

watch video below!   listen to the podcast below!   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 Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features and 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) and 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them always get our undying gratitude! 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?  

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! 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?

 watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! 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?  

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! The humble toaster pastry. It’s been our molten, tongue burning sweet little friend since the 60s. It’s a quick little pick me up when we need a tasty treat. Sometimes it’s breakfast on the run and in all the world, one little toaster named Milton reigns supreme with his empire of handheld, sugary rectangles known as Pop-Tarts. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to give three off-brand toaster pastry underdogs a chance to dethrone the mighty Milton and claim the title TOASTER PASTRY CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! For this is the Strawberry Toaster Pastry Showdown! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! This is where we cook up the very tastiest in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and by pop-tartular demand, this episode is going to cook! And yes, I’m coming to you straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios Kitchens, where today we’re going to have the showdown of the century! I have here before me the four most popular toaster pastries in America… Alright, they’re the only four different types of toaster pastries I could find after visiting four different grocery stores, but you get the idea, right? OK, here we go!   Upon conducting my search, scouring grocery store shelves for toaster pastries to pit against one another, I discovered that strawberry is apparently the most common flavor amongst all toaster pastries. So that’s the flavor we’re going to test today. Here we have Millville Toaster Tarts, which is the Aldi brand. We have Toaster Treats, which is the Kroger brand. We have Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries by Great Value, which is the Walmart brand. And last but certainly not least, we have the reigning toaster pastry champion of the world, Pop Tarts. I want to be really careful to not rip off Matt Mitchell’s Bless Your Rank, which I absolutely love. So instead of lining up these four contenders to the strawberry toaster pastry throne, I’m instead going to conduct this contest like a boxing match with an undercard and a main event, after which I will pit the winner of the undercard against the winner of the main event to give the underdog a shot at the title! I will be judging on packaging, the look of the pastry and of course how they taste both untoasted and toasted.   I will not actually be swallowing any of these toxic treats. I’ll instead be taking a bite from the best corner of the pastry, chewing it, allowing it to roll around my palate for a moment, and then spitting it out while swishing my mouth with water between bites. I feel this is the most fair method of conducting this contest, and you deserve no less than the best!   I think we can all agree that Pop Tarts is the 900 pound gorilla in the room as far as worldwide popularity, followed most likely by Great Value, the Walmart brand. And that’s going to leave Millville Toaster Tarts and Kroger’s Frosted Toaster Treats as our undercard. You guys ready? Come on, LET’S GET READY TO CRUMBLE! Okay, here before me, we have our undercard match. We have Millville Toaster Tarts from Aldi, and we have Frosted Toaster Treats from Kroger. Looking at the packaging… they both have pretty good packaging, I must say. I’m not crazy about the Millville logo. It doesn’t sound very appetizing, but then again, neither does Kroger to me. So I’m going to give it a tie on the packaging. Let’s crack ‘em open and see what we’ve got! Here’s Millville Toaster Tarts. Foil, very basic foil. And the frosting, you can see there’s a lot of edge exposed, but you might have to have that edge exposed. It seems to be rather thick, so that’s a good sign. The other pastry in the package has even less frosting on it, so I’m going to take the best one here and take an uncooked bite! Not bad, not exactly bursting with flavor. The look of the coloring, it’s not bright red like I would expect. I’m going to go ahead and put this other whole pastry in my toaster here. (Spit out and swish) Now let’s look at Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats. Wait a minute… The foil design is absolutely identical! Is the toaster pastry going to be identical as well? I’m starting to get suspicious here. They look almost exactly identical, except the Kroger brand has some blue greenish sprinkles on it, which the Millville Aldi brand does not. I taste absolutely no difference between the two, but while I swish my mouth around, let’s go ahead and toast these babies. I’ve got my toaster set at about almost up to three, which is like the 10 o’clock position, which is normally where I like my toaster pastries. Let’s go ahead and get it cranking here. Time for a little history about the brave little toaster! The first electric toaster was introduced in 1893 and was called the Eclipse. It was made by Crompton and Company out of Chelmsford Essex. It had iron bare wires toasting the bread. But the Eclipse had a serious problem. The technology wasn’t really there to have the wires last, at least not any length of time. And the wires would burn up really fast and the toaster would be junk in a very short amount of time. The problem of the heating elements was solved in 1905 by a man named Albert Marsh who was an engineer and came up with an alloy of nickel and chromium or… “nichrome.” The first automatic pop-up toaster was patented in 1921 by a man named Charles Streit. The Waters-Genter Company refined the design and proceeded to release the model 1A1 Toastmaster, the first automatic pop-up household toaster that could toast bread on both sides simultaneously, set itself on a timer and eject when finished. (toaster ejects pastries) And here we go! Now I tasted Millville first and Kroger second so let’s be fair here and try the Kroger toasted first. I’ll grab it with some foil so I don’t burn myself. Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo! Hot! Hot! Hot! (Neil takes a bite)… Yummy! Once again, not exactly bursting with flavor but when it’s toasted it’s nice. It’s real nice. Alright Millville Toaster Tarts. Let’s see if I can do this without any foil on my hand since it’s had a second to cool. Bite the side with the most frosting… I gotta tell you, this is really really close… They are identical on their inner packaging. I’d be willing to bet that they’re made by the exact same company but the Kroger brand has an extra color of sprinkles on it and I kinda think that I got a little more flavor off the Kroger brand. So even though it’s very very close folks, I’m gonna have to give the undercard match to Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats! WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR MAIN EVENT!  POP TARTS vs. GREAT VALUE TOASTER PASTRIES! The champion! The reigning supreme heavyweight in all the world without a question, without a doubt… Pop Tarts! And the competitor who wants Pop Tarts Crown is Great Value Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries! First let’s look at the packaging. I mean,(…) come on guys. They put almost no thought and no design whatsoever into the Great Value brand. There’s no question that Pop Tarts has the better branding and better packaging. Advantage Pop Tarts. Let’s look at the inner foil: Pop Tarts has some design, the Pop Tarts logo on there and it’s blue. Whereas the inner foil for the Great Value brand has the exact same foil design as both competitors from our undercard. So generic is as generic does. I wouldn’t be surprised if this tasted absolutely no different than any of our undercard competitors, but we’re gonna give it a shot. So I’m going to start here with the untoasted test with Great Value. And opening up the foil, I’m seeing some weird brown stuff in the grooves and I’m a little disturbed by that. It looks like it got burnt a little bit on the assembly line. The front looks exactly the same as the Kroger brand. Same sprinkles, same everything, but it’s kinda mushed up. It looks like something happened to it. Yeah, same here with the 2nd pastry in the package. Something weird happened to the frosting here. But let’s give it a taste. It looks and tastes absolutely no different than any of our undercard competitors. Now, what about Pop-Tarts? Can Pop-Tarts live up to its legend? Well… the Pop-Tarts brand looks exactly the same as the generic undercards. Maybe a little difference. The Pop-Tarts brand seems to have more holes. It’s not as thick on the edges, but it’s got the exact same kind of sprinkles and it seems to be frosted really terribly. There’s like almost no quality control on that frosting. It’s all the way to the edge on one part and definitely over the edge on another part. I mean, come on, come on Kellogg’s! I’ll say the inside filling is red.The others were kind of like a dingy red. This is more a bright red, but honestly, that’s probably from some kind of weird chemical that you really shouldn’t be ingesting. You really shouldn’t be ingesting any of this and I’m not. I’m swishing my mouth between bites and spitting all of this out I seem to be tasting a slight, very slight bit more sweetness from the Pop-Tart and it’s very slight, almost indistinguishable. So for the untoasted, I got to give it to Pop-Tarts. Let’s try toasting them! HISTORY OF POP TARTS! I can’t really give you a lot of history on the Great Value brand because it’s a generic brand. So all I can really talk about here is Pop-Tarts. In the early 1960s, Post-cereals invented a process for dehydrating food and enclosing it in foil. The process was originally designed for packaging dog food, but they adapted it to produce the first toaster pastry in the world. It was called Country Squares. Post’s biggest competitor, Kellogg’s wasted no time jumping on this toaster pastry bandwagon and introduced their own called Fruit Scones that very same year. The name was soon changed to Pop-Tarts as a nod to the Pop-Art craze of the time. Pop-Tarts became so popular that the initial run sold out in just two weeks and Kellogg’s had to run apologetic advertising for the empty store shelves and this only increased the Pop-Tart fever across the nation. Of course Post cereals was left with their jaws on the floor and warehouses full of Country Squares wondering what the heck just happened! “Frosted” Pop-Tarts didn’t debut until 1967. Milton the Toaster, the brand’s mascot, debuted in 1971 and was voiced by an actor named William Shallert who was best known as the Dad on the Patty Duke show. Milton the Toaster was one of the few cartoon jobs that Shallert had. His main talent was the ability to time his voice overs perfectly and work quickly to save time and money in the production room. As of 2024, there are over 20 Pop-Tart flavors including Hot Fudge, Sundae, S’mores, Raspberry, and Grape. DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that if you leave a strawberry Pop-Tart in your toaster for too long, it can burst into flames and it can go up to a foot and a half high? That’s right… fire! Fire! This very situation happened in 1992 when Kellogg’s was sued for damages after a guy’s Pop-Tart got stuck in the toaster and caught on fire. Since then Pop-Tarts carry a warning on every box. It’s in tiny type on the back and barely noticeable. But it’s there. And it reads: If pastry is overheated, frosting filling can become extremely hot and could cause burns.(…) Due to possible risk of fire, never leave appliance unattended when in use. Oh look, four ways to try Pop Tarts! Right from the foil, which we have tried. Toasted, which we’re about to try. Stacked, which means I guess you put two of them together. And frozen! I have never eaten a frozen toaster pastry before. If you have, please let me know! (toaster ejects) And here we go! I think we should give the Great Value Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastry first shot since it is the least known of the two! Hmm… Not exactly bursting with flavor…I’d have to say that’s even less flavorful than either of our undercard competitors. Let’s try the Pop-Tart… It kind of toasted up all funky. Really weird, it’s got, it’s all burned up on the side. I’m not impressed, Pop-Tarts, not impressed. Like that filling oozing out of the holes, it seems kind of thin. Seems to have a tiny bit more flavor than the Great Value brand. And the look of the pastry… the Pop-Tart looks like a train wreck happened to it. Like someone ran over it with a something. I’d say the Great Value looks a little better, but that’s about all it’s got going on. Hardly any difference in taste. The packaging for Pop-Tarts is much better. I’ve got to give the nod to Pop-Tarts. OUR MAIN EVENT WINNER IS POP TARTS!   FINAL SHOWDOWN! And that brings us to our final showdown, which is going to be Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats against the mighty Pop-Tarts for Toaster Pastry Champion of the World! Okay, back to basics. Packaging: Both of them are pretty darn good on the front. The back of the Kroger is pretty much the same as the front, almost. The back of Pop-Tarts, they put a little more effort into it. Gave you some fun stuff to look at, some fun things to ponder. Pop-Tarts has the better packaging. There’s no doubt about that. This Kroger Toaster Treat looks like it got ran over. The taste is still the same as before. Okay, let’s try Pop-Tarts. Better inside packaging. We’ve already determined that. So advantage on the packaging overall goes to Pop-Tarts. Do these look any better than before? No, it doesn’t look good. It just doesn’t. These Pop Tarts look worked over! They look like somebody’s already chewed these things up and spit them out and I didn’t really mention it before but they’re noticeably thinner than the generic brands! Awful! Just awful! They really look like somebody ran over these things with a truck! Time to try it. Not nearly as much filling as the Kroger brand and really not much taste. I’m going to give advantage of Kroger brand on the amount of filling, the quality of the appearance and the thickness of the product in the cold stage. So right now, we’re kind of one-to-one. Now let’s toast them up! Who will it be? This is for all the toast! Will it be the world champion Pop-Tarts or the scrappy underdog Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats? It can only be one, folks! (toaster ejects) Oh, a little smoke came up there! All right. Two toasted toaster pastries. They both want to be world champion, but it can only be one. Ow! Ow! I’ve had my fingers burned by both. Let’s give it a second here. Okay. I’ll taste the Pop-Tart… Now the Kroger Frosted Toaster Treat… The filling on the Kroger brand is bright red and very attractive, actually. Hmm. I guess it can vary from package to package. The Kroger Frosted Toaster Treat, it’s good. It’s not exactly bursting with flavor, though. Time to try the Pop Tart! This filling looks exactly the same color on the inside. Nicely toasted but overall It looks horrible. It doesn’t look appetizing, but I’m going to try it anyway. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner… And it’s not Pop-Tarts. Our winner of the Toaster Pastry Championship of the World is none other than KROGER FROSTED TOASTER TREATS! GROVEL FOR MONEY: And if you would like to help me afford to pay for the cleanup of all this, go check out http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and visit the Patronage page. Supporters will get access to exclusive bonus features! and… SUPER SUPPORTERS will get access to those exact same bonus features plus, I’ll mail you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House, and it won’t be a glass full of spit-up Toaster Pastries, I promise. It’ll be better than that. And five-star reviews, anywhere you can leave them, get my undying gratitude. If you’re a podcast listener and your podcast app supports it, usually there’s a little button on there with a little dollar sign. Click that and make a little donation. Every little bit helps, and it’s always appreciated. But that’s not why I’m here. That’s not why I’m doing this. I’m doing this because I love doing the show! Also! I put out short videos on the various social media platforms throughout the month which you can enjoy on the platform of your choice. You know all the big ones. You can find me. I’m not that hard to hunt down, everybody. Anyway, I’m going to get on out of here. You guys, thanks for coming to the Dandy Fun House and hanging out with me right here, 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

 watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   Two Canadian brothers born in the early 1900s, sons of a clock salesman, they found a mutual love for puppeteering which led them on an amazing journey of a lifetime through the Land of the Lost, Sea Monsters, Bugaloos, Pufnstuf, Banana Splits and much much more. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I proudly bring you the story of the Yolas brothers, but you might remember them better as… Sid and Marty Krofft! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House, video show, podcast and blog! This is where we get lost in the land of retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host, Neil Dandy and in today’s episode, this is one I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but I sort of got held up wrapping up the year 2023. Now that that’s all behind us, I figured I’d kick off 2024 with a bang and bring you the story of the amazing creators of some of the most timeless kids shows of the 70s and 80s, Sid and Marty Krofft! If you don’t know who Sid and Marty Krofft are, (I being in my mid-50’s find this almost unfathomable, but there might be some younger viewers, listeners and readers who have never heard of them and I want to be welcoming if you might fit this description.) these guys created iconic TV shows like Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos, H.R. Pufnstuf, The Banana Splits and a whole lot more. A lot of their work was kinda like Muppets before the Muppets were a thing, but more fantasy type. I hope that made sense. Together, the Krofft Brothers’ resume boasts a whopping 26 television series and 21 specials! But to really get an idea of who these guys were, I think we need to start back farther…MUCH FARTHER!!!!!!!!! Two Canadian brothers, Sid and Marty Yolas of Greek and Hungarian descent were born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1929 and 1937. Sons of a clock salesman, Peter Yolas, their family emigrated to the US in the early 1940s, landing in Rhode Island but eventually settling in New York City, assuming the more American last name of Krofft. The father, Peter, in addition to his profession of clock salesmanship, also enjoyed the theatre and producing plays. Sid discovered a love for puppeteering and he performed some of his earliest work debuting in one of his dad’s stage plays, an adaptation of Snow White. From there, Sid had the puppet bug and went into the world of vaudeville as a teenager before running away with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, which billed him as the world’s youngest puppeteer! This allowed Sid to take his one-man show called The Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft International and parlayed his newfound circus notoriety into being the opening act for iconic performers like Judy Garland and Liberace. Meanwhile back in New York, Sid’s younger brother Marty started putting his older brother’s second-hand puppets to work, earning some money with local stage performances and honing his own set of skills and more importantly, business acumen. His business smarts attracted the attention of older brother Sid, who eventually asked him to team up in an effort to bring his visions for bigger, better and more spectacular productions to life. In 1957 they did just that, developing their first show together, a mature audience production entitled Les Poupees de Paris. They ran this production for several years, earning acclaim worldwide, performing for over 9 million people collectively while also providing more family themed productions for Six Flags amusement parks. But it wasn’t until 1965 that they eventually found themselves making their television debut after being invited onto the Dean Martin show! By this time, they had built a renowned puppet costume and set building facility in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California and were approached by Hanna-Barbera to create set designs and walk around costumes for The Banana Splits, which went on to become a cult classic which is still enjoyed to this day. In 1969 they struck a deal with NBC to produce their own TV series, HR PufnStuf, which featured colorful sets, lots of puppetry, life-size soft, Muppet-like characters and lots of rudimentary special effects. HR PufnStuf was a hit, a huge hit and it led to a movie with Universal Pictures. DANDY FUN FACT! Early in their career, Sid and Marty Krofft received a little sage advice from Mr. Walt Disney who told them, “Always put your name above everything you create because someday it’s gonna be worth something.” They took his advice and put their name at the top of everything they made, which is why their name is as recognizable today as the shows they created! The Krofft brothers found their forte with Fantasy Adventure, mostly aimed at the Saturday morning kids audience, which they dominated. Throughout the 70s, Sid and Marty Krofft were a non-stop hit factory with shows like The Bugaloos, which kind of took the Banana Splits story model of a rock band made of animal characters and placed it into the insect world. Sigmund and the Sea Monsters! I’m actually wearing my poor attempt at a sea monster hat right now. I think the kelp turned out alright, but the googly eyes and uni tooth turned out really bad so I had to take them off. Our rescue dog Carly has a fixation on googly eyes so I have to hide them or she’ll chew them all up because they’re the size and texture of a squeak toy. These guys produced Land of the Lost and also the somewhat forgettable late 70s series, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, a low budget Wonder Woman meets Batman and Robin, and also Wonderbug, which was a low budget Herbie the Love Bug that looked more like Speed Buggy. In fact, almost everything they produced was low budget and extremely campy, which was also a large part of the charm and brilliant from a business standpoint! Money not spent is money in the pocket, isn’t it? The Krofft brothers became so popular that at one point they entered a deal in 1976 with a developer to launch their own amusement park, the World of Sid and Marty Krofft in Atlanta Georgia, which unfortunately didn’t do real well, suffered poor attendance, and closed only six months after their grand opening. DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that Sid and Marty Krofft built the set for the TV show All in the Family? This was used for the first two seasons! As they progressed into the 1980s they found themselves putting their names on less successful shows such as Pryor’s Place with Richard Pryor, DC Follies which was a puppet show that skewered modern politics and also oversaw reboots of their classic shows like HR Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Nonetheless their San Fernando Valley Factory stayed cranking, with touring stages for bands like Earth, Wind and Fire and anyone else who wanted that Krofft Brothers touch in their shows! In the year 2000, Sid and Marty Krofft kicked off the millennium by dazzling the American Music Awards with giant 25 foot high puppets for the performance of the boy band N’SYNC. In 2015 they teamed up with Nick Jr. on a show called Mutt N’ Stuff which followed the adventures of Calvin Milan, son of Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, and Calvin’s dog, Stuff. It lasted two years. In 2018 the Krofft Brothers get honored at the Daytime Emmy Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award! Sid was asked on the red carpet what his secret to success was and he replied, “Get Marty for a partner.” When Marty was asked who his favorite character was Marty replied, “My favorite character has got to be Sid.” Brothers to the end. And in 2020 they received their long overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022 Krofft Kon was launched, which is a convention around all things Sid and Marty Krofft. Both brothers attended the inaugural year and the annual event to this day continues to feature stars of their various productions throughout the years which you can meet in person if you attend Krofft Kon. MARTY KROFFT Sadly the world lost Marty Krofft in 2023 to kidney failure at 86 years of age. SID KROFFT Sid still goes to conventions and loves meeting fans old and new and he’d love to meet you! And ain’t that a how do ya do? There’s the story of Sid and Marty Krofft, the campiest, kookiest, cheesiest, craziest couple of brothers you ever heard of! Their works will live on in infamy for many a millennia to come! And you know what else lives on? The overhead costs of producing this show! Therefore I beseech you dear viewers, listeners and readers to please consider supporting future productions of the Dandy Fun House by visiting the website at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and clicking on the Patronage page where you can donate some cashola, moolah, begonias and share some cheddah with yours truly! Supporters will receive access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public! and… Super Supporters will receive that exact same access. Plus I’ll mail you something special from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you provide your mailing address! (Maybe a lock of kelp from my sea monster hat!) Podcast listeners can donate via a button in your podcast app of choice. It usually has a little dollar sign on the button, at least on my app (I listen on Podcast Addict.) And five star reviews wherever you can leave them always receive my undying gratitude! And that’s gonna do it for this episode of the Dandy Fun House. Time for me to puff my stuff right on outta here! I really appreciate you stopping by. Come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always Fun and Dandy! Sea Monster Ya Later! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

 see video below!   listen to the podcast below! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to self-indulge just a bit and pay a bit of homage to the town I live in and love: MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE! And I’m going to do it in the only way that I can actually make it relevant to this show and that’s with a game review! Now for those of you who don’t live in Murfreesboro and couldn’t possibly care less about my town, I know you’re asking yourself right now why you would ever care about a game review involving the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Here’s why: because the company that makes the game I’m about to review also makes this exact same game customized special for individual cities and towns all over the world, most likely including yours and this episode will hopefully give you a sneak peek at what you might expect if you were to purchase this particular game for where YOU LIVE! NOW do I have your attention? I hope so because I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy this game for a long time now for THIS is the game of… MURFREESBORO*OPOLY! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House! This is where we unwrap the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this year-end extravaganza I’m going to unbox, set up and show you how to play the Monopoly spinoff game – MURFREESBORO*OPOLY! And at the end of the show, I’m going to do a quick rundown of some of the best movies I enjoyed from the year 2023 and ones I’m looking forward to in 2024! Let’s get to it! This game appears to be made by a company out of Cincinnati, Ohio called Late For The Sky. That’s a pretty odd name for a toy and game manufacturer. But let’s see what we can find out about them. Looking over their website it appears their entire business model is solely making specialized versions of the game Monopoly and boy do they have a lot of them! They have versions for different colleges, alcoholic beverages, Shark*Opoly, Zombie*Opoly. Educational versions like America*Opoly, Dino*Opoly, Space*Opoly, Bible*Opoly, Boooo*Opoly, Christmas*Opoly, Farm, Fishing, Hunting, Rodeo, Cat, Horse, Ocean, Penguin, and 18 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF DOGS OPOLY! Sheesh! There was only ONE GAME on their entire website that was not a version of Monopoly that I found and that game was and is THE MAN GAME! Which includes: flick football (you know like that triangular folded piece of paper you would try to flick between your friends’ finger goal posts while you were goofing off in school?), a ball for cup pong, a tape measure to see which guy has the biggest uhhh… bicep! Yes bicep! Rope for sailor knots and a regulation deck of playing cards along with poker chips. No wagering please! Apparently their business concept started with MIAMI*OPOLY because their founder and president whom they don’t give the name of was a graduate of Miami University. They grew their college line of games to over 80 different titles and just kept going from there. No mention of any licensing deal with the makers of Monopoly although I’m sure there must be one. Just ask the makers of Ghetto*Opoly who got unceremoniously shut down after just a few months on the market. Hey! I just happen to have Ghetto*Opoly right here! I can’t review it on this show because we’re strctly family-friendly but in recent years, I have noticed it for sale again in various places. I don’t believe Late For The Sky has anything to do with the re-release of Ghetto*Opoly however so moving right along…. Apparently, you can hire them to customize a game for you as well. This seems to be more of a corporate offering where companies can have a game created highlighting special details of their business which can be a great marketing tool if used correctly! Digging in just a little deeper, it appears that Late For The Sky is really big on the environment which is great and I’m not noticing any nutty climate change wackiness or anything like that. Just reasonable and responsible stewardship of the environment which I can get behind. Things like using recycled paper, soy-based inks rather than alcohol although I’m not really sure what the significance of that might be, corn-based shrink-wrap (I’ve never heard of that before!) recycled glass and 100 percent Made in the USA in their very own Cincinnati, Ohio facility! And all parts are manufactured within 50 miles from their operation. NOW THAT’S REALLY COOL! If you’d like to check out all their awesome stuff, just head on over to http://www.lateforthesky.com and see it all for yourself! Alright, enough about LATE FOR THE SKY, let’s get into this game of MURFREESBORO*OPOLY here! Right here we got it Murfreesboroopoly a fun game celebrating the BORO and on the front they give props to MTSU, Main Street Murfreesboro, Cannonsburg Village. Nice nice nice. Good packaging they didn’t completely rip off Monopoly on the front they just kind of paid homage to it. (I mean I guess they did.) The sides have pretty basic branding, nothing too spectacular. On the back you can see the entire the entire playing field and they got a lot of stuff right here and I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t want to do reading for the blind I’ll just get the bullet points here. How do you make a game about the great city of Murfreesboro Tennessee? While it’s impossible to ridicule everything we jammed all the Murfreesboro we could into this box. Here’s a quick idea of how to play. They’ve got the full version of Monopoly where you sit there and play for hours until everybody gets frustrated and quits because the game is never gonna freaking end! And there’s a one hour condensed version as well. Let’s unwrap this rascal! UNBOXING ! Get my corn based shrink wrap off the box here. Is this really corn based? (sniff) Doesn’t smell like corn. Here we have it and let’s go ahead and lift the lid. And it’s a box with nothing special showing right away. We’ve got the the game board right here. I’m going to save that for just a moment and we’re going to look over the pieces. Oh looks like we got some of that soy based paper there. Um how do I unwrap this? I have no fingernails I’m a guitar player. So let’s very odd. A couple odd things. A couple loose pieces that kind of seem to have popped out of their bags. Hmm but let’s see if I can open this with my teeth… This is all the money and they are a little bit different than the game of Monopoly. Same denominations but they did apparently go for their own designs. I don’t know how much licensing they needed to purchase from the makers of Monopoly or if they needed to purchase it all. Did it just become did it just become part of the public domain? I do not have a clue. And then you get a 500 dollar bill there. All the denominations that you would normally have in a game of Monopoly is included in Murfreesboroopoly and I do not expect them to make a different design for every town they do. Here are all the uh the cards. They don’t have question marks on them, they have exclamation points and thumbs up on them. And then we have the properties and the properties are all just what’s on the board. THE GAME BOARD! Let’s see how good they did for the town of Murfreesboro! Besides forgetting about Premiere Six Theater. (Maybe they asked who wanted to be on here and maybe Premiere 6 just said we’re too cool.) By the way I’m wearing my Premier Six Theater shirt today in homage because I knew they weren’t on here. Oh and there was one other drastic oversight that they left out of the game… City Cafe. It’s been here over a hundred years and it’s right off the square. How could they leave that out of Murfreesboro-opoly? Okay you got Batey Farms right there. That’s the place where you go and pick your own strawberries in the springtime. The world’s largest cedar bucket in Cannonsburg Village which is an old timey village which they were talking about ripping out and replacing with a AAA baseball park and got a bunch of people up in arms about this year. Mercury Boulevard which has been renamed Martin Luther King. So that’s actually outdated now. Boro Beach. The most crowded swimming hole ever. Lanes Trains and Automobiles. That’s a cool one. That’s a bowling alley and arcade with great food and fun. We love them. Discovery Center. That’s sort of like an adventure science center kind of thing. Traffic Jam. Yeah we’re getting more of those with the way Nashville’s been blowing up. (Murfreesboro is 30 minutes outside of Nashville). Slick Pig Barbecue. Home of the famous Smoked Wings. MTSU Student Film Festival. They they appear to be very enamored with MTSU here. I mean it’s a big part of our community. We love them. I like to take in a baseball game over at MTSU especially on two dollar Tuesdays because I’m cheap like that, but there’s much more to Murfreesboro than just MTSU. Main Street Saturday Market. Where you go around the square and visit all the farmers. Mayday Brewery. A crown jewel of the city! Memorial Boulevard... Barfield Crescent Park. That’s a wonderful park we have with trail heads and and a nature center that you can go learn about turtles and stuff. Cannonsburg Village like we talked about earlier. Stones River Greenway. Here’s MTSU, Johnnie Red Floyd Stadium which is in MTSU. Murphy Center also in MTSU. Come on guys enough with the MTSU. Northwest Broad Street. Oaklands Mansion which is a Civil War era mansion that we have here and they’ll give you guided tours and ghost tours too! Bradley Academy Museum. Main Street Jazz Fest. That’s the big event every year out on the square. Museum of Natural History. That’s a good one and that’s kind of on a little side street that we have here. You kind of kind of go looking for that one but it’s a very cool place. Stone’s River National Battlefield. We had a very large Civil War battle here in Murfreesboro and you can go get into the history of that right there on the battlefield. It’s an amazing day trip! Center for the Arts. The Square where you got the jazz fest and the neighborhood market. And finally… Main Street. And the big main graphic for the game is actually the dome of the courthouse in the middle of the downtown square, Pre-Civil War era. Center of Tennessee. Yes we have an obelisk. Murfreesboro is the geographical center of the state of Tennessee and we have a pile of pointy rocks to prove it. Actually it used to be the capital of Tennessee at one point. Parking ticket pay $75. Well… our parking tickets downtown, it’s kind of cute. They’re more like $3. And… I’m back to start. Okay there is the board! You put your money. Someone’s got to be the banker. Contingency and big fun. I’m going to assume that the exclamation points are the contingency cards and the thumbs up are the big fun. GAME PIECES I’m going to assume that the game pieces are going to be the same for any town. They’re not molding special pieces for your town. You got a couple of die here.As far as the player pieces go you’ve got the big smile, a heart. These are all metal! Oh that’s quality. It’s not plastic junk. You actually have real metal pieces here. A pretzel, a hand for slapping someone who gets silly with you, the boot and the little doggy. So they kept some of the old. You don’t have the car, thimble, iron or anything like that. PROPERTIES Boy you can’t even call these houses. Instead of houses and hotels you have little gray boxes which unfortunately is pretty much all they’re building for housing these days. And you have golden keys because you have to pretty much be made of gold in order to afford one of these little gray boxes they build in these subdivisions which is all the new construction around here. That’s the only thing bad I’ve got to say about Murfreesboro. It’s getting overdeveloped because Nashville has gone crazy and with a huge boom over the last 10 years and all the surrounding areas outside of Nashville have been going up with it and the housing prices have been going through the roof. The people who can’t afford to live to Nashville all come here and drive up our cost of living. I’m glad we bought our house before it got too crazy! And here we are here at the Dandy Fun House Studios as a result and very happy to be here by the way. All right well that’s the layout! I’m not really going to show you how to play the game of Monopoly which this basically is because I don’t want to insult your intelligence. Everybody knows how to play Monopoly and if you don’t I’m sure somewhere around your house you probably have a game of Monopoly sitting around. FINAL THOUGHTS AND RANKING Murfreesboro*Opoly! What can I say? It’s just really cool. I’ve wanted to get this thing for the past three years and finally got my hands on it and I’m glad I did. It’s just really cool to have a board game about your own hometown and a really good gift that you can share with your friends and family who might not live in your town to help them learn more about it. This hits the mark in a lot of ways. They didn’t really go too deep into our local culture here but they got the major high points and I’ll give them props for that. Late for the sky I think you did a great job on this and I’m just I’m loving this and I can’t wait to play it with my family! My rating for Murfreesboro*Opoly… I will give it an eight out of ten and I almost never give anyone a ten so that’s a pretty darn good rating! MOVIES! MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2023! GODZILLA MINUS ONE! I will say hands down my favorite movie of 2023 is without a doubt GODZILLA MINUS ONE! If you haven’t seen it, go! Just go! Why did I love this movie? For me, it felt exactly like a classic Godzilla movie from back in the days when they took time to build a good story and characters you actually care about rather than what most movies do these days which is write a flimsy story and just get to the action. A movie is just so much more impactful when you actually care about what’s going on and what happens to the people in it. The story is about a Japanese kamikaze pilot at the end of World War II who gets cold feet and aborts his mission under the guise of a plane malfunction and lands on an island where the Japanese military had a repair facility. While on the island, they get attacked by a smaller Godzilla before he grew to full size and power. The kamikaze pilot is presented with an opportunity to kill this smaller version of Godzilla (which was still pretty large and fearsome) but once again gets cold feet. The monster proceeds to kill everyone on the island except for the pilot with cold feet and one mechanic who holds the pilot responsible. For the rest of the movie, the kamikaze pilot struggles with his guilt and shame throughout various attacks on Japan as the creature gets larger and larger until he finally figures out a way to supposedly kill Godzilla and summons up the courage to place his own life on the line to carry out the plan. The entire movie is in Japanese and has English subtitles, but for me that only made everything even more authentic, unique and enjoyable. WONKA I’ll admit I was very skeptical going into this one. In fact, the only reason I went was because my family was going so I tagged along. How in the world can you even try to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was the original? Good thing they didn’t try. Instead they cleverly imagined and quite successfully captured what a young Willy Wonka might be like just starting out on his chocolate career. I’m not a guy who’s big into musicals, but in my opinion, this was good. Real good and the people who made this movie just did an excellent job. Great film for the whole family, I highly recommend it!   MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2024! DUNE 2 I remember last year around this time I was talking about how much I’m looking forward to DUNE 2 coming out. Did this thing ever come out? Did I miss it? Nope, it’s scheduled for theatrical release March 1st. This time with twice as much Zendaya! Which will mean about TEN minutes… GHOSTBUSTERS FROZEN EMPIRE Man they brought this franchise back with a bang didn’t they? The last one was so good and recaptured the spirit (no pun intended) of what Ghostbusters is all about. I can’t wait to see Frozen Empire! Who you gonna call? It’d better be me if you’re headed to the theater to see Ghostbusters Frozen Empire! Slated to hit theatres March 29th! KUNG FU PANDA 4 Umm… Sure why not! GODZILLA X KONG Ok, what’s the X all about? Is it Godzilla VERSUS Kong or Godzilla AND Kong as in teaming up and fighting a giant space worm or something? I have no idea but we’ve already had a recent Godzilla and Kong movie and it was pretty decent. Not nearly as good as Godzilla Minus One, but pretty good. Is there anything new to do with these guys together or are we just milking the money cow here? Will I go see it? Yes I will! There’s your answer I suppose! DEADPOOL 3 I guess Ryan Reynolds got some free time away from Mint Mobile to rehash another Deadpool movie. Always entertaining, always fun, never for the kids. Parents be advised. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES YES! YES! YES! YES! I’m sorta looking forward to this one… THE GARFIELD MOVIE Ok, I guess this is going to be sort of an origins story of how Garfield and Jon connected because it’s labeled as a reboot. I hope it does well, but I’m not sure kids these days even know who Garfield is anymore. It’ll be interesting to see how this does. BAD BOYS 4 Ok you can stop it with this one already. DESPICABLE ME 4 Something to take the kids to I guess MUFASA: THE LION KING This one is going to be a prequel and I think it’s a great idea. Mufasa definitely has an interesting story to dig into and since he was killed off very early in The Lion King, I think giving this character his own feature is a great move by a cheese-eating empire (which I do not mention on this program) that has made nothing but stupid, family-unfriendly moves over the past decade. I’ll support this one and hope they don’t ruin it which they hopefully won’t but probably will. VENOM 3 Venom 1 was great. Venom 2 not so much. Hopefully they get this train back on track here because when Venom is good, Venom is real good! Don’t let me down guys! CAPTAIN AMERICA – BRAVE NEW WORLD Ok, I love me some Captain America! The superhero movies have been a bit overbaked and it seems the entire world has superhero fatigue. But if there is one out there who can reignite the flame, I’ll put my money down on the Captain America horse every time! HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON This one is going to be awesome for the little ones! How can you go wrong!? BEETLEJUICE 2 Alright! Strap yourselves in! First Michael Keaton reprises his role in Batman and now Beetlejuice!? I’m pretty sure Wynona Rider is signed on for this. Not sure if they managed to get Gina Davis and Alec Baldwin. Might want to pat down Alec before he comes on the set though. TRANSFORMERS ONE I liked the last Transformers movie. I’ll admit I never really got into the whole Transformers thing but the flicks are enjoyable. I’ll check this one out! SAW XI Been there. Saw that. What are we doing here guys? JOKER: Folie à DEUX The talent is certainly there with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga teaming up. I’m just really happy to not be seeing Margot Robbie doing Harley Quinn anymore and she’s probably happy not to be doing Harley Quinn anymore. It’s the voice. I can’t take the voice. Make it stop! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT STOP!!!!! SMILE 2 Why in the world are they making another one of this? WOLF MAN Ok, I can get behind this! A classic Universal Monster that hasn’t had a refresh in decades. Long overdue in my opinion. Starring Liz Cheney Jr.! GLADIATOR 2 Wait… Didn’t he die at the end of the first one. Went to Valhalla after defeating the emporer in the colosseum and was reunited with his family? What are they going to do? Drag him to the Roman doctor and revive him? LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR OF ROHIRRIM For you rabid LOTR fans who just can’t get enough, I can’t count myself amongst you but… respect! Here you go! A new bone! Chew my doggies! Chew! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 Does Jim Carrey really need the work this badly? Ad that pretty much Christmas wraps it for 2023! I’ve been very blessed by God that the following for this show has seen healthy growth over the past year and I think that can be attributed to a clearer vision for the type of content I produce, freshening up the branding to make it better-reflect that and also the production of a series of under-one-minute short videos for each episode which appears to be supercharging the reach of the show. A big thank you to all of you who take the time to hang out with me here when you can. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! Please don’t forget that if you would like to support what The Dandy Fun House does, you can visit the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and donate to the production of future episodes which helps me purchase the things I review along with props that make the show more interesting, website hosting, podcast hosting and keeping the lights on in general. It all has a cost. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features! and… Super Supporters also gain access to those same features plus I’ll mail you a special surprise from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast listeners can also contribute via the donation button on the podcast app of your choice. And 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them always get my undying gratitude! Are you ready for 2024??? I know I am! Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon and I’m going to be bringing it to you right here at the Dandy Fun House! So come on back soon 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?      

 watch video below!   listen to the podcast below!   In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to unbox, review and show you how to play a true game of glorious disgusting fecal flinging fun! This is one I’ve been avoiding for obvious reasons for a while now because I’m not exactly sure how you review something like what we’re about to get into, so all I can say is I hope you have your hazmat suit handy because we’re going into primate pen. THIS is the game of MONKEY SEE MONKEY POO! 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 shovel up the best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! And boy do we have a banana-scented treat for you today! I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m not going to do a tease, I’m not going to get super cute with this one because I have a feeling this game review is going to speak for itself. It’s the game of MONKEY SEE MONKEY POO by Spin Master. Ok, my show is not very big yet but for those of you who ARE avid consumers of this program, you’ll know that as of late I’ve been very heavy with the reviews of Spin Master games. I want you to know that I am NOT a shill for Spin Master. In fact, when I choose a game to review, I do not even look to see who makes it. I simply choose the most interesting ones I can find and then do a deep dive into the product. The fact that three of my last four or five reviews have been from Spin Master is purely by happenstance although I have trouble saying that because I choose what catches my eye and apparently the things that Spin Master makes does indeed catch MY EYE. I HAVE AN AXE TO GRIND WITH SPIN MASTER! To be honest, I’m actually a little annoyed with Spin Master in one regard because every time I review one of their games, I send them a nice note through their website to let them know I’ve reviewed one of their products and the response is… CRICKETS! NOTHING! NADA! BUPKISS! ZILCH! Not a thank you, not a we look forward to checking it out, not an automated reply, NOTHING! It’s like shouting into the ether and it’s frustrating. I know I’m not the biggest fish in the pond out here, but not only am I a reviewer but I purchase these products with my own money and I’m by no means a wealthy person. I think a little shred of common courtesy could go a long way with your customers there Spin Master. Ghosting them when they send you nice letters isn’t exactly great PR. Ok, now that I’ve vented my frustration, let’s see what we have here. I want to let you know upfront that while I usually give the back history on the company that makes the product, since I’ve recently reviewed a couple of other Spin Master products, I feel a little silly giving their history yet again. You can check out the review of the game SOGGY DOGGY if you’re interested in learning more of the company history. I think I have enough on my hands with a game that’s all about throwing poop here so let’s get into this and see what we’ve got. THE BOX Here we go. Monkey See Monkey Poo with banana-scented poo. I am looking forward to smelling some bananas, and I think that’s a good thing they did there. There’s a little picture of the actual game there in the corner of the box, a cartoon of a monkey throwing poop at other monkeys in a tree and big bunches of bananas and some monkeys sticking their tongue out. Got a little peek at the toy there through the cellophane in the box. That’s what we call a TWAG, a toy with a game. Let’s see what’s on the sides here. Just the logo. Good logo, good marketing. They’ve even got a song. I’ll put a link to it at the end of this article for your enjoyment. On the back of the box, we’ve got some instructions and it says: If a monkey sees, then a monkey poos. In this game, so will you! Well… I’ve never played a game that’s made me poop myself, so this will be a first! “Fill the monkey with banana-scented poo, climb and collect bananas!” I’ve watched a few videos from people who don’t do it as good as me, of course but the object appears to be that you knock down bunches of bananas in the tree. If you knock them down, your monkey climbs a level. Then you reach the top. Then you start all over again??? That doesn’t really make sense to me. It makes more sense that if you reach the top first, you should win. The instructions I saw were online from the company. They were kind of convoluted and sort of complicated. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I don’t like complicated. I like simple so we’re just going to do this in a way that’s simple and actually makes sense! To heck with the instructions, Let’s open this thing up. UNBOXING There’s a piece of tape right there. Do I need to get out my axe? Oh, good. Glad I had an axe to grind with Spin Master. Otherwise, I’d have had trouble getting it open. Okay, so first on top we’ve got a clear bucket of monkey poop. I’m guessing it’s going to be sort of the consistency of Play-Doh (not the philosopher) Digging deeper, there’s a little plastic green base here. I think there’s going to be a lot of assembly. …cardboard divider, get rid of that. Let’s see what else we’ve got here. Instructions! We know what we do with those. Goodbye. Next we have the monkey’s creepy detached hands. They are cupped ready for a ball of poop. You attach them to the monkey body, apparently. Let’s see what else we’ve got here… Flourescent green-colored ropes, things to stand stuff up on, and an arrow, I guess, for the game spinner. Okay, we’ve got a bag with various other parts with the– Oh, oh, the slap disk! You slap on that to make the monkey throw the poop! I have absolutely no idea what this oval-shaped orange piece is here. Here’s another orange piece, and I have no idea what it is, but it has some kind of– Well, it looks like bananas and poop combined, stamped into the plastic. This is a pretty darn disgusting game, people! …Monkey feet. Another plastic bag here… And this appears to be the main pieces of the game. You’ve got a bunch of little cardboard bananas that you kind of punch out of the sheet there. You’ve got different monkey characters, which you punch out of the cardboard sheet. Banana bunches of various sizes. This is all cardboard stuff and some kind of design elements for the tree. Ahh we come to the spinner board! Need to attach the spinning arrow and the part that keeps the spinning arrow from spinning off! Apparently I’m going to have no choice but to read some instructions. And we have the monkey tree. Monkey tree, monkey poo. I think the idea is you’re going to have to kind of fold the monkey tree a little bit so that it stays upright. This is basically a glorified McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy! Well, without further ado, let’s get to the star of our show here… THE MONKEY! “Here we come, walking down the street. Throw a handful of poo at everyone we meet.” It is a plastic monkey kind of hunched over, not really in a pooping position, but more in a pitching position. Much like a baseball pitcher on the mound and I don’t think I want to know what that mound is made of. Let’s see if I can get this monkey out of its restraints. And here is the monkey unleash. [monkey noises] Wow. Just wow. Hunched over. The arms are going to snap into the sides pretty obviously. I think we can go ahead and do that.I mean, if you’re going to throw poop, throw it right. …Okay. The monkey arms are in place. They’re ready to pitch the fecalia. They come around behind the posterior of the monkey to catch the pitchable substance, which comes out the end. And apparently there’s a thing you slap and it makes it do kind of a throw from the butt over the top of the head and flinging forward. Oh yeah, this is going to be great! I’ll go ahead and attach the feet now. Everything appears to just snap right into place.   Okay… This big green thing I pulled out at the beginning. A plastic platform. It’s got indents that are foot-shaped, so that’s pretty obvious that the feet will snap into there. And our monkey is in place. And the slapper, oh, okay, I get it. I get it. The slapper fits into a couple of notches here on the monkey base and there’s a protruding element that goes under the hands, and when you slap, I got it. It flings the monkey’s hands forward. Now, I’m going to assume this orange thing, which I did not understand what it was, appears to be the monkey butt. And it appears to be half blocked. I don’t know what the purpose of that would be. Why would you want to block the monkey poop? Maybe so it makes like good curls or something… Am I really reviewing this product here? Am I really reviewing a monkey poop product!? I apparently am. Lord help me! Okay, the monkey’s butt is affixed into place now. And here’s the last orange piece right here in my hand. I figured out what it’s for. This is the crammer that pushes the monkey poop through the monkey’s body. Kind of like a food processor, you know, that thing you use to shove the food down the top hole of the food processor? Sort of the same principle. There’s a snap on the back of the monkey’s body. There you go. It snapped into place. And I see now it’s supposed to be the monkey’s tail! Well, let’s go ahead and push a little! We’ve done enough assembly here. It’s time to have a little fun, okay? Here’s like the Play-Doh looking poop stuff. I’m going to take a whiff of it… It doesn’t really smell like bananas to me… I made a smoothie this morning, a chocolate banana smoothie, in honor of the occasion. And my smoothie smells more like bananas than this bucket of Play-Doh looking stuff does. I’m going to go ahead and pull out the banana poop clay here… And I don’t think I need to form it or anything. You just kind of need to cram it into the hole on top of the monkey. It’s got a different consistency to it, though. It’s more rubbery than like Play-Doh-y which feels to me like it probably won’t dry out as fast as something like Play-Doh. Okay, so I’ve put a wad of the monkey poop compound into the back of the monkey. And now I’m going to cram it with the special monkey poop crammer to see what we get. Oh, isn’t that lovely! And it doesn’t pinch itself off. You have to pinch it off by hand. Really? Come on. And I don’t even think that process is necessary because you can just put a wad of the monkey poop directly into the monkey’s hands without cramming it through, but where’s the fun in that? Okay, so now I got the poop. I’ve pinched it off from its butt. (might need some Charmin in there, pal…) And now we’ve got the curled up loaf in the hands. What the heck? I’m going to put my left hand in front of the monkey and I’m going to slap the slapper with my right hand, and I’m going to see if I can catch the monkey poop in my hand. (SLAP!) And it didn’t fly worth anything. (SLAP AGAIN!) Okay, that flew. (SLAP AGAIN!) Slapped a little harder that time. There’s like things under the slapper. Maybe that’s affecting it. (SLAP!) Huh. So I guess I’m not able to get this thing to fly very far, so I’m guessing I’m going to have to get really close to the tree. Or maybe the whole thing’s just a gimmick and it doesn’t work very well. Who knows? We’re going to find out. (SLAP!) That didn’t work very well. I kind of stick it on the fingers. (SLAP!) Some experimentation might be in order… (SLAP!) Oh! (SLAP!) I stuck the poo. Instead of in the cup of the hands, I stuck it on just the tips of the fingers, gave it a slap, and then it flew really well! And my dog’s freaking out. I’m glad you know we lost Emma-Lou back in the middle of the year of 2023 and we’re fostering another doggy. Her name’s Carly, and she’s here in the room with me, and she’s being extremely well-behaved. And I am thankful for that. Okay, I’m going to put that monkey poop back in the container because we’ve got to make progress here! I think I need to assemble the tree, and I’m going to have to do some instruction reading here. And I’m sure that this also means that we’re going to do some fast motion video here. Let’s go!   GAME ASSEMBLY Uh, putting the tree together, it’s a cardboard tree. You have to fold it. Sort of like a big McDonald’s happy meal toy is the best way I can describe this piece as a cardboard with different designs on it and you fold and then you push the platforms into slots and you make it. And the trouble I got, there’s different platforms to put bananas on. The trouble I came into was the very top level. It tells you to align three slots. Well, the only way it fits, there’s two slots that fit into the top of the tree and then there’s a line where I’m guessing there was supposed to be a third slot unless I’ve really made a mistake and there’s a protuberance from the top of the tree support that looks like it’s supposed to go into that slot, but no slot was cut. So I had to take out my trusty Swiss army knife and cut my own slot. Okay. So I’m attaching bases to the bananas and sticking bananas in the tree. I think we’re going to put the smaller banana bunches on. On the lower tiers, there’s five bunches of bananas in total. The last thing it appears is to attach these fluorescent neon greenish ropes. I guess they’re supposed to be jungle vines and they’ve got knots at the end of them. And I think it’s pretty self explanatory how to attach them to the tree. There’s one, two, three. For ropes and there’s one, two, three, four. Well, there’s.(…) There are five slots. So maybe that top tier was supposed to go in the other way, but I couldn’t make it go in the other way. I could not. And according to… Oh, I’ve got the top tier of the tree on backwards! That’s why it wouldn’t fit and I thought I had to cut it, but the slots didn’t line up, so I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. And then and then when I do line them up and and put this the top tier on the other way… Ohhh I may have potentially assembled the entire game backwards! Well, I’m all confused here now. The instructions aren’t real, real clear here. See if I can find the picture of the monkey taking the shower and use that as a reference point with the picture on the box… Oh, I see what I did here. I assembled the entire tree backwards. That’s why nothing fits like it should. They weren’t real clear as to which was the front and which was the back. That could use some improving! Instead of the support attaching to the rear, the support goes into the front! I just assumed that the support would go in the back. OK, my apologies to Spin Master but they should make that more clear in the instructions. Oh, that fits in so much nicer. OK, I’m putting the platforms back into their proper slots, which are properly cut out and it fits together like a charm. All right. So if you have trouble putting this thing together and you’re wondering what is going on, put the put the tree support in the other way. Let’s put the bananas back in their pooper places. Oh,(…) how many poop puns can I make in one day? So now we’ve got our monkeys here. We’re going to attach them to the vines and we are just about to start some gameplay flinging some fekai!   GAME PLAY We’ve got four different monkeys here. I’ll refer back to the instructions set up game play. (…) Number one, choose a monkey. Well, who’s going to be your monkey? Do they have names? Did they give them names? Doesn’t appear that they gave them names. OK, we got one just holding a banana in the hand and kind of a bewildered look. And that’s a pink monkey. We have one brown monkey and it’s shoving a banana up its nose and half winking. And then we’ve got purple monkey, very astute looking English gentleman monkey with a little tiny English mustache, banana peel for a hat, drinking a very tiny little cappuccino and holding a walking cane in one hand. And finally, our fourth monkey, we have the blue monkey. Who’s holding a banana in its tail and appears to be quite frightened of the flinging fecai coming its way. OK, choose a monkey. Then you spin. (…) I spun a 3. What does that mean? Do I throw 3 times? Then you poop the monkey… and the monkey poops into its hands. I’ll try not to use “his or her” because you never know. Female monkeys can can poop in their own hands. It’s it’s not gender specific, you know. So we’ve got a big, big, big wad of poop. And I guess one of the fun things is you get to design it how you like. After the monkey poops, you kind of you can kind of make a poop design of your choosing. I made sort of a soft serve ice cream swirl. think that’s not bad for a beginner! (…) To fire, place one hand on the monkey flinger’s base. Keep it steady with your other hand over the launcher.(…) Aim at the tree, slap the launcher and let the feces fly! (SLAP!) Well, I knocked down the biggest bunch of bananas, but I didn’t actually knock it down. It was more me pounding on the table. See if I can do this a little better here. (SLAP!) Pretty much knocked everything down that time, but that wasn’t aiming. That wasn’t skill. That wasn’t anything but a ball of poop hitting the tree and making it all come down. Collect banana tokens after fleeing the poo, collect a banana token for each banana bunch you knocked over.(…) One, two, three, four.(…) So I.(…) OK, so I’m going to pick up my banana tokens is what they call these individual bananas. So I’ve got four. (…) Tree climbing, when a player collects three banana tokens, it’s time to trade them in and climb to the next level on the tree. (…) So I’ve got three. So for every three, you climb a level. So I have climbed up to the second level there. (…) If you knock over the entire tree, it’s a BANANA BLOWOUT! Collect one banana token and your turn ends. No more poop for you. So it’s a bad thing to knock over everything. So pretty much by knocking over four of the five banana bunches here, I maximized and got the most tokens one can get in a turn because I left one standing. Now, if you think you’re going to build up the skill to be able to aim this you might want to think again. I think it’s just a poop show here. (…) I will say the poop squeezes through pretty darn easy and that’s half the fun is making the monkey poop and you will get hours of fun just pooping your monkey. You can take your monkey for walks. Make sure you carry a bag.   FINAL THOUGHTS And there you have MONKEY SEE MONKEY POO! the most fun you can have pooping a plastic toy monkey. What’s this show turned into? What am I gonna rate this thing? How do you rate a game like this? It’s the most fun you can have throwing poop and that’s just all there is to it. Go out and get it. It’s a whole lot of fun. Fill out your Christmas shopping. I think I just did because somebody’s gonna get that because I can’t take this to the youth room at my church.   SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE And if you’d like to relieve me a little bit from my financial misery please consider becoming a patron of the Dandy Fun House by visiting http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters get access to exclusive bonus content. Why you would want bonus content of this? I have no idea but I sure appreciate it. Super Supporters not only get all that exact same bonus material but,… butt, of course butt, I’m gonna mail you something from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios. Maybe a present from Calamity Carly the wonder dog. And if you listen to the podcast and your app supports making donations through there, I’m set up for that too. Just click the probably a little dollar sign button or something like that you’ll see in there. Click that and that sends me cryptocurrency. Alright that does it for me. I’m getting the poop out of here! Neil Dandy out! Guys come back next month for the after-Christmas episode right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! Clean up time… Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! Happy Halloween everybody! Let’s see if you remember this one! A young criminology student and inventor takes the night watchman shift at the local wax museum so he can go to school during the day. One of his inventions (a crime computer) accidentally wakes up 3 of the creatures from the Legendary Monsters exhibit bringing them to life along with their memories of past misdeeds! But now they feel guilty about all the people they used to disembowel and wish to make amends! So they team up to fight crime… MONSTER STYLE! In this Halloween 2023 special episode of the Dandy Fun House, get ready to get scary crime-fighting funky with… THE MONSTER SQUAD! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the 2023 Halloween Special Edition of the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! This is where we wolf down the 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 open the coffin lid (start tv show intro) on a Saturday morning tv show from the mid-70s that ran for less than a year but still managed to make it’s bite marks on tv pop culture history and to be Frank… should have gotten more attention than it did. I’m talking about… THE MONSTER SQUAD! The Monster Squad was a Saturday morning tv series produced by D’Angeleo-Bullock-Allen Productions that aired on NBC from September 11, 1976 to September 3, 1977 and starred a young Fred Grandy who later went on to greater tv pop-culture fame playing the role of Gopher on The LOVE BOAT! Fred played a criminology student named Walt who took a night watchman job at Fred’s Wax Museum. There wasn’t a whole lot to do hanging out all night in a wax museum, so Walt passed the time tinkering with his invention, the “crime computer” which he kept stashed away inside a stone sarcophagus next to the legendary monsters exhibit. Well… When Walt plugged his crime computer in for the first time, oscillating vibrations unwittingly brought the wax statues of Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster to life! Upon their awakening, the monsters found themselves filled with remorse for all the blood sucking, skull crushing and peeing on fire hydrants they were remembering from their past lives and had a desire to right their wrongs with humanity, so they teamed up with Walt and his crime computer to become supermonster crimefighters and take on supervillians all over town. Not sure what it was about this particular town that attracted all the evil weirdos of crime but I’m guessing they weren’t here in the South where I’m located. Lock and load my friends! Basically the monsters would go out and fight crime while Gopher err… I mean Walt would hang back in the cushy comforts of the wax museum and monitor everything from the crime computer. Every once in a while Walt would get off his tukus and come help his monster friends in the final climactic battle and rescue them from their screw-ups when he had to. The Monsters were played by: Henry Polic II Henry Polic II as Dracula: Henry’s best known for his portrayal of Jerry Silver on the tv show Webster. Buck Kartalian Wolfman or Bruce W. Wolf was played by: character actor Buck Kartalian and Michael Lane Frank N. Stein was played by: an actor named Michael Lane. Bruce Kartalian (left) and Michael Lane (right) from their wrestling days SCARY FUN FACT! An interesting note about Buck Kartalian and Michael Lane. They both came from the world of professional wrestling which I’m sure came in handy for the agility needed in action scenes! MONSTER SUPER POWERS: Franky had superstrength. Wolfie could climb walls and fight like a rabid dog (he also curled up on rugs and had a crush on Lassie) and Drac could… umm… turn into a bat??? Yep that’s pretty much it! Of course they had their own decked out Monster Van with wall-to-wall carpeting because you know… It was the 70s baby! And they all wore utility belts because… Batman. Stanley Ralph Ross, Head Writer of The Monster Squad The show actually looked and felt a lot like the Batman tv series, or maybe the discount store version of the Batman tv series with a lot of the visual and scriptual elements mainly because the creator, Stanley Ralph Ross had been one of the head writers on Batman. But it had almost zero star power. They did bring in the legndary Catwoman Julie Newmar (meow) for one episode to play the supervillianess, “Ultra Witch.” Her evil plot was to turn the entire world’s milk sour and she used a ray gun to turn the monsters into cardboard cutouts. In the end, she stupidly fires the ray gun into a mirror and turns herself into a cardboard cutout. There’s Darwinism in action for ya! They also brought in Alice Ghostly, best known as Esmeralda the housekeeper on Bewitched to play a villainess named Queen Bee who conducts an enormous swarm of killer bees in a plot to take over the world. Other than that, the special guest actors and actresses were very much B and C list. SCARY FUN FACT! The title of every episode of the Monster Squad was also the name of the super villain! TRUCKER HANDLES! Since it was the 70s Convoy was a bit hit and the CB radio fad was all the rage, of course they all had to have trucker handles! Walt back at the museum was “Chamber of Horrors”, Drac was “Nightflyer”, Frank was “Green Machine” and Wolfie was “Furball.” You know, I can’t imagine why this series didn’t last longer than it did! HOME VIDEO RELEASE: Although it lasted just under one year, it DID finally receive a modicum of respect when in 2009 Monster Squad: The Complete Series was released on home video. May I also add that there was a movie released in 1987 called THE MONSTER SQUAD which has absolutely no relation to the tv series. WHAT HAPPENED TO FRED GRANDY? Fred Grandy went on of course to earn pop culture legend status playing the role of Gopher on the iconic tv series The LOVE BOAT and later went on to serve four terms in the US House of Representatives for the great state of Iowa serving on the Ways and Means Committee, Agriculture, Standards of Official Conduct, Education and the Workforce. He also won EIGHT Watchdog of the Treasury awards! Go Go Gopher! From 1995 – 2000 he was President of Goodwill Industries International and later became a commentator for NPR! These days he spends a great deal of time contributing to think tanks for the purpose of combating domestic terrorism. A big BIG Dandy Fun House Halloween Special salute to you sir, Mr. Fred Grandy! Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for our country, but more importantly, pop culture history! Umm… ok… there you go! THE MONSTER SQUAD! Campy and goofy as all get out, but still a lot of fun and perfect for a Halloween regurgitation here on the Dandy Fun House! In my opinion, every bit as good as anything Sid and Marty Krofft ever made. That oughta fire up the comments board! Do you remember the MONSTER SQUAD? Share your thoughts about it with me by dropping a line through the contact page at www.dandyfunhouse.com While you’re there, consider supporting the production of future episodes by visiting the Patronage page and becoming a DANDY FUN HOUSE SUPPORTER! Supporters receive access to exclusive content and SUPER SUPPORTERS also gain access to exclusive bonus content PLUS I’ll send you something cool from here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address. If you listen to the podcast and your app supports making donations, we’re set up for that too. 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them are also highly appreciated! Alright my Halloweiner Dogs, that about Mummy-Wraps up this Halloween 2023 edition of the Dandy Fun House. Don’t be a turkey. Come back next month for the Thanksgiving episode 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   The movie Jaws was released in 1975 and set the standard for the summer movie blockbuster as we know it today! Spawning sequels and quite bizarrely a kids game based on this horrific and bloody feature film known as the Game of JAWS. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I wanted to bring you the Game of JAWS but not only is it no longer made, it’s become very sought after as a collector’s item and it’s really expensive to acquire and honestly I’m too cheap to buy it and I just really don’t like you guys enough to shell out that kind of dough. So instead I did the next worst thing. I bought a more modernized game with the same basic premise and an overall better looking design that only cost 20 bucks. It’s called SHARK BITE and I’m going to unbox it, set it up, teach you how to play and give you some fun facts and history along the way! It’s time to drop the cage into the water old chum! Let’s dive 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 explore the darkest depths of retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. In this episode, we’re going to have some fun with the game of Shark Bite from a company called Pressman. Pressman Toys and Games was founded in 1922 by a man named Jack Pressman who started the company with a gung hay fat choy bang by unleashing the game of Chinese Checkers upon the world. It was originally called Hop Ching Checkers. Jack Pressman Jack Pressman ultimately made his fortune by licensing the rights to release toys and games based on popular characters of the time like Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie. For the next several decades, Pressman was responsible for many of the classic Golden Age Disney toys and games and in more recent years games like Tri-Ominoes and home game versions of game shows like Deal or No Deal, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In 2014, Pressman Toy Corporation was purchased by Goliath Games from Deutschland. Well enough of my yammering, let’s get to the unboxing! Here we have the game of Shark Bite. Let’s have a look at the box. Pretty neat box though, it’s got a bunch of worms and crabs and lobsters. Now I’m getting hungry, I haven’t had breakfast yet and I am filming this and recording this in the morning. Shark Bite says, “Snag the fish and be the winner, but if the shark jumps, you’ll be his dinner!” Good looking box. You know what, they did not skimp on the design for the outside. I like this! Even the bottom has a cool design. It kind of gives you the synopsis really good, you roll a die, catch fish with your fishing rod, but watch out, when the shark jumps out of the water, you lose! And it tells you what all it includes. Okay, well let’s bust it open, baby! Let’s see, what do we have in the box? Well, we have the pieces, which you need to fish out of the shark’s mouth in a nice plastic bag, there. You have instructions. We are only going to refer to the instructions if we have no other choice, because that’s how we do it here on the Dandy Fun House. And I think we got the star of the show coming out, “Everybody out of the water!” Shark very nicely packaged and protected there. And it looks like it’s all ready to go. Whoa! (shark springs to life!) It already jumped! I didn’t even start playing, and the thing already jumped out at me! Okay, it’s got kind of a cloth outside. It’s kind of a tough cloth, kind of like tent cloth, I would say. The shark is blue. There’s no eyes on the shark. Oh, you have to stick your own eyes on! So let’s see if I can do that without it being all wonky. And then my understanding is you spread the jaws, you push the whole assembly down until it locks into place, and then if you pull the wrong game piece, it jumps out and bites you in the face. … Now, I’ve got it locked down. And how do I release this? I guess you have to play it to release it. And it does not look like it takes any batteries at all, which is great. It looks like it’s just a spring-loaded mechanical toy game. Game with a toy. What did I used to call it? Or toy with a game. Yes, a TWAG! So let’s dump the contents here. You know, they should have stuck the eyes on for you… oH LOOK! you have to put the stickers on the die too! I mean, come on! I’ve got to put the stickers on the dang die!? You’ve got to be kidding me! Okay. So I’ve got some work cut out for me here. Moving on, we’ve got the fishing pole here with the hook obviously to fish the game pieces out. You get two poles. And you’ve got crabs, fish and more fish. It looks like it’s mainly just fish and crabs. And you got a lobster, too, in case you want to go high end. And there’s no garbage like the game of Jaws. There’s no boat wheels, license plates and things like that. And you just kind of stick the game pieces down in these little holes here in the mouth of the shark, and you fish them out until the shark jumps up and gets you! Now I want some seafood. I believe Red Lobster might be in my future. But if I can’t afford the original game of JAWS, I sure as heck cannot afford to visit the Cheddar Bay and get my biscuit fix! I think they may have given me an extra game piece because I appear to be out of holes and I still have a game piece. What is up with that? Anyway you just keep pulling out game pieces from their slots until the shark jumps out at you. Eventually one of these is supposed to make it jump. Let’s see. Yeah, there we go. And so it does! And I guess that whatever mechanism is built into the bottom of the game that triggers the shark to jump must mechanically rotate so you don’t have the same slot triggering the jump each time. It must have some kind of spring mechanism. Moving on, I apparently have got some stickering to do… We’ve got the green eyes here… And then we have the stuff we need to stick on the die. So I will start with the die and end with the eyes because I think the eyes are going to be the more dramatic thing. The die stickers tell you how many fish you’re supposed to retrieve from the shark’s mouth. You have five single fish stickers and one double fish sticker obviously indicating that you get to pull two fish if you roll that. So while I’m here stickering, let’s briefly talk abou the Game of JAWS… The game of JAWS was a game / toy (TWAG) marketed to kids back in 1975 about the horror movie JAWS where a Great White Shark goes crazy and eats everything and everyone! I played the game of JAWS when I was a kid. It was an ugly looking plastic shark. It was kind of gaunt, actually. You had to put the stickers on for the eyes like we’re doing here with Shark Bite, if I recall correctly. So every kid I knew with this game had an ugly, skinny shark with eyes stuck on all wrong. Then you had to hook these rubber bands into its mouth to make it open and close.(…) And keep the mouth open, you piled garbage into its mouth to weigh down the jaws. And then you’d fish stuff out until the weight got light enough in its mouth to where the rubber bands would close the mouth. And if it closed on you, it was game over man, game over! You lose! Years later, this very same game was rebranded and sold as Sharky’s Diner. See I told you you’d learn something new today! … And it appears that the die is all ready to go here. And yeah, I did a not so great job either, but they’re easy to peel off and reposition if you don’t like the quality of how you’ve done. But I’m just gonna leave it funky. I just don’t care. Okay, now you’ve gotta be careful with the eyes. It’s easy to get the eyes wrong here. You kind of look at the at the way the eyes are formed and then you can figure out the correct one. I have learned with stickers, you want to do them very, very lightly at first in case you need to adjust. I think I did an okay job on that eye. It’s kind of glaring at me right now. One more eye to stick and let’s see how I do on this one… It’s kind of clunky to do. Come on, Pressman Toys! How hard would it have been just to just to stick the eyes on for us? I have it adhered now. It’s not perfect, but I don’t think anybody could tell the difference. LET’S PLAY! All right. We’re going to pry open the mouth and press the entire body of the shark down until it locks into place. It’s just a big spring like an accordion. The whole game is just one giant spring loaded contraption. It’s kind of like a bear trap almost.(…) And then just take all the fish and you shove / lock them down into these holes. And there’s little ball ends on the part you stick down into the mouth. So it kind of sets into the triggers. This game appears to be one of those that just could not possibly be simpler. And I like simple. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be fun! All right. Let’s roll this die and make it happen! I rolled one fish. You’re not allowed to grab two. You’re not allowed to double hook or anything like that. Just one single fish is all you’re allowed to do and kind of pulls up a little sleeve up there in the mechanism. And I guess if the sleeve is the one that triggers it off, then it sets off the shark and you just don’t know which one it will be. And this fish goes flying! …But it didn’t trigger the shark bite. (…) Roll again. (…) One fish. Let’s try for a crab here. They, they don’t stay on the hook very well and fly off when you pull it from the mouth. Little kids will enjoy this. I think adults will like this too for a little while. They’ll play it with their kids and have fun. It couldn’t possibly be easier to do. (…) Well, let’s roll again. Maybe I’ll get the two fish. Nope. I just keep getting the one fish. It’s okay. SHARK JUMPS! The shark bites me! The game stops now and everybody counts their fish / game pieces. One important note: If it bites and the shark catches the fish before you get it out of the mouth, you can’t sit there and force it out. If it bites and catches your fish, then you don’t get that fish and it doesn’t count. AND THAT’S PRETTY MUCH IT! So there you go. The game of SHARK BITE! Inspired by the game of JAWS. I like it! It’s got a great look. It’s built simply, built solidly. This is not cheapy plastic that if you drop it, it’s going to break. No batteries. How nice is that to have a game or a toy that springs to life for you without needing batteries? You got something you can really hold in your hands and have fun with and play and you can chase your brothers and sisters around the room and scare the heck out of them! Although you’ve got to put the stickers on the die and eyes which is kind of a hassle. I mean, come on. 20 bucks for the here. It should come with the decals already stuck on. You know, I get a lot of games with toys that are like $14 and things like that buzz and do all sorts of things and I never have to put stickers on anything especially the die! But on the other hand, this also makes it kind of a fun project as well. So I don’t want to complain too much. I’ll tell you what, I’ll give it a solid eight and a half here because I think everyone can have fun with this. Adults are going to get bored with it pretty easily, but kids are going to have a whole lot of fun. And when you’re sick of playing the game, you got this cool shark toy that you can chase people around with. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! And if you’d like to chase me around the bank, I would appreciate that, especially if you’re supporting the Dandy Fun House, which is, you know, one of the ways that would help me pay for going out and shelling out the 20 bucks for stuff like this to tell you all about! SO If you’d like to support the production of future episodes, you may do so at the Dandy Fun House website http://www.dandyfunhouse.com. Just look for the patronage page! You can either be a SUPPORTER and you’ll get access to exclusive bonus material or… you can become a SUPER SUPPORTER and you’ll get access to that exact same bonus material. But I will also mail you something really cool from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! And if you are listening to the podcast and you have a podcast player that supports the podcast 2.0 protocol, I don’t know if you know what that means, but basically it means you can kind of interact with the podcast, make donations and communicate with the show right there in the app! And five star reviews are always highly appreciated. All right, my stumpy little aquanauts. That about chomps This episode to a conclusion! Flap your little flippers on back here 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

 watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! Two amateur comedians working nightclubs for peanuts in the 70s ham-handedly and quite accidentally stumbled into the roles of a lifetime portraying what they felt were their least likeable characters but instead found themselves leaving an indelible mark on tv pop culture history for generations to come. Their names? David Lander and Michael McKean. But you might remember them better as… LENNY AND SQUIGGY. This is their legend. Let’s step into the Fun House! Lenny and Squiggy : “HELLO!” …and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog. This is where we explore the outer realms 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 gather around the old 70s pop culture campfire, toast some marshmallows and lean forward while I tell you the Legend of Lenny and Squiggy. David Lander and Michael McKean met in college in the late 1960s at Carnegie Tech, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the drama department where they became fast friends. Sharing a love for acting and comedy as students they became practically inseparable. Roger Bowen   The Credibility Gap   Harry Shearer   Then post-graduation in 1971, David and Michael relocated to Los Angeles and spent time studying under an improv coach named Roger Bowen who trained them in scene flow and comedic timing. This led to them accepting an invite to join a radio comedy troupe known as the CREDIBILITY GAP who were known for doing news satire for the stations KRLA Los Angeles as well as KPPC Pasadena. This comedy troupe also included one Mr. Harry Shearer who later would go on to greater fame acting in many film and television roles which he still does today. In addition to radio satire, they also performed live using their radio reputations to garner opening act slots for rock shows. In fact as lore would have it, they once opened for Richie Havens at the Long Beach Fox Auditorium, and as was the custom in hippie culture those days, venues like the Fox and the Fillmore were known to hand out fruit in the lobby. This particular show, oranges were given and the Credibility Gap found themselves dodging airborne citrus throughout their entire performance. From that day forward, they only accepted offers where they would be the main attraction and no hurlable objects allowed. David and Michael continued performing with the Credibility Gap all the way up until 1979. During the earlier part of their run with the group, they created a couple of characters named Anthony Fazigliano and his pal Leonard Kosnowski. You see where this is going… These characters were based on people from their childhood they weren’t necessarily fond of but had interesting personalities.Anthony (played by David Lander and later changed to the character name “Anton”) had a cousin named Squiggy who only had two words in his vocabulary. The first word was “Kick” and the second was something I’m not repeating. It was during this time around 1976 despite performing frequently around Southern California with the Credibility Gap, they were still very much “starving artists”… BUT!!!! Something very interesting was brewing on the other side of town that would change their lives forever. LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY 1976 – 1983 It was the time of year when tv producers would bring their ideas for new shows to the networks and the brother / sister team of Garry and Penny Marshall along with producers Lowell Ganz and Mark Rothman had just pulled off the network television coup of a lifetime! They sold a series to Larry Silverman at ABC without a pilot episode which was unheard of; based on the characters of two girls who were bit-part guest characters very briefly on the hit tv show HAPPY DAYS. I’m of course speaking of the now-infamous duo of LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY. Larry had seen the girls’ characters on Happy Days, thought they were funny so he said what the heck! Let’s give it a go! Michael Eisner Cindy Williams Liberty Williams Michael Eisner, one of the executives at ABC revealed that in the beginning Cindy Williams who played Shirley, did not wish to do the show so they shot a 7 minute screen test with an actress named Liberty Williams (no relation). They eventually convinced Cindy to shoot a screen test and Eisner went and hid the footage of the Liberty Williams scene from the other Executives because in his mind there was simply no other actress for this role besides Cindy. And history thanks him for his deceptive deed! Eddie Mekka In the beginning they only had the characters of Laverne and Shirley as well as Carmine Ragusa “The Big Ragu” (played by Eddie Mekka). They needed more supporting cast to play working class Milwaukee, Wisconsians. According to an interview with David Lander, Penny Marshall was familiar with the Credibility Gap and particularly the Lenny and Anton characters, so she called David on the phone with the idea that Lenny and Anton would make a good story line as last-ditch dates for the girls on the first episode. She tried to explain her idea to the show’s other producers but they weren’t quite seeing her vision. SO! She invited David and Michael to a party at her and her husband Rob Reiner’s house to celebrate their new contract with ABC also being attended by the show’s producers and writers. David kind of waffled on the idea because the Credibility Gap were performing at the Improv that night. But once the performance was done, he and Michael made the last-minute decision to show up and figured if nothing else, they’d get some free food. They showed up and pretty much sat in the corner by themselves not knowing anyone, then Rob Reiner (you know, Meathead from All In The Family) approached and asked them to do Lenny and Anton for the guests. David and Michael were baffled by the requests for these particular characters because from their roster of personalities and the skits they had developed over the years, they felt these characters were the least commercially appealing ones they did. Nevertheless they obliged and got themselves into character. Since they didn’t have hair gel, they just slicked themselves back by pouring glasses of water over each other’s heads and improv’d the whole performance off the cuff with material they’d never done before and never did again about one of them deciding to attend butler school learning how to become a manservant. Mark Rothman They performed about 15 minutes of highly inappropriate material, and guests were howling. Writer Mark Rothman called a quick sidebar with the show’s other writers wondering if this act might work cleaned up for television and they came to the conclusion that if it were made family-friendly but was only a mere fraction as funny as what they had just witnessed, it would still be the funniest thing on tv. And they didn’t know how right they were! Garry Marshall The following day, Garry Marshall called up the boys and asked them to be on the show, they all agreed to change Anton’s name to Squiggy and two weeks later Lenny and Squiggy found themselves live in front of a studio audience making episodes of Laverne and Shirley. BUT THERE WAS A PROBLEM! They were only amateur comedians and didn’t have union cards which means they couldn’t hardly work at all on a union production for a major network. To navigate around this, the show’s producers hired them as “apprentice writers” (because they also weren’t members of the Writers Guild). They received very nominal pay at first with the idea they would be worked into the show in small increments beginning around the 3rd or 4th episode. But as it turned out, the writers got themselves into a pickle and were experiencing major issues with the first script and ended up writing Lenny and Squiggy into the first episode to bail out the story line. In the beginning writers would hand David and Michael routines to do but the comedians respectfully protested and requested that because they had been working together and doing these characters for so long, it had become almost second nature to them how to play off one another and what the characters would say and do in most any given situation. The producers agreed and gave them carte blanche to write their own jokes and routines. So basically, the Lenny and Squiggy routines we all loved and enjoyed on the show came directly from the actors themselves and was an entirely organic improv performance! And it worked! The show became an instant hit and by its third season, Laverne and Shirley was the most watched program on television receiving a staggering six Golden Globe nominations as well as an Emmy nomination! You wanna talk about LENNY AND THE SQUIGTONES?? Let’s talk about Lenny and the Sqigtones! During the first season of Laverne and Shirley, the production team came up with an idea that various members of the cast should hold a talent contest at Shotz Brewery where they all worked. And Lenny and Squiggy entered as just a two-piece vocal and acoustic guitar duo calling themselves Lenny and the Squigtones (and also had a guy in a chair sitting next to them doing absolutely nothing named Max). They played a song called Night After Night which was about two nights in a row. It’s probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life! Go look it up online and set your drink down before watching! This marked the first time they would perform as Lenny and the Squigtones. Harry Shearer on bass Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel Over the next few years, opportunities slowly presented themselves for more and more musical numbers and this also opened doors for musician friends of David and Michael to become backing players for scenes which called for a band. A couple of these backing players included Harry Shearer of the Credibility Gap and also Christopher Guest who took on the stage name Nigel Tufnel. Yes, I hear you guys screaming into your phones and computers right now! We’ll get to all that here in a few minutes. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, hang tight. I can only Lenny so much Squiggy at a time! Sheesh! This band was used here and there throughout the show’s run and in 1979 Casablanca Records took an interest and struck a deal to produce an album entitled “Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones.” It was recorded live at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California. It was a combination music and comedy album with songs like IF ONLY I HAD LISTENED TO MAMA and many others intertwined with various gags throughout. I got this record when it was first released and today I own two copies of it. One for listening and one that I keep sealed in mint condition because… well… that’s how cool this record is! It’s a classic but didn’t really catch on. The 50s culture-craze of the mid-70s was dwindling and the American public was ready to move on to something new. The 80s were looming and a “New Wave” was on the horizon. Lenny and the Squigtones DID however get invited by one Mr. Dick Clark to perform on American Bandstand and he actually dedicated a pretty good chunk of the show to them, spoke with various members of the band and really gave them a great spotlight. But having failed to gain much traction with the act as a breakout of Laverne and Shirley which was also beginning to wane, Lenny and the Squigtones unfortunately didn’t do very much after that. In 1980, Laverne and Shirley needed a breath of fresh air so they decided to move the setting of the show from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Burbank, California. Lenny and Squiggy of course followed along and set up the SQUIGNOWSKI TALENT AGENCY. Then in 1982, Cindy Williams became pregnant and two episodes into the production of the eighth season she ended up filing a $20 million lawsuit against Paramount who now owned the show, over Paramount’s reported demand that Cindy work ON HER DUE DATE! (This is according to Wikipedia.) The case was settled out of court and Williams was released from her contract. The remainder of the eighth season was produced without her and ratings continued to decline. Nevertheless, viewership was still strong enough for the show to be picked up for a 9th season with just Penny Marshall. Penny agreed under the stipulation that production be moved to New York. ABC balked at the relocation expense and removed Laverne and Shirley from it’s schedule in May 1983. Despite retaining the rights to their own characters, Lenny and Squiggy did not continue after the show’s conclusion except for a brief walk-on reunion in 1993 on a tv special called “A 70’s Celebration: The Beat Is Back” performing a skit where they were catching up after being mad at each other for years because Lenny said something bad about Squiggy’s mother to his face instead of behind his back like he should have. In 1984, David Lander was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and went public in 1999. He spent much of his time speaking at MS-related events and released his autobiography in 2002 entitled “Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn’t Tell Nobody.” David Lander passed away in December of 2020 and was remembered by his old pal Michael with a simple early picture of the two posted on Twitter with no words (as if there were any which could suffice). As for Michael McKean and the other members of Lenny and the Squigtones (for those of you who were screaming at your phones and computers earlier): Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer all teamed  once again with director Rob Reiner to create the cult-classic movie “This is SPINAL TAP!” which was a fake documentary about the fake adventures of a fake heavy metal band. The movie also spawned tours of this fake band which actually played their instruments in real life and led to a very successful follow up album “Break Like The Wind” which featured a special guest performance by none other than Cher! Michael McKean has also performed in many more roles for film and television, most notably and recently for the character of Chuck McGill on Better Call Saul for which he received a Prime Time Emmy and he continues to enjoy a very successful career to this day. And that my friends draws nigh the Legend of LENNY AND SQUIGGY. I’ll bet you learned a thing or two. I know I did! Be sure and use it to impress your friends. Now before we douse our 70s pop-culture campfire and retire to our pup tents and dream sweet dreams of Lenny and Squiggy, I’d like to encourage you that if you enjoy this content and wish to support future productions, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House supporter by visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com . Supporters receive access to exclusive bonus features (I think I’ll show off my Lenny and the Sqigtones record a bit more for this episode) and Super Supporters also gain access to those same feature PLUS I’ll personally mail you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast listeners may also donate through their favorite podcast app if it offers that feature. And 5 star reviews always get my undying gratitude. Night night campers. Come back real soon 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below listen to the podcast below   (doorbell rings) (knocking on door) Neil Dandy: What the heck? It’s 6 in the morning. (more knocking on door) Neil Dandy: Who’s at my door? (more knocking on door, Neil opens door) Delivery Girl: Package for idiot! (shoves package into Neil’s stomach) Up yours! Neil Dandy: Ow! (Delivery Girl walks away in a huff and Neil looks bewildered) Neil Dandy: Huh? It is way too early in the morning for this. I wonder what I’ve got here. I’ll set it down on my couch. (sound of cat hissing) Oh, hi Mr. Mittens! Good morning! At least you’ll be nice to me. (cat attacks Neil’s hand leaving deep claw marks) Owww! (Neil sits on couch) Well, we can at least see what we’ve got…. Couch with an angry voice: Get off me! Neil Dandy: What the heck? Couch with an angry voice: How’d you like it if I sat on you? Neil Dandy: No! You’re my couch! I’m gonna sit on you! That’s what you’re made for! Couch with an angry voice: I don’t like it! Neil Dandy: I’ll be off in a minute. Couch with an angry voice: Well make it fast! Neil Dandy: Everybody’s being grouchy today! What’s going on? (Neil looks into the box) Oh! Maybe it has something to do with what’s in this box! It’s the game of… Grouch Couch! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House! I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and this is where we talk about retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! Thank you for coming and hanging out with me today. We are unboxing and going to put together what needs to be put together and show you how to play the game Grouch Couch by Spin Master Toys! Spin Master Toys is kind of an interesting company. They started out in the 90s with just $10,000 and a toy made out of pantyhose called Earth Buddies. You rubbed seeds in them or something and grass grew out of the tops of their heads. Since then, over the years, they’ve bought companies, sold companies, and now they do all kinds of stuff. Like Kinetic Sand, Batman, DC Universe, Etch-a-Sketch, Hatchimals, Monster Jam, Orbeez, Paw Patrol, Rubik’s, Jumanji, Giant Candy Land, Giant Sorry, and Earth-friendly versions of classics like Connect Four, Chess, Jenga (although I don’t think they’re allowed to call it Jenga, but you get the idea) and a whole lot more! Anyway, let’s crack this baby open and see what we’ve got (and maybe some people will get in a better mood around this place!) So here we have the game… Grouch Couch. There’s the couch. Looks more like a love seat… No, it’s got three seats on it, so I guess it qualifies as a couch. The Furniture with Attitude game by Spin Master. Pretty cool. This is, I don’t know what they call it, when it’s a game and a toy combined. A toy with a game. A twig? Oh, there’s like French writing on this. And as usual we’ve got kids on the back of the box having a good old time with it. I think the object of this is you get some game pieces, you put them on the couch, the couch eats some of the pieces, and if it likes what it ate, it spits coins at you! And at the end whoever’s got the most coins wins! Whoever dies with the most toys wins, whoever gets the end of Grouch Couch with the most coins wins! It looks like the back cushions are eyebrows, and when it comes alive it shows you eyeballs and teeth and eats all your candy and knick knacks that you normally lose between your couch cushions. It’s like a game based on losing stuff in your couch cushions, and you’ve got a really grumpy couch. Alright, time to unbox this thing. I’ve got it open here and the whole thing comes out. There’s a really nice background that all slides out, kind of looks like a living room in the background. Very nice. The Grouchy Couch is kind of strapped into place. Looks like he’s got some little feet underneath that you turn to release him from his packaging. On the back of the couch, we’ve got some elastic bands… I’ve read some reviews online from people who have bought this thing, that the elastic bands are part of what makes this toy move. The couch is already in the grouchy position here however. And I’ve heard complaints that people have had to adjust the bands or get rid of them altogether. I’m not really sure. I think this thing’s not supposed to be in the position of showing its teeth and eyes right now when you start. I think that’s what happens when you get it animated and make it come alive. So I’m going to go ahead and remove the elastic bands altogether. Sometimes I read reviews and a whole lot of people just get it wrong from the get-go. And a product will end up with a lot of really unwarranted bad reviews that it really shouldn’t have. And this might be the case with this game. When I remove the elastic band, the couch settles down into the resting position and looks like a normal couch instead of a monster couch. I’m pretty sure at this point that the elastic band’s just not supposed to be in there at all and was only for the purpose of holding things in the open position so you can see the couch in it’s more alive state for the purpose of the presentation in the packaging. So here we go! I’ve got a whole bag of coins, and the coins have different images on them and all kinds of knickknacks and objects and a die that you roll. This looks very, very, very simple. I’m going to dump the contents right there. With the coins; Some have cars on them. Some have a kitten. There’s a pair of underwear… How often have you lost your underwear in the couch? Don’t answer that question! There are game pieces that look like grandma candy, especially the little ones with the clumpy bulbs. There are also soda cups. Now, in order to make this thing come alive, there’s an on-off switch on the very bottom, and a screw which covers the battery compartment, and it takes three AAA batteries. I’ve never liked the screw because then you have to go through a big rigmarole to get to the batteries. But then I started thinking, if little kids are going to play with it, people probably don’t want them getting to the batteries because they’ll start sucking on them! And they’ll inhale them down their windpipes, and who wants blue children? So let’s go ahead and take the bottom off here, access the battery compartment. I did actually pick up some AAA batteries today in anticipation, and the whole little door comes off. Load in the batteries and… There we go! … And I think it’s turned on now. (I push the remote control on the couch arm and the couch comes alive for a brief second) That’s pretty cool. Next you load it with the coins into the middle cushion. There’s a little flip up door in the middle cusion which was too stiff for me to open by hand but with the help of a small screwdriver, I did manage to get it to release with some gentle pressure. I’m guessing you’ll probably be able to do it with just your fingernails after a while once the toy gets broken in a bit. And you load the coins into the middle of the center couch cushion. It has a cylindrical receiving hole and then you snap the lid back down. Next you roll the die and it tells you how many pieces of candy to place onto the cushions. I really like things like this that are animated, things that come alive, things that are fun, things you can pick up and hold in your hand. That’s what we’re missing these days. That’s why I don’t review video games and things of that nature. The die doesn’t have dots on it. It has numbers, and it also has a vacuum on it. And I believe the vacuum allows you to suck up somebody else’s coins. And if you get the vacuum, you roll again, and whatever number that is is how many coins you get to steal from someone else. But anyway, let’s go ahead and roll this thing. Let’s see what happens! (rolls die) I have a three, so I’m going to take three candies, toys, knickknacks, put them right there. And I think all I do is I push the remote control that’s on the armrest of the couch, and it’ll eat whatever it wants. (couch grunts briefly and move just a small amount without eating any treats) Or it’ll eat nothing. So I roll again here. I’ve got a two… So I’m going to put two more on here. (couch becomes very animated and eats most of the treats then shoots coins out of the front bottom of the couch) Boy, it really shoots those out! I mean, the candies spit towards me and ended up on the floor by my feet (because I am positioned behind the couch for demonstration purposes in front of the camera). And then the coins shot forward and went flying right off the edge of the table. So it’s got some some gusto there! But it’s a kick! This is fun! I love the sounds it makes. It makes some nice grumpy sounds, burps and sometimes plays music. I don’t think there’s a whole lot more to say about this. Grouch couch by Spin Master! I like this guy. This game is a hoot! I don’t know who could possibly be complaining about it. This is obviously people who have not read the instructions, but mine works great right out of the box. Spin Master has knocked it out of the park once again! This one is DANDY FUN HOUSE APPROVED! BECOME A DANDY FUN HOUSE SUPPORTER! And if you’d like to help me knock it out of the park and do more toy and game reviews, which will allow me to go out and buy more stuff like this and tell you what I think about it, unbox it and have fun with it here, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House supporter by visiting the website and patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material and Super Supporters will not only gain access to the exact same bonus material, but I’ll also send you something really cool from right here at the Dandy Fun House studios IF you provide your mailing address! I’m not going to send you Grouch couch. I’m going to donate this to the kids room at my church and let them have some fun with it. I’m going to let my son play with it for a little while first, though. Also, if you’re listening to the podcast and your player supports the podcast 2.0 protocol, you can donate tiny slivers of Bitcoin known as Satoshis. And even if you donate nothing and just leave me a good review somewhere, you’ll have my undying gratitude. All right, that’s it! Grouch couch is a hit! Yeah, this is about the best 15 or 20 bucks you’re going to spend! You guys come back real soon and spend some more time with me here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! Stay grouchy my friends! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below!   In this episode number “31”of the Dandy Fun House… how in the world could I help but tell the story of two brothers-in-law with a post World War II entrepreneurial spirit and how they joined forces to combine business ambition with their passion for all things ICE CREAM! Together they built nothing short of a worldwide ice cream institution. For THIS is the Ballad of BASKIN ROBBINS! Let’s step into the fun house! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! This is where we talk about Retro Pop Culture, Toys, Games and All the Fun Stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy… but before we get into it here, I have some sad news to share. EMMA-LOU The Dandy Dog 2009-2023 You may remember Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog who appeared in our episode about the game SOGGY DOGGY and also hosted our episode counting down the Top Ten Dog Friendly Attractions in America. On Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 around 4:30pm, Emma-Lou passed through that great doggy door in the sky after 14 wonderful years of hugs, kisses, doggy parks, noses out the car window, interstate travel and being the very best friend a doggy daddy could ever ask for. If you’re fortunate enough to have an amazing dog, cat, guinea pig, parrot, donkey or just love animals in general, give yours an extra hug today and tell them it’s from Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog. She would have liked that. Now on with the show! Burt Baskin Irv Robbins Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins were brothers-in-law with competing ice cream shops in Glendale California post-World War II. 1945 to be exact. Burt had been a Navy Lieutenant who honed his ice cream making skills at sea for his fellow troops. His shop was called Burton’s Ice Cream. Irv worked in his father’s ice cream shop as a teenager and had developed a passion for the confection at a young age. Irv’s shop was called Snowbird Ice Cream. Burt only sold 10 flavors while Irv sold 21. After a few years of fledgling success, Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins decided to combine their talents. But they still kept their brand names separate. They just offered the same products and used their strengths to mutually advance business. Within just a couple of years, the ambitious brothers-in-law had opened 6 locations of Burt’s and also Snowbird Ice Cream with no sign of stopping! As the company grew past their abilities to personally oversee each store, the pair made the brilliant move of offering their locations for sale as franchises to their store managers which enabled them to strap rockets onto their expansion plans! By giving ownership opportunities to their managers, this helped maintain quality standards since the managers had a stake in the success of the stores. This was the very first time a chain of ice cream shops had ever been franchised! In 1949 Burt and Irv purchased their first dairy located in Burbank, California which was right next to their headquarters in Glendale. This allowed them to have complete quality control over production and assisted with development of new flavors. They continued their streak of smart business moves when in 1953 they employed the consulting services of Carson-Roberts Advertising agency who made the now obvious decision that the two individual ice cream brands should lose their separate identities and become one delicious tour-de-force under the name BASKIN ROBBINS. They also implemented the colors of pink to invoke cherries and brown to hearken thoughts of chocolate, sprinkling in polka dots to remind people of the circus. They also decided they should build upon the number 31 which was the total number of combined flavors at the inception of Burt and Irv’s merging. WHY 31 FLAVORS? The ad agency felt that a person having the option of a different flavor for every day of the month would be a great marketing position. Baskin Robbins has since introduced over 1300 flavors. The following year in 1954, Baskin Robbins began competing against other ice cream makers at State and County Fairs across America racking up gold medals and blue ribbons earning them a grassroots reputation for quality with their unique flavor-ribboning technique. Then in 1962 Baskin Robbins invented and introduced the iconic ICE CREAM CAKE which they have become synonymous with over the decades. In case you’ve been living under the Rocky Road and aren’t familiar with ice cream cakes, they basically consist of three components: white or chocolate cake, choice of ice cream flavor and frosting. You can even put a customized message on the cake. And in 2019, they introduced the PhotoCake where an actual custom photograph can be printed directly onto the cake with edible ink! Now THAT is really something! CREAMY FUN FACT! Did you know that Baskin Robbins had to come up with special recipes for the add-ins in their ice creams that would be freeze-resistant!? That’s right! Gumdrops, peanut butter, chocolate chips and bubble gum if created using traditional methods would turn into hard chunks dangerous to your dental health. So through lots of experimentation and top secret formulating, Baskin Robbins came up with special ways to keep ingredients maleable and making four out of five dentists… highly disappointed. By the mid 1960’s Baskin Robbins had grown to over 400 stores across America leading to their acquisition in 1967 by United Fruit (just prior to Burt Baskin’s passing that very December). United Fruit took the ice cream chain international expanding into Asia, Australia and the Middle East. TROUBLE IN PRALINE PARADISE! In the 1970’s Baskin Robbins found themselves with a creamy crisis on their hands! Husband and wife Irv and Irma Robbins were experimenting in their home kitchen and together created the flavor Pralines and Cream which eventually became their most popular international flavor! Yes, 35 years into the company, founding family members were still very much hands-on! UNFORTUNATELY when Pralines and Cream was first introduced, it was only a limited-run item but it caught on like wildfire. They could never have imagined the demand the public would instantly have for this flavor and it caused a bit of a national crisis once it ran out. They started recieving petitions, students in Santa Barbara actually picketed outside Baskin Robbins stores and even Dear Abby piled on pleading for the return of Pralines and Cream! The company had no choice but to fire up a special production run to satisfy the insatiable throngs of Pralines and Cream junkies and the flavor has been a mainstay ever since. Baskin Robbins as a practice actually made it part of their business model to come up with hundreds of new flavors each year at their Burbank dairy. But out of those, less than ten would be chosen annually for public release. And the blooper reel is pretty interesting including failed flavors such as Lox and Bagels, avocado, garlic, azuki bean, jalapeno, pumpkin and even ketchup! CREAMY FUN FACT! Did you know that out of all Baskin Robbins flavors, only TWO of them are not kosher!? For those who faithfully follow Judaism, as long as you’re not ordering Rocky Road or Pink Bubble Gum there’s no need to get your yarmulke in a yank! You’re all good! In 1991 it came time for a brand refresh and an updated logo was top of the agenda. Colors were changed to pink and blue and the number 31 (in pink) was placed beside the company name (in blue). The logo remained this way until 2006 when they modernized the fonts with an edgier look and then embedded the number 31 into the initials BR. There’s an even newer logo introduced in 2022 which appears to harken back to the early days with a more classic font and the return of pink and brown for their colors and still has the number 31 embedded in the initials. They even have a new slogan… “Seize the Yay.” Let’s briefly rewind to the 80’s and 90’s when expansions continued at a rapid-fire pace and the brand was acquired over and over throughout the years eventually combining with Dunkin Donuts in 1994. It was during this time that the Polar Pizza was introduced. A disc of ice cream that comes in a pizza box and you eat it just like a pizza! To this day, you can still order a Polar Pizza in Oreo, Peanut Butter Chocolate, Cookie Dough and Mint Chip. Or you can order it customized and even have it delivered to your door! ANOTHER CREAMY FUN FACT! Did you know that Baskin Robbins holds not one but TWO world’s records!? The first was obtained on May 18th, 2000 when they created the world’s largest ice cream scoop pyramid with 3100 scoops of ice cream. The second was accomplished on September 13th, 2005 in honor of Baskin Robbins’ 60th birthday when they created the world’s largest cup of ice cream with a boulder of vanilla weighing in at 8865 pounds! In 2014 Baskin Robbins stretched their reach once again, this time into supermarkets and also began offering delivery via DoorDash. Today Baskin Robbins is the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty stores with over 5800 worldwide locations! To this day each location is still franchised with a local owner who holds a stake in the success of the store. And that’s the scoop on all things BASKIN ROBBINS! I hope you enjoyed learning about this amazing institution of frosty fun as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you! AND if you’d like to help me continue to be able to bring you amazing productions like this one, I encourage you to become a Dandy Fun House Supporter by visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com SUPPORTERS gain access to exclusive bonus material and SUPER SUPPORTERS also gain access to that same bonus material PLUS I’ll personally mail you something dandy from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address. PODCAST LISTENERS can also support via their Podcast 2.0-enabled listening applications by sending teeny slivers of bitcoin known as Satoshis. Just look for a little button in your app with a dollar sign on it! And please remember no matter how you support the show, even if it’s just giving a 5 star review or sharing with a friend, it is deeply appreciated. OK, I gotta make like a banana and split! Be sure to come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! PS – BASKIN ROBBINS if you’re listening, I just want you to know that every single day of the year is… MY BIRTHDAY! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?  

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below!             Sha Na Na WAS an American rock and roll doo-wop cover group. Undoubtedly the singlemost SUCCESSFUL doo-wop cover group in the history of doo-wop cover groups! I might even go as far as to say they were the KINGS of all doo-wop cover groups ever in the history of like, ever! Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance routine based on the previous decade, they simultaneously revived and parodied the music and tough New York street vibe of the 50s. They made their first mark on the national stage performing on an actual sinking stage at Woodstock, a little more fame thanks to their contributions to the mid-70s juggernaut known as GREASE and cemented their rightful place in the history of American pop culture with their syndicated TV show that ran from 1977 through 1981. As of December 5th, 2022, the final live performing version of Sha Na Na have announced that it is indeed time to sing “Goodnight Sweetheart” for the final time. BUT with their story now complete, WE can finally TELL the complete story of SHA NA NA! And this we shall do… right now! Let’s step into the Fun House! Sha Na Na started in 1969 as a group of college kids at New York’s Columbia University. They wanted to combine their love of theater with 50s rock n’ roll. The original concept for the group was dreamt up by a man named George Leonard, a Humanities Graduate Student. George recruited the members for his brainchild from undergraduate members of Columbia’s “Kingsmen” glee club accapella group.           At the time they were wearing turtlenecks and blazers and singing choral versions of 50s rock songs. They quickly incorporated costumes into their routine and George became their choreographer. The group eventually added instruments and started playing 50s throwback sock hop theme parties at Columbia where students came dressed in 50s outfits. They stole a new name for the band from the song “Get A Job” by the Silhouettes and SHA NA NA was born (not to mention the name KINGSMEN was already taken).    Their first performance outside of school was at a nightclub called Steve Paul’s Scene and this place was frequented by well-known musicians and music industry business types. It was at The Scene where one Mr. Jimi Hendrix noticed and took a liking to this clunky and campy but entertaining college group and they became fast friends. Steve Paul It was only shortly after striking up this friendship however that Sha Na Na quite unceremoniously ENDED their run of shows at Steve Paul’s Scene because (according to an interview with Sha Na Na co-founder Donny York) the owner was refusing to pay protection money to the local mob . So on the final night of the club’s existence Sha Na Na huddled in their dressing room while mobsters busted up the joint. And… SCENE! WOODSTOCK 1969             With the Scene no longer on the scene, Sha Na Na needed a new place to play. Their new friend Jimi Hendrix decided to throw them a bone by inviting them to perform at a little get together know as… WOODSTOCK. This would be their 8th professional performance! Yes, it was the Summer of Love, Hippies and Mud and Sha Na Na were going onstage right before Hendrix who was closing the festival.   They almost didn’t go on at all due to delays from rainy weather and festival management trying to bump their performance from the schedule completely to make up for lost time. Their original timeslot was supposed to be 9:30pm Sunday night but they ended up hunkering down in the back of a U-Haul all night while storms pounded the event grounds to go on the next morning and only made it to the stage (which was sinking in the mud) on the insistence of Jimi Hendrix who refused to take the stage (He was the big-name festival closer) until his friends Sha Na Na had been given an opportunity to perform as promised.      Sha Na Na took the stage in the final morning of Woodstock barely running on fumes from lack of sleep and woke up the remaining 40,000 attendees (down from 400,000 the previous days) in their gold spray-painted boots, greaser costumes and doo-wop campiness winning over the groggy crowd of hippies, many of whom had eaten those infamous oranges and weren’t quite sure if what they were watching was even real!   After their performance, Sha Na Na drove away in THEIR orange U-Haul to the sounds of Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled banner around 11am. You might be wondering why they didn’t hang around while their biggest supporter was taking the stage but remember these guys had been awake for about 28 hours by this time and had a 2 hour drive back to Columbia. They were toasted and wouldn’t have made it through Jimi’s first song if you propped their eyes open with toothpicks and poured coffee up their noses with rubber hoses!       GREASY FUN FACT! Sha Na Na’s website claims their $350 paycheck from Woodstock bounced! Money.com however states that Sha Na Na was paid $700 and there’s been an image showing a purported list of Woodstock performer pay floating around the internet for a few years also showing Sha Na Na being paid $700 (which may be where Money.com received their figure). According to Snopes, the validity of the performer pay breakdown has not been able to be verified but I would tend to at least believe the validity of Sha Na Na’s claim that their check bounced because of an interview with Roger Daltrey of the WHO who claimed that the backstage of Woodstock was anything but peace and love with acts screaming and fighting to wrangle their pay from the promoters.         ANOTHER GREASY FUN FACT! Sha Na Na was the only group to perform at Woodstock without a record deal, but that changed quickly with their… FIRST ALBUM – ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY (1969)       Less than a year after the band even formed, Sha Na Na had not only played Woodstock (and somehow had the good fortune to NOT have their performance footage end up on the cutting room floor when the Martin Scorsese documentary came out… ok they had the good fortune to not have 90 seconds of their performance end up on the cutting room floor) but had built enough of a reputation (largely DUE to their 90 second inclusion in the Martin Scorsese documentary) to get them signed with the William Morris Agency who in-turn managed to get Buddah / Kama Sutra Records to agree to release an album. The album was titled ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY.      But this wasn’t just some cheapy trial balloon short-run pressing! They went all out on this thing! It had a foldout cover with two inside pages with short bios of each of their then 12 members along with all the song lyrics. They even got the man who coined the phrase “Rock N’ Roll”, legendary DJ Alan Freed to record two intros on the album! Alan Freed         YET ANOTHER GREASY FUN FACT! Alan Freed actually went to court at one point to try and copyright the phrase “Rock N’ Roll” but fortunately for the rest of us, he ultimately failed in this attempt. Buddah / Kama Sutra put their full force behind promotions for this album, even taking out a full page ad on the front of Billboard Magazine. Today, the original pressing of Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay is widely recognized as the most difficult to find of all Sha Na Na albums and the most collectible. DISCO DISASTER! 1975     In 1975 Buddha / Kama Sutra had Sha Na Na try their hand at a disco record which you can listen to online if you search for “SHA NA NOW.” It’s everything you might think it would be. It’s awful to look at, somewhat unbearable to listen to and pretty much everything that was wrong with disco. Sha Na Na quickly buried that steaming pile deeper than Jimmy Hoffa and got back to doing what they do best which was playing 50s doo wop and touring. And touring. And touring. And touring some more. early 70’s Sha Na Na Grateful Dead Frank Zappa The Kinks         They opened for just about every big name band of the time like the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, the Kinks and it wasn’t long before they became headliners in their own right. They were also one of only 4 acts who were invited by John Lennon (and Yoko Ono) to perform at Madison Square Garden for the famous One-To-One benefit concert. GREASE IS THE WORD! 1978      Sha Na Na’s popularity post-Woodstock is at least partially-credited for a revival in the mid-70s interest towards 50s music, fashion and culture. This in turn inspired the creation of a little musical from 1971 called GREASE which ran on Broadway until 1980 with a record-setting 3388 performances.      How Sha Na Na became involved in the 1978 film adaptation of Grease, I’ll admit I’m not entirely clear on other than the fact that they were pretty much the preeminent 50’s-style music group going at the time and with the success of such films as American Graffiti and the TV show Happy Days, the late-70s public had a ravenous appetite for all things 50s! It seems once again they were the right group in the right place at the right time!    The entire band was cast in the movie GREASE starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John as the prom band Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. They contributed almost an entire album side to the soundtrack and one original song “Sandy” which was co-written by Sha Na Na’s Screamin’ Scott Simon and another writer named Louis St. Louis.          Grease went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1978 bringing in over $132 million dollars! Translated into today’s dollars, that’s $616 MILLION DOLLARS! The soundtrack became the second-highest selling album in the United States right behind Saturday Night Fever ALSO starring John Travolta. It was a very good time to have your star hitched to the Travolta rocket! Looking over the Wikipedia page for the movie GREASE, it is criminally devoid of any mention of Sha Na Na. Someone oughtta have their face rearranged! SHA NA NA INVADES THE NATION’S LIVING ROOMS! TV SHOW 1977 – 1981 (97 episodes) In 1977, television producer Pierre Cossette teamed up with LBS Communications to bring the television show SHA NA NA to living rooms across America. By this time, there had been more than a few member changes since the band’s inception as their act was honed and polished into a tight group of 10 over the years. Bowzer This period in history is largely regarded as Sha Na Na’s heyday and featured their most well-recognized lineup of bass-vocalist Jon “Bowzer” Bauman who became recognized during this time as the band’s leader due to him being the only one with a speaking role in the live show (he acted as emcee for a dance contest routine they would do onstage) and the show’s producers needing a central personality for audiences to focus on. They felt a show with ten stars would be too chaotic. So the group that had always been a democracy of equal members acquiesced and Bowzer became the face of Sha Na Na for the sake of the show and the rest is history.  Chico Dirty Dan Denny Donny Jocko Johnny Lenny Screamin’ Scott Santini Pamela Meyers The rest of the group consisted of Sax player Lennie Baker, Vocalist Johnny Contardo, Vocalist Frederick “Denny” Greene, Guitarist “Dirty Dan” McBride (my personal favorite), Bassist Dave “Chico” Ryan, Pianist “Screamin’” Scott Simon, Vocalist Scott “Santini” Powell, Drummer “Jocko” Marcellino and Vocalist Donald “Donny” York. For the next 4 years, everyone’s favorite 50s street thugs brought classic rock n’ roll hits, comedy skits and a cavalcade of guest stars including Chuck Berry, the Ramones, Ethel Merman, Gary US Bonds and countless other entertainment legends to the nation’s small screens during prime time! Soupy Sales Among their supporting cast members was also the iconic vaudeville legend SOUPY SALES! ANOTHER GREASY FUN FACT! Did you know that Soupy Sales (born Milton Supman) holds the world’s record for catching the most cream pies dropped from a helicopter and performed this feat on Wide World of Sports! Sha Na Na produced 97 episodes of their television show throughout four seasons, becoming one of the highest-rated shows in syndication at the time. Production halted in 1981. You may be saying to yourself right now NEIL! (which is a really weird thing to say to yourself if that’s not your name) WHY CAN’T I FIND A HOME-RELEASE VERSION OF THE SHOW!!!??? I’m glad you asked! It’s the same reason you can’t have a popular song in the background of your YouTube video without getting a copyright strike from the music nazis! Music licensing is a very sticky wicket and SHA NA NA was a COVER BAND! They didn’t perform their own songs!SONY owns the rights to the show but reportedly the costs associated with obtaining the licensing for all those songs is more than the projected income a home release of the Sha Na Na Show would generate. So basically, blame the suits at SONY. POST TV SHOW YEARS Guitarist Dirty Dan McBride left the group in 1980 right before the conclusion of the tv series and was replaced by “Guitar Glenn” Jordan who I actually saw perform at the Indianapolis Fairgrouds. I was crushed not to see my man Dirty Dan but Guitar Glenn did a bangup job! Soon thereafter Jon Bowzer Bauman received an offer to host game shows and the offer was too lucrative to ignore and thus left the band to pursue a continued career in television. He also did cartoon voice overs, immersed himself in political activism for… (not my party) and began fronting his own band called Bowzer and the Stingrays with whom he still performs to this day. Find them at https://www.bowzerparty.com/ Singer Johnny Contardo also parted ways around this time according to an email he was kind enough to respond to which I intrusively sent him. He continues performing to this day and is also a professional vocal coach. He said that he and Bowzer sometimes get together to perform but other than that, he was unable to help me with any history of the group post-tv show because he simply wasn’t involved. Find Mr. Contardo at https://johnnycontardo.net Many of the other members went on to new endeavors, notably Frederick “Denny” Greene went to Yale Law School, became Vice President of Production and Features for Columbia Pictures and later became Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law. Scott “Santini” Powell is currently a specialist in Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. He serves on the medical staff of US National Soccer Teams and is team physician for the Federation Women’s National Team and an Associate Clinical Professor at USC. Drummer Jocko Marcellino took command of the good ship Sha Na Na and kept things running torpedos-be-darned despite members ultimately passing to that great doo-wop stage in the sky or simply going on to other pursuits. And why not? The band was still having fun and so were the audiences. Do you really need more reason than that? AND every time a special anniversary of GREASE rolled around, they were always instantly in demand again! They were hot baby! 1998 – A revamped version of Sha Na Na with about 50 percent new members performed at A Capitol Fourth celebrating the 4th of July on America’s Capitol Mall along with a star-studded lineup of acts and… In 1999 they signed a deal with THE GOLD LABEL, a record label owned by Pat Boone and continued performing about 150 shows per year! We’re talking corporate events, casinos, state fairs, beach boardwalks… I actually got to meet Jocko at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in the late 90s and he was nice enough to come out from backstage, chat with me for a few minutes, sign my ENTIRE SHA NA NA RECORD COLLECTION and give me a little New York sass. Pretty much made my day. I also got to meet Lenny Baker who has since passed but was also nice enough to sign my albums as was Screamin’ Scott. He did pause signing to let me know that he didn’t play on one of the albums I brought but I said sign it anyway! YOU’RE SCREAMIN’ FREAKING SCOTT!!! Chico Ryan also came onstage for a few songs. It was awesome! In 2016, the surviving members of Sha Na Na reunited for a special performance at Columbia University featuring early members from the Woodstock era as well as from the tv show era that had long parted ways. 2019 – 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Sha Na Na celebrated their 50 Year Golden Anniversary entitled AN EVENING WITH SHA NA NA at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. At the end of Sha Na Na’s amazing 54 year run as the worlds greatest doo-wop cover group of all time the only two original founding members remaining were Jocko Marcellino and Donny York along with long-time member Screamin’ Scott who joined in 1970. And finally… IN DECEMBER 2022, SHA NA NA ANNOUNCED A PERMANENT CESSATION OF TOURING and bid us all Goodnight Sweetheart for the very last time. Jocko can still be seen performing with his band Jocko and the Rockets which you can find at http://jockoandtherockets.marcellino.org/ And if you visit Change.org you can sign the petition to get Sha Na Na into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where they rightfully belong in my humble opinion. Just go there and search for “Allow Sha Na Na to hotdog into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame” I would include the link but it’s really long and convoluted. And there you have it. The full story of Sha Na Na, to the best of my abilities to bring it to you anyway. A group who brought laughs and joy into our living rooms and onto our concert stages for 54 years, exposed new generations to the music of rock n’ roll’s golden age and earned their rightful place in American Pop Culture History! I’d like to give special acknowledgement to my resources for this episode of the DANDY FUN HOUSE, most notably: The Official SHA NA NA WEBSITE: http://www.shanana.com The Franky Slawson Show who did an amazing hour long deep-dive interview with Donny York who shared a lot of great nuggets! Find his show on YouTube at:  https://www.youtube.com/user/FrankySlawsonShow and of course Wikipedia … http://www.wikipedia.org AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP ME AFFORD JOHNNY CONTARDO VOCAL LESSONS, Please consider becoming a Fun House Supporter by visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material Super Supporters get access to exclusive bonus material PLUS I’ll mail you a lock of Santini’s chest hair or other item of equal value from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you privide me with your mailing address! Podcast listeners can support the show directly from their podcast 2.0 compatible applications by donating tiny slivers of bitcoin known as Satoshis I also accept bus tokens, fuzzy buttons and broken combs. You know they say all good things must come to an end, so since this is the end, it must be a good thing! Goodnight Sweetheart and come back to the Dandy Fun House real soon where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! Grease for Peace! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?    

watch the video!   listen to the podcast!   In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to unpack the tale of how a college student’s 1960’s class project based on surviving Death Valley on foot was sold for next to nothing to a company who redesigned it into everyone’s favorite surgery game trying to cure a guy named Cavity Sam! You and I have been trying to fix him for over 60 years in the game of… OPERATION! We’re also going to unbox, assemble and play the 2023 version of OPERATION while sharing fun facts and history along the way. Are you ready doctor? Let’s step into the Fun House! Here in my hot little hands, I have the 2023 version of everyone’s favorite game of surgical skill… OPERATION, featuring the man with more maladies than Super Dave Osborne, Cavity Sam! Let’s get scrubbed up and head to the operating table where we’ll put him together, pull him apart and tell his story! John Spinello The game of Operation was originally invented at the University of Illinois in the 1960’s by an industrial design student named John Spinello. John was given an assignment by one of his professors to design a toy or game. John drew his inspiration from a traumatic childhood memory of sticking his finger in an active light socket. So he decided to design a game where the object was to guide a probe through a groove that ran between two metal plates with a small electrical charge running through them. If the probe touched a plate, the circuit would complete and sound a buzzer indicating failure. Marvin Glass John’s fellow students enjoyed the game so much that they encouraged him to show it to his Godfather, Sam Cottone, a model-maker for the iconic toy company, Marvin Glass and Associates. Mr. Cottone then showed the game to Marvin Glass himself and Mr. Glass so generously offered the student inventor a whopping $500 for the rights, his name on the patent and the promise of a job upon graduation. John took the 500 bucks and didn’t think much of it. In fact, he didn’t join the company at all until 1976. After selling the rights to Marvin Glass, John’s Godfather, Sam Cottone got right to work on coming up with a theme and landed on the idea that the game should take place in a desert setting with players using the probe to pretend to extract water from holes in the ground. The working title was Death Valley. Mel Taft That is until Marvin Glass resold the rights to Milton Bradley who had a brilliant designer named Mel Taft who reimagined the game into the surgical silliness we enjoy to this day and OPERATION was admitted into the surgical theaters of the world’s kitchen tables in 1965 with everyone’s favorite patient, Cavity Sam! FUN FACT: SAM is actually an acronym used by cardiologists which stands for Systolic Anterior Motion which is a condition that occurs in a heart’s ventricular cavity. The game remained largely unchanged during its first 40 years. That is until someone at Milton Bradley came up with the genius idea to ask the public what new condition they would like to inflict on Cavity Sam! The masses spoke loud and clear. They wanted brain freeze! And Cavity Sam’s new ailment was revealed on an episode of SCRUBS where the tv doctors played the new version of the game on the actual show! UNBOXING: So here we have the 2023 version of OPERATION! The graphics look decently updated from the classic and the playing surface is showing his actual head through the box with a graphic that says PRESS MY NOSE! (It lights up and buzzes). Right off the bat before even cracking the box open, I’m noticing absolutely no indication of brain freeze. They made such a huge deal about it when it came out that I’m puzzled as to why they wouldn’t keep it as a permanent part of the game!? Looking at the box’s sides, they just have the logo and the tag line of “Be the Doctor In This Classic Game!” On the back it shows what the game looks like (he has a little teddy bear with a band aid… awwww…) and tells you the three very simple steps on how to play. 1. Pick a card to see what funny ailment you need to fix. 2. Carefully “operate” to remove the ailment. Watch for the BUZZ! 3. Flip the card over and earn the money on the back. Earn the most money to win! So basically we’re teaching kids that the field of medicine is all about the Benjamins! Nice! ANOTHER FUN FACT! Andrew Goldstone, MD Did you know that the game of OPERATION also inspired an actual medical procedure? Thyroid surgery used to be a lot more risky than it currently is today, largely because any small slip one way or the other in the patient’s throat could cause damage to the patient’s vocal cords. Thus a surgeon named Andrew Goldstone who played the game of OPERATION as a child (who didn’t?) got a brilliant idea from the game and installed an electrode to the airway tube that gets inserted down the larynx during thyroid surgery so that when and if the doctor gets too close to the vocal cords, a buzzer will sound. This technology has been utilized in thyroid surgeries since the early 90’s and has benefited thousands of patients since. Doctor Goldstone is currently working on a way to make patients’ noses light up. THE GAME BOARD: Cavity Sam’s broken heart! Okay, we have the game board out of the box and we’re ready to operate on poor old Cavity Sam! Batteries are already installed and everything works right out of the box. The only needed is to break the game pieces out of their plastic frame and place them into their openings in Sam’s body. The object is simple. Use the metal tweezers to remove the game pieces from Cavity Sam without touching the sides of the opening or else his nose lights up and the buzzer sounds and you have failed your turn! Once all the game pieces have been successfully removed, each player adds up their earnings from the cards and whomever made the most money wins! Couldn’t possibly be simpler! MORE HISTORY! In 2020, Hasbro released a new version of OPERATION called OPERATION PET SCAN where you get to move objects through a dog’s digestive tract. Ewww. And there are also other themed versions based around popular characters like Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, Spongebob Squarepants, Homer Simpson, Star Wars and many others. And in Deutchland OPERATION is known as DOKTER BIBBER which means Shaky Doctor. And of course there is the arcade version you can generally find at Chuck E. Cheese which is sort of a variation on the claw machine. And there are digital versions you can play but in my opinion, the real fun of this game is having something tangible you can physically reach out and play with in the real world. That’s why you generally don’t see me reviewing card games, video games or flat board games. I like three dimensional things you can touch, squeeze, honk and interact with. And there you go! OPERATION in the year 2023! And you don’t even need a medical degree! But my kid might need one because I plan on him supporting me in my old age which actually isn’t that far off at this point. SO! If you’d like to help me pay for my kid’s college so HE can go to some righteous frat parties, compete in pizza-eating contests and whatever else they do at institutes of higher learning, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House Supporter by visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com where you can also watch all the past episodes, subscribe to the podcast and read the blog which is just the episodes in written form if you’re weird and like to read. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features and Super Supporters also gain access to those same bonus features PLUS I’ll mail you something cool from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast listeners can also contribute Satoshis which are tiny slivers of bitcoin that tend to get stuck in your digital teeth if your podcast app supports the podcast 2.0 protocols. And speaking of protocols, I’m getting proto CALLED away right now on some urgent Fun House business so come on back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! *** Acknowledgements: Mental Floss: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/587367/operation-game-facts IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/hasbros-classic-game-operation-was-sparked-by-a-grad-students-electric-idea Toy Tales: https://toytales.ca/operation-milton-bradley-1965/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_(game) Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re clowning around on the basketball court to bring you the story of the Harlem Globetrotters! Where they came from (not Harlem), their many historic achievements, how they didn’t just just penetrate the color barrier of the NBA, they shattered it like a cheap glass backboard without ever even BEING an NBA team, what spawned their innovative act: part circus, part comedy, part sports, PURE ENTERTAINMENT, and what they’re up to now! It’s time for the tipoff! Let’s step into the Fun House! If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s like me, I’ll bet you spent more than a few Saturday mornings watching the Harlem Globetrotters cartoon on tv. You might have even watched their live action variety show called the Popcorn Machine or even caught some entertaining moments from them while your Dad was watching Wide World of Sports! You know – “The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat!” While you might think of the Harlem Globetrotters as merely an entertainment phenomenon of the 70s and 80s, you might be surprised to learn that their history goes back farther than that! MUCH FARTHER!!!!!!!! It’s the year 1926 in Chicago’s South Side and the historic Savoy Ballroom is experiencing declining audiences for their dances. They decide to try the interesting combination of holding exhibition basketball games before the dances to expand the appeal. Fellas come for the ball game and then apologize to their gals by staying for the dance, at least I think that was probably the idea. One of the exhibition teams was called the Savoy Big Five who were comprised of the core players of what would eventually become the Harlem Globetrotters after a dispute amongst players in 1928 that caused a split. Departing members formed the “New York Globe Trotters” but they were pretty much New York in name only. A year later, a man named Abe Saperstein took over management and promotion, changed the name to the “Harlem” Globetrotters to capitalize on Harlem being considered as the epicenter of American black culture at the time and began touring the team everywhere he could. Over the next decade, the team played throughout the United States and achieved a huge career-boost in 1940 by winning the World Professional Basketball Tournament! With newfound acclaim and improved operating budgets, The Harlem Globetrotters continued dominating the world of basketball due to their monopolization of the entire talent pool of black players who were not welcome in other teams and leagues of the time. The NBA finally took notice of the opportunities they were missing and started recruiting black players beginning with Globetrotter Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton who signed with the New York Knicks in 1950. While this was a long overdue change for the positive, it also placed the Globetrotters at a crossroads as their cornering of the black talent pool came to end. But in a stroke of either genius or desperation by team member, Reece “Goose” Tatum to keep the team viable, they began working comedy routines and acrobatic tricks into their games. They incorporated juggling, ball-spinning, trick shots and some of the funniest routines ever performed. Part vaudeville, part circus, part sports and ALL PURE ENTERTAINMENT! With their new theatrical basketball extravaganza, they set out on their first international tour performing for 75,000 people at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium which earned them the title “Ambassadors of Extraordinary Goodwill” by the US State Department. They later would go on to earn special acknowledgements from Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald Ford for their service to global mankind. The following year in 1951, Columbia Pictures created a dramatic film around the team simply titled “The Harlem Globetrotters.” The movie was about a young college player named Billy Townsend who convinces Globetrotter Manager, Abe Saperstein to let him drop out of school and join the team. But Billy, while being a great player, disobeys too many of the coach’s orders and takes too many risks on the court eventually resulting in a knee injury which gets him benched. Poor Billy! Being the independent-minded young lad that he is, Billy then sneaks out of his hotel room against team rules to marry his girlfriend and while trying to sneak back in, accidentally trips over a trash can in the dark further aggravating his knee injury. Billy’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the pack! The following day, he hobbles to the game, convinces the coach he is good to play but the knee buckles on the court during a critical play, the Globetrotters lose, everyone finds out Billy lied, he is given his hobbling papers and sent packing. BUT! Being the silver-tongued dribbler that he is, Billy manages to sweet talk the coach of the opposing team into signing him to a 3-year $50,000 contract under the terms that he rest his knee for the remainder of the season and not play for any other teams. Fast forward to later in the season, Billy is biding his time working in the college chemistry lab when he learns that the New York Celtics are coming to town to play against the Globetrotters and half the school will be there! He goes with hat in hand and on recuperated knee to petition the mighty Globetrotters to let him play. The Globetrotters agree, Billy hits the court with a new attitude and fresh perspective and plays as a member of the team rather than a rogue, rule-breaking maverick and together they defeat the mighty Celtics! This of course voids his big money contract with the other team but Billy doesn’t care because in his heart of hearts – Billy has always been a HARLEM GLOBETROTTER! Did I spend too much time on that? It feels like I spent too much time on that, but honestly I never get to do condensed movie synopsis’ and I’ve been itching to channel my inner Sventoonie! 1952: The Harlem Globetrotters adopt the Brother Bones and his Shadows whistled rendition of Sweet Georgia Brown as the team’s theme song and over the years it becomes synonymous with them. You seriously can’t listen to that version of the song to this day without instantly associating it with the Globetrotters. 1953: The team decides they need a “competitor” to be their follies and expand the routines they’re able to perform. Thus the Washington Generals became their stooges for lack of a better team and the troupe began truly trotting the globe taking the show to any and every corner of the world that would have them! In 1959, the team went behind the iron curtain to the Soviet Union with Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain onboard who continued to play during the off season with the Harlem Globetrotters even after being signed to the NBA. Popularity continued to grow throughout the 1960s and then in 1970 Hanna Barbera decided to create a Saturday morning cartoon series on CBS around the team during what most would consider their pinnacle of popularity with none other than Scatman Cruthers providing the voice for team captain Meadowlark Lemon whom along with Curly and the rest of the gang managed to get in all sorts of  hijinks every single week. This earned CBS some of their highest Saturday morning ratings in history and proceeded to spawn a Harlem Globetrotters Saturday morning live action variety show called the Popcorn Machine which often followed directly after the cartoon. They also made numerous appearances on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Yes, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat! As well as appearing on such shows as Gilligan’s Island, The Price is Right and countless other classics. In 1979 the team was honored by game-maker Bally with the “Harlem Globetrotters On Tour.” pinball machine. The team continued touring and performing almost nonstop throughout the 1980’s simply doing what they do best and entertaining families anywhere and everywhere around the world. Then in 1993, the team was purchased by former Globetrotter Mannie Jackson who returned the team to competitive play by setting up matches against college teams. Under Mannie’s watch, the team’s revenue quadrupled within the span of five years! THEN CAME MASCOT MADNESS! With Mannie at the helm, the team introduced not one, not two but THREE new mascots: Globie, Big G and Little G. (They’re all blue and they all have globes for heads!). Globie is the lead mascot and is said to be the most traveled mascot in professional sports having visited six continents! That’s not all. In 2009, Globie parachuted from 3000 feet onto the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame lawn to deliver a Harlem Globetrotters basketball that had flown on the space shuttle Atlantis during a mission to the Hubble space telescope! And in 2020, Globie was nominated for the Mascot Hall of Fame! Big G on the other hand has had a bit rougher of a go as he was stolen in 2015 from the team’s tour bus in Vancouver and taken hostage but was quickly recovered almost by accident when police were tracking a missing laptop and stumbled across a case containing his remains… He was back on the court the next day because, well… he’s just a costume! In 1995 The Washington Generals were retired as the Globetrotters’ foils and were replaced with the New York Nationals who remained in that role until 2015. In 2002 The Harlem Globetrotters were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame! 2013: The Harlem Globetrotters franchise is sold to Herschend Family Entertainment owner of various theme parks and tourist attractions throughout America and the team is co-owned by Dolly Parton making them the company’s only Sports Entertainment Franchise. In 2021, The Globetrotters filed a petition to join the NBA as an expansion franchise. I have not been able to determine if this exercise was serious, a joke or a PR stunt. Perhaps all of the above. I don’t believe it was successful. But what I DO know is that every year, the Globetrotters conduct a draft just a few days prior to the NBA draft to find new players whom they feel might fit the Globetrotter mold. They also use this opportunity to make honorary draft picks of individuals they feel have made extraordinary contributions to sports and society at large such as Usain Bolt, Kevin Hart, Gal Gadot, Tim Tebow and the late, great Chadwick Boseman. The list goes on to include lifetime honorary members like Henry Kissinger, Bob Hope, Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II. To this day, the Harlem Globetrotters have performed over 26,000 exhibition games in 124 countries and the only continent they have not played on is Antarctica and I’m sure that’s next! And there you go! The ball-spinning, 4-point-shooting, jugglin’, jammin’, jokin’, smokin’ story of the Harlem Globetrotters. You can find them online at http://www.harlemglobetrotters.com where you can also find their tour schedule! Go to their website and get your tickets now!                                And if you’d like to help buy ME a ticket to see the Harlem Globetrotters, or just feed and clothe myself and my family in general, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House supporter by visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com where you can also watch back video episodes, subscribe to the podcast and read the blog which is basically just the episodes in written form with pictures if you happen to be a little um… slow! Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus content and Super supporters also gain access to bonus content PLUS I’ll personally mail you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide me with your mailing address! We’re also introducing micro-donations in the podcast version where you can donate tiny slivers of crypto currency known as “Satoshis.” Micro-supporters get my undying gratitude unless of course you contribute enough satoshis to add up to being a supporter or even a super-supporter in which case all bets are off and I’m just going to roll out the red carpet for you! It’s complicated business running a Dandy Fun House, folks! Ok, I’ve gotta go work on my free throws! Rebound back here soon to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! If you think my ball spinning is bad, you should see me dribble! ********** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! Super Supporters also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?            

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! The amazing hippopotamus! The 2nd largest land animal on earth! They eat almost 80 pounds of grass per day! But there’s one certain type of hippo that eats nothing but marbles! And they’re always HUNGRY! HUNGRY! HIPPOS! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to unbox, assemble and show you 3 different ways to play the classic game Hungry Hungry Hippos. I’m also going to give you some history along the way about this pop culture classic! Let’s step into the fun house! If you wanna win the game You gotta take good aim and get the most marbles with your hippo! Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos! Hungry Hungry Hippos! (Original Hungry Hungry Hippos theme song, 1978) ORIGINS It’s been very difficult to really dig down into the origins of this game. What I do know is that it was originally created by a Japanese toy company called Agatsuma and was called simply “The Hungry Game.” I haven’t been able to determine whether or not the original version had hippos or not. In fact I can’t find a picture or description of the original game anywhere and believe me I have scoured the interwebs for this! I have not been able to find anything about the actual individual or individuals who invented the game. Any pictures or descriptions of its original forms. The origins of this game are very much shrouded in mystery! What I did find is a historical timeline on a website for Agatsuma Co., LTD which also apparently operates under a brand name called Pinocchio. A lot of their online presence is written in Japanese characters so that was a bit of a struggle for me. https://agatsuma.co.jp/company_english/history.php Anyway, this timeline shows the launch of the Hungry Game in 1977 and verifies that soon thereafter it was released in the US as Hungry Hungry Hippos by the toy company Hasbro. An article on Mental Floss claims that Hungry Hungry Hippos debuted in the US in 1978 and was licensed under a deal brokered by a man named Fred Kroll who sold his rights to Hasbro who proceeded to release the game under the Milton Bradley label. The original names for the hippos were Lizzie (purple), Henry (orange), Homer (green) and Harry (yello). So 3 dudes and one filly! That’s ok, Lizzie holds her own just fine! UNBOXING AND ASSEMBLY Looking at the box itself, from the front it appears as if the game comes already assembled. Thankfully that’s not the case otherwise I wouldn’t be able to show how to assemble it which is one of the most fun parts about doing these reviews. The Orange Hippo enshrines all sides of the box and on the back there is a picture of 3 kids playing the game… ALL ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE TABLE! Ummm… I don’t think it works like that! Opening the box, it has AUSTRALIA printed inside the flap. So of course I pull the contents out upside down! On the underside of the game board are the headless bodies of all 4 hippos snapped into holding tabs. It appears to be a very efficient method of storage! I detach the bodies from the underside and find a detachable round tray snapped into place as well. I would find out later that this is for storage of the marbles although they aren’t in there at this time. Where are they??? They are inside of a plastic blister package along with the hippo heads which were cleverly displayed through the front of the box in such a manner that the game appeared to be pre-assembled! Pretty sneaky sis! I struggle with the blister pack taped to a cardboard backing and of course marbles come pouring out the second I breach an opening and spill all over the place! I start attaching heads to bodies and then try to figure out how to attach hippos to the game board. Some of the tabs on the hippo bodies are for snapping into place on the underside of the board for storage and other tabs are for snapping into place on the topside for game play. Once I figure this out, I’m off to the races and get everything secured in place fairly quickly. One other issue though. All the necks are stuck in an extended position! As I wrestle with this issue for a few minutes, I eventually discover that this is how the action levers are kept depressed and the necks are held by a small tab at the top of the hippos’ backs. Just slide the neck off the tab and everything repositions correctly. NOW WE’RE READY TO PLAY! BUT FIRST… 3 FUN HIPPO FACTS! Did you know that hippos secrete a red-colored ooze that acts as a sunblock? Hippos can hold their breath under water for 5 minutes. Their ears and nostrils close up to keep air in and water out! Hippos tend to live up to 40 years in the wild, but up to about 50 years in captivity. So I guess the moral of this story is that if you’re on a mission to save the hippos, you’ll want to get busy capturing them. But I wouldn’t recommend it. Hippos tend to be very aggressive and tangling with one is just about never advisable! THE HIPPOS HAVE NEW NAMES! For the 2023 version, the hippos all got new names! GREEN – VEGGIE POTAMUS YELLOW – BOTTOMLESS POTAMUS BLUE – SWEETIE POTAMUS ORANGE – HUNGRY HIPPO So now we know who the leader of the herd is! HOW TO PLAY! There are actually 3 different ways to play Hungry Hungry Hippos! Two of them are listed in the instructions, but I also discovered a third through the power of the interwebs! FEEDING FRENZY: This is where everyone just goes blitzkrieg releasing all their marbles (actually small plastic balls) while gobbling as much as they can as fast as they can. Whoever eats the most is the winner! GO FOR THE GOLD: There is one golden marble. Whoever gets it is the winner! RING AROUND THE POND: Players take turns releasing just one marble at a time and fighting for just that single marble until eventually all of them are eaten. Whoever has the most at the end is the winner! And there you have it! The 2023 version of Hungry Hungry Hippos! Still iconic! Still a classic! Still hungry! You know what else is tons of fun? Becoming a Dandy Fun House supporter and helping to make future episodes come to life! Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com and visit the patronage page to show some love! Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus content and Super supporters also gain access to bonus content PLUS I’ll personally mail you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide me with your mailing address! Ok, I’ve gotta hop and skip my hippos outta here! Come back soon 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?        

(watch the video below) (listen to the podcast below) Dr. Demento, the man who brought comedic novelty music to the masses for 40 years disappeared from the airwaves in the year 2010 and has not been heard on terrestrial radio in over a decade since. Was he abducted by bloodthirsty clowns? Did he join a monastery? Did he move to the planet Meep Morp? In this episode of the Dandy Fun House I’m going to attempt to answer the question on nobody’s mind… WHERE IS DR. DEMENTO!!!!!????? …Let’s step into the fun house! Ray Stevens   Jimmy Durante   Spike Jones   Judy Tenuta   Weird Al Yankovic   Dr. Demento Dr. Demento, the maniacal force for all things musically absurd commanded the terrestrial radio airwaves for 40 nonstop years from 1970 through 2010. He helped bring much-deserved attention to such iconic artists as Ray Stevens (who still performs regularly at his own dinner theater, the Caba-Ray in Nashville), Jimmy Durante, Spike Jones, Judy Tenuta and of course the notorious Weird Al Yankovic among countless others. He suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves in the year 2010 and I did promise in the show opening that I would attempt to uncover where he went. But before we get into all that, I think some back history on the good doctor is in order. Because you might think of him as just a nasally-voiced, horn-honking, slide-whistling disc jockey. But I can assure you, there’s more than meets the eye to Dr. Demento. MUCH… MORE…!!!!!!!! (Sherman, ignite the Wayback Machine!) 1941 – THE WORLD GETS A LITTLE DEMENTED Let’s go all the way back to 1941… April 2nd, 1941 to be exact. Minneapolis, Minnesota’s very own Barret Eugene Hansen (whom the world will eventually know as Dr. Demento) comes kicking and screaming into the world although he hasn’t yet been weaned on slide whistles and bicycle horns. There was nothing really unusual or noteworthy about his midwestern upbringing at least until the age of 12 when in 1953 Barret stumbles across a treasure trove of thousands of 78 RPM records at a local thrift store for a nickel apiece, starts spending all his allowance and becomes raptured in music from across the ages falling deeply in love with the recorded art form. He spends the next 7 years immersing himself in sounds transcending cultures and genres straight through his high school years. 1960 – COLLEGE RADIO Reed College, Portland, Oregon UCLA, Los Angeles, California Then in 1960 while attending Reed College in Portland Oregon, he was presented with an opportunity to work at the school’s station, KRRC and earned his way up to becoming Program Director and eventually General Manager. While at Reed, he studied classical music and then after graduation, went on to UCLA earning a masters degree in folklore and ethnomusicology. Spirit   Canned Heat And like every young adult who spends a fortune in time, energy and money to get through college, he put these degrees to very good use by hanging out with rock and roll hippies and becoming a roadie for the legendary bands Spirit and also Canned Heat. But Barret DID put the relationships he built during this time to very good use and parlayed them into becoming a talent scout for the record label, Specialty Records. He also took a job at the radio station KPPC-FM in Pasadena, California where he began broadcasting his own weekly oldies radio show. As his music industry connections build, Barret Hansen finds himself putting together compilation albums for Warner Brothers as well as writing articles for music magazines like Rolling Stone and Hit Parader. Barret was a very, very busy guy! 1970 – DR. DEMENTO DEBUTS! Obscene Steven Clean Then one day in 1970 while doing his show at KPPC-FM, Barret played one song that would change the course of his life forever. It was “Transfusion” by Nervous Norvus. (I actually had that record when I was a kid. Put a gallon in me Allan!) Another DJ going by “Obscene Steven Clean” called Barret “Demented” for playing it. Somehow the “Demented” label stuck, wouldn’t unstick and eventually morphed into his now iconic nomenclature of “Dr. Demento!” Barret Eugene Hansen embraced his new handle wholeheartedly and began seeking out and playing the most absurd music on the planet, incorporating them into his oldies show and destiny was set into motion as he officially changed the title of his show to the Dr. Demento Show. The offbeat novelties became so popular with listeners that he altered his format completely to solely concentrate on bringing wacky tunes to the airwaves. Within a few short years, popularity grew and he was picked up and syndicated across America by the Westwood One Radio Network airing mainly late Sunday evenings on FM rock stations. The 80’s – THE ROBERT YOUNG ERA In 1982, production of the Dr. Demento Show was taken over by a journalist named Robert Young who oversaw what most consider to be Dr. Demento’s heyday. Under Young’s guidance, stronger relationships were forged with national media outlets and live appearances and interviews across the United States became part of normal promotion. Frank Zappa   Richard Cheese   Weird Al Yankovic During the course of the 80’s under Young’s watch, The Dr. Demento Show brought exposure and acclaim to novelty music artists from bygone eras like Spike Jones and Jimmy Durante, mainstays of the time including Frank Zappa and Ray Stevens and also up-and comers like Judy Tenuta, Richard Cheese and we can’t understate his contribution to breaking the career of easily the most successful novelty music artist of all time, Weird Al Yankovic. Whimsical Will It was also during this era that a character named Whimsical Will was introduced to the show who hosted a segment called “Demented News.” But Whimsical Will was unfortunately not included in the nationally syndicated version of the show and was relegated only to the longer 4-hour show on their Los Angeles flagship station. Producer, Robert Young parted ways with the Westwood One Radio Network in 1990 and along with it, his production time with the Dr. Demento Show. He did later release a book in 2014 about his time with the show entitled “Producing Demento. The 90’s – DEMENTO PRODUCES DEMENTO After the departure of proucer Robert Young, Barret Hansen himself took over the production and management in 1992 and cut a syndication deal with On the Radio Broadcasting which allowed him greater freedom of song and segment choices that wouldn’t have been approved under Westwood One and also allowed for bringing Whimsical Will onto the nationally-syndicated broadcast! Yay Whimsical Will! Syndication continued with On The Radio Broadcasting for the remainder of the 90’s until… 2000’s – DEMENTO SYNDICATES HIMSELF! In the year 2000, Hansen Barret forms “Talonian Productions” and personally takes over syndication of the Dr. Demento Show. One of the hardest-working men in the funny business, he produces 52 shows per year almost never running a repeat. In 2005 Dr. Demento is inducted into the Comedy Music Hall of Fame and in 2009, the National Radio Hall of Fame. He continues bringing dementia to the airwaves for the next decade until 2010 when he mysteriously disappears from terrestrial radio airwaves entirely! Which brings us to the question posed at the start of this show… WHERE IS DR. DEMENTO!!!!!????? He took his show online and broadcasts on the internet now. Find him at drdemento.com . What did you think I was going to say? While you’re there, you can also become a card-carrying member of Dr. Demento’s fan club otherwise known as “The Demento Society.” He also has a merchandise store which surprisingly does not sell top hats, but does sell the usual t-shirts and ball caps. But there are also much more interesting items for sale such as skull caps, turntable slip mats, autographed photos, a balsa wood glider, frisbees, a ruler that says something on it I’m not going to repeat here and a blue ribbon which I’m having trouble comprehending who or why anyone would buy a Dr. Demento blue ribbon unless the were… demented! (Dr. Demento’s personal vinyl music collection is rumored to be greater than 85,000 records!) And now you know! Dr. Demento. Where he came from, how he got here, where he went and where you can find him now! What else you want from me? I’m just a poor, pitiful show host over here! Gimme a break already! And if you’d REALLY like to give me a break, please consider contributing to the production of future episodes here at the Dandy Fun House by visiting the patronage page at www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus content and super supporters also gain access to that exact same bonus content PLUS I’ll personally mail you something really dandy from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide me with your mailing address! That does it for this episode! Come back soon to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! And as the good doctor says at the close of every show… “Stay Demented!” Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?  

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to look ahead to the great new amusements coming in 2023 from the worlds of theme parks, pinball, toys, board games and movies! I’m also going to share my favorite episodes from 2022 and let you know what’s been going on going on behind the scenes over here and where things are headed. This is NOT a “best of / year end roundup” that most shows churn out this time of year as easy content. I’d never cheat you like that! Good stuff ahead! Let’s step into the fun house! Neil Dandy here! 2022 has been velly velly good to me! I’m currently on sort of a holiday stay-cation if you will and enjoying a 3-day getaway to a cabin in Lynchburg, Tennessee, the home of Jack Daniels Distillery. The family and I are holed up in a cabin in single-degree weather with a stockpile of snacks, wifi and cable tv just 45 minutes from our home in Murfreesboro, and yes, Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog is here as well. I figured what better way to wrap up the year than by bringing you a forecast of the best frivolities on the horizon for 2023, so let’s get to it! And we’re starting with THEME PARKS! Ok, this theme park overview is NOT going to include roller coasters! Why??? Well… everybody and their brother is opening a new roller coaster in 2023 and there’s an endless amount of coverage out there for them. It’s like most theme parks can’t think of anything else to do. I like coasters as much as the next person, but at some point it gets old. They lift you up, hurtle you down a track. Spin you, Loop you and there you go! My goal here at the Dandy Fun House is to bring you things that I think are fresh and interesting! And it doesn’t get much more fresh and interesting than… Katmandu Park, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic who is going to hold the distinction as the Caribbean’s very first top-class theme park. This park will be centered around the characters of the Katmandu Fantastical Universe. This park will only be available to guests staying at the all-new Falcon’s Resort and tickets are included with your guest reservation. So if you find yourself planning a trip to the Dominican, this might be something to fit into your travel plans! Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay, Florida – Serengeti Flyer: A high-velocity screaming swing ride that takes you 135 feet high at speeds of 68 miles per hour! The promotional picture looks as if it carries about ten people at a time! Ok, that’s not exactly something ground-breaking, but at least it’s not a roller coaster. Meanwhile… Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia is permanently closing their Mach Tower, the massive drop tower which has been plagued with constant maintenance issues since its opening in 2011. In fact, the only thing that was ever newsworthy about the Mach Tower would be the rare occasions when it was actually open and operational! Good riddance Mach Tower! Universal Studios, Florida – Villain-Con Minion Blast: This will be a motion-based pathway attraction where you get to compete to become a member of Despicable ME’s Vicious 6! Now THAT sounds like fun! Universal Studios, Hollywood is getting a new augmented reality ride for Mario Kart called Bowser’s Challenge. I love augmented reality rides when they’re done well and Universal does them well. One I really love is Spider Man at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It really makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of all the action. It’s amazing what they can do with this stuff. Universal Studios Singapore – Opening of Minion Park, a Despicable Me themed land. Let’s move on to… PINBALL Coming in 2023 I have a nice list of “rumored releases and I’ve whittled it mostly down to the ones that aren’t just new releases of themes that are already out there. These are ones I uncovered that truly seem exciting to me and I hope you feel the same! STERN: Foo Fighters, He-Man, Venom and Cobra-Kai! I’m a little surprised that the Foo Fighters haven’t had their own pinball machine yet. Kudos to Dave Grohl, Pat Smear and the boys! JERSEY JACK PINBALL: Elton John, Van Halen, Journey and Billy Joel. I’m fairly certain that Van Halen and Journey have already had pinball machines in the past. Not so sure about Elton John and Billy Joel. Those seem real interesting. I guess Jersey Jack Pinball Manufacturer must have a thing for dad rock. That’s ok. So do I. AMERICAN PINBALL: Galactic Tank Force, Wrath of Olympus and Robin Hood all rumored for 2023. SPOOKY PINBALL: Scooby Doo and Evil Dead. I guess Halloween must be their thing over at Spooky Pinball. CHICAGO GAMING COMPANY: Pulp Fiction. I wonder if the launcher will be a giant adrenaline needle? HAGGIS PINBALL: War of The Worlds, Centaur, Medusa. It’s interesting how these different manufacturers seem to have their unique pocket of interests. And rounding out our 2023 forecast for the world of pinball and segueing us nicely into our next segment, there is actually a movie called “PINBALL: The Man Who Saved The Game“ being released on St. Patrick’s Day! It’s about one man’s fight in New York to legalize the game which was outlawed as illegal gambling from the 1940’s through the mid-1970’s! I never knew pinball was outlawed! And of course that segues us into… MOVIES In addition to the aforementioned movie, PINBALL, other movies I’m looking forward to in 2023 would include: THE FLASH – Of course this is about the classic comic book character. While I’m a little burned out on the whole superhero thing, The FLASH was one of my favorites as a kid and I’m glad to see him getting his own movie. I’ll be there with my refillable popcorn bucket in hand! DUNE: Part Two – I’m generally not one to get crazy over sequels, but part one left me wanting more, especially since we only got about 5 minutes of Zendaya! The original DUNE movie starring Sting bored me to tears when I was a kid. Maybe it was my age and short attention span, but I actually liked the remake and I’m ready for more! Bring it on! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM – It’s the freaking Ninja Turtles! What more do you need to know!? This may be one of those rare times that I’ll buy pizza at a movie. BARBIE – All I know is this is going to be a comedy starring Margot Robbie, Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling. As long as Margot Robbie doesn’t do that annoying Harley Quinn voice, I don’t see how this movie could possibly go wrong. I can’t wait! WONKA – This will be a prequel about how a young Willy Wonka met and enslaved a race of people known as the Oompa-Loompas! I’m sure it’s not framed that way, but come on! I think this one could go either way. We’ve already seen how bad a Willy Wonka movie can be. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s re-interpretation of the original was an unmitigated creepy disaster. I just really hope they get this one right. I’m not expecting it to reach the level of the original. I don’t see how anything possibly could, but please just don’t torch my childhood memories to the ground. That’s all I’m asking here! CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET – This promises to be the sequel you weren’t sure you wanted but you’re apparently getting anyway! and lastly but not leastly… SUPER MARIO BROTHERS Starring Chris Pratt. No synopsis here. Let’s just marinate on that thought for a moment. Super Mario Brothers starring Chris Pratt… TOYS! Not much new under the sun. Most of the toys in the outlook for 2023 are mainly just variations on existing themes. But some of the more interesting things I was able to find included 3D Printers for Kids, Child-Sized Robot Playmates and Robotic Dinosaurs you can actually ride. I’m not sure if I’m excited, disturbed or a little of both. I suspect more than a few parents will start sleeping with one eye open in the new year. And this brings us to… BOARD GAMES coming in 2023! PANDEMIC LEGACY – Players compete to stop the spread of deadly diseases. Oh how fun! CODENAMES – This is going to be a card game where players form teams and collect clues through the cards to try and guess the other team’s code names while trying to avoid assassins! Sounds very espionagey! BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL – Players explore a haunted house together, but at some point, one of the players becomes co-opted and joins with the forces of darkness while everyone else tries to conquer their former ally! Sounds like some friendships I had in 2022! WINGSPAN – This is a unique one where players are bird enthisiasts and try to acquire new fowl for their aviary habitats. Different bird acquisitions gain you different abilities. I guess you try to gain a monopoly over the industry of bird-trading? Who the heck came up with this one? I’m trying to picture the brain-storming session. And… I can’t. I just can’t. But heck, I’d give it a go! DANDY FUN HOUSE YEAR END WRAP-UP FOR 2022! Being that the Dandy Fun House is a fairly new venture, just 2 years old at this point and also just being a monthly release (it’s monthly because that’s all I can do without it taking over too much of my life and keeping it where I enjoy producing this without risking burn out), 2022 proved to be a great year of gaining clarity in establishing and better-defining exactly what the Dandy Fun House is, how I want to present it and where it’s going. This past year, I was able to uncover the bombshell news that had been lightly percolating behind the scenes in industry circles, but hadn’t been announced to the world yet. I’m speaking about the expected return of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in 2023! You may recall about 6 years ago, Ringling took the big top down amidst animal rights activists getting up in arms and dwindling attendance. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with for the revamp. Hopefully they’ll modernize some things and bring the circus up to date. I just hope they don’t try to be Cirque Du Soliel and they’ll go for more of a Monster Jam vibe and make something very thrilling and in-your-face. I’m afraid the age of clowns and squirting flowers may have come and gone. We’ll see. My Dog Emma-Lou hosted episode 17 to tell you all about the Top Ten Dog Friendly Attractions in America. That one ended up being the worst-performing episode of the year by far unfortunately and I think it’s because I had to revise it and remove a destination from the list that turned out, despite many reports to the contrary to not allow dogs at all. I think the algorithms of the interwebds didn’t like the revision and it suffered in the search results as a result. But I still love the fact that I was able to have Emma the Dandy Dog as a guest host and also feature her in our last episode for the game SOGGY DOGGY where I do actually give Emma-Lou a bath right before unboxing, assembling and reviewing the board game! Check it out if you get a chance. We had a lot of fun making that one! And speaking of guest-hosts, The Dandy Fun House was very honored to have the legendary COUNT DRAHOON of Count Drahoon’s Feature of Fright Podcast guest-host our Halloween episode in October and judge the ultimate classic Monster Cereal Showdown. Even though he relocated to California, he found himself briefly back in Tennessee to collect a few remaining items and so graciously carved out a few hours from his schedule to help shoot my most ambitiously-produced episode to date! The best performing episodes of 2022 turned out to be my unboxing, assembly and review of games like Mouse Trap and Soggy Doggy. I don’t know why, but apparently you guys seem to like those types of videos the best. The run-and-gun, low-production quality episodes rather than the more highly-produced green screen ones! I’m still going to make ambitious productions though because I like the challenge and they make me a better content-creator but I have certainly taken note. You have spoken and I am hearing you! A lot of this past year has also been spent strengthening the underlying infrastructure of not just the show itself, but the internet platform it’s built on. The hosting of the podcast version of the show was migrated from Libsyn to Blubrry in early 2022 because Blubrry’s culture is much more in line with what I’m all about which is building my house on my own infrastruture as opposed to what amounts to rented land. Basically, with Blubrry I provide them my own rss feed address which I do indeed own and which is the web address that makes the podcast subscription work. This is the web address the different podcast applications look for to find your show. I wanted that to be MY address instead of one that was assigned to me by a hosting platform. Reason being that when and if the day comes that I leave that podcasting platform, I don’t want someone else having sway over my show’s internet address. And although Libsyn says that you can take it with you when you go, I just really don’t like that. Someone could come along, change that policy in the future and hold my show hostage. That’s definitely a situation I would like to avoid! I’ve also been undergoing a very painful web hosting transition from GoDaddy to my new web host, A2 who have been absolutely wonderful. Go Daddy apparently thought it to be a good idea over this past year to force all their customers who have email associated with their websites to migrate the handling of their email to Microsoft Exchange. And they only gave us 2 weeks notice! In my case, this wreaked all sorts of havoc on the wedding DJ business I have had for almost 20 years because I use the Google suite of products like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive to run almost every aspect of that business. I use gmail labels to organize the communications for each individual event, and Google Drive for all the various documents, contracts, venue policy pages, insurance forms, timelines, etc. I keep a unique Google Drive folder for each and every event. When something comes to me via email with a document attached that’s important for the event, I can just click on the document and send it straight over to it’s folder in Google Drive and then just send that email to go live under the special gmail label created exclusively for that event. To make a long and painful story shorter, Microsoft doesn’t play nice with any of this stuff and I can’t conduct my business workflow in the way I’ve built (perfect example of buildong one’s house on rented land but when it comes to things like email and cloud storage, all you really can do is build on rented land unless you want your own home-baked bank of servers and that’s just not the business I’m in). As a result, Go Daddy rudely threw a very large wrench into pretty much every way I manage my business workflow with very short notice and screwed me up big time. What’s worse is they really don’t seem to care either. They’re the biggest player on the block and think they can do just about anything they feel like and cram whatever they want down their customers’ throats and we’ll just take it as if we don’t have alternatives. It smacks of the way AT&T still acts today as if they’re Ma Bell! Ok, sorry for the rant. I’ll move on… My new web host, A2 have provided excellent customer service and have made the transition as painless as possible. I have several websites and bringing over the Dandy Fun House was the most complicated part by far and fortunately the downtime turned out to be minimal. Thanks A2, your hands-on customer service has been much appreciated! Ok, that’s going to do it over here for the year! Thank you so much for h anging out and having a frivolous 2022 with me! I look forward to new and exciting adventures with you all in 2023. So come back next month to kick the year off right here a the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! *** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! Super Supporters also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m taking Emma-Lou, the Dandy Dog to the dog wash! I’m also going to unbox, assemble and show you how to play the TOTY Award Winning game – SOGGY DOGGY! Let’s step into the Dandy Dog House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video show, podcast and blog – the home of your favorite frivolities! I am set up here in the Dandy Ranch half bath and laundry room to give Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog her monthly bath and I do expect to be fully drenched by the time we’re done here! You might remember Emma-Lou who hosted episode 17 where she told you all about the Top Ten Dog Friendly Attractions in America! I thought it only fitting that I ask her to help me out today so we can bring you the unboxing, assembly and show you how to play the Toy of the Year (TOTY) Award-winning game SOGGY DOGGY from Spin Master! BACKGROUND Before we get into the dog bath, let me tell you about Spin Master! Spin Master started in 1994 with just a $10,000 investment and a toy line called Earth Buddies which was basically a ball of panty hose with a face on it stuffed with saw dust and grass seed and you grew the grass like hair. So part sock toy, part chia pet and part Mr. Potato Head. Through innovation and acquisitions, these guys grew Spin Master over the years into what is now an absolute global powerhouse in the field of children’s entertainment with such notable toys and games as Kinetic Sand, Batman, DC Universe, Etch A Sketch, Hatchimals, Monster Jam toys, Orbeez, PAW Patrol, Rubiks Cube, Jumanji, Giant Candy Land, Giant Sorry, and earth-friendly versions of classics like Connect Four, Chess, Jenga (although I don’t think they’re allowed to call it Jenga) and so much more it would take this entire episode just to explore and ain’t nobody got time for that! Go on over to spinmaster.com to read their story. It’s absolutely fascinating! Alright, I’m going to finish scrubbing Emma-Lou here (her favorite part is at the end where she gets baby-wrapped in the towel!). I’ll give her an after bath treat and then we’ll head over to the kitchen table and dig into this SOGGY DOGGY game! So here we are in the Dandy Fun House Studios kitchen! Emma-Lou has finished her bath, gotten her treat and we’ve got this Soggy Doggy game box to get into. Let’s crack this puppy open and see what we’ve got! As previously mentioned, this game won the TOTY Award for 2018 (Toy of the Year). Great graphics on the front, the sides are pretty much all the same but with different orientation and the back (as usual with these sorts of things) shows kids playing with the game and having fun. Pretty much par for the course thus far! Soggy Doggy is the Showering, Shaking Wet Doggy Game and the highlight of the whole thing is this big shaggy dog toy that sits in a bath tub and shakes water all over the place. Right off the bat HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS THING!? The game appears to be targeted to little kids (ages 4+) but looks like it would be fun for everyone which is pretty much what drew me to it. The quick synopsis of the game play is to race around the board, wash Soggy Doggy and if he shakes, you go back to the start. Sounds pretty simple! Let’s put unbox this thing, grab a screwdriver and 3 AA batteries (not included) and put it together! UNBOXING The box itself is pretty easy to open with just one adhesive tab holding the lid closed and right on top is the Soggy Doggy himself to greet us. SD is about the size of a small hand puppet and is made of very soft rubbervery much like those Koosh toys, which is pretty much what the Soggy Doggy is. A few cardboard spacers to dig out and you get to the game board which is pretty much a plastic ring about the size of a Frisbee. The battery-operated bath tub. And last but not least are the little plastic bags which hold the parts and pieces such as the dog’s skeleton / frame which you dress the kooshy-puppet dog over, mounting brackets for mounting into the tub and all the game pieces which are small to the point that you really don’t want to let kids that are too little play this unsupervised as these could obviously (in my opinion) be choking hazards. For the game pieces you have a bar of soap, paw print, bone and rubber ducky. There are also game tokens which are used to get out of going back to start if the doggy shakes on you. Sort of like a get out of jail free card. ASSEMBLY You’ll need a small phillips-head screwdriver to take off the battery door on the underside of the tub and then insert your 3 AA batteries and screw the cover back on. Now why don’t they just make this a spring tab door instead of having to mess with a screwdriver? One would think it’s because they don’t want the kids playing with the batteries, but since the game pieces are small, you obviously already need some form of adult supervision when playing this game. So in this instance, I think you could make the battery compartment a little easier to deal with. Just a thought. Then right next to the battery compartment you have the on / off switch indicated by an “O” and a “-“. I can personally never remember which of these symbols means which since an O could mean on or off and who the heck knows what a hyphen means. But I guess they want the same manufacturing for global distribution without worrying about language barriers. I get it. I’m guessing the O is for on? I’m going with that! Ok, so now I’ve turned this thing on, snapped my brackets into the tub, snapped Soggy Doggy’s skeleton onto the brackets making sure the shaking mechanism in the tub goes into the slot in the dog’s underside. Now we dress the koosh dog skin over the frame and voila! Now we have to insert the shower head into its’ hole in the tub, fill the tub with water and we’re ready to go! There are two handles on the tub. One has a paw print on it and you push it down to pump water up through the shower head which gets the dog toy wet. The other handle is the one you turn to make the dog shake. But the catch is that it doesn’t make him shake every time you turn the handle, so you never know when Soggy Doggy is going to soak you! And THAT’S the fun part! GAME PLAY There is a single die with colors, a question mark and a paw print. The youngest player rolls first and then game play goes clockwise. Everyone starts from the home position which is a doggy bed / basket kind of thing. If you roll a color, you advance your piece to the first space with that color which will also have either a number one or two on it. You pump the water handle that same number of times and also turn the spigot handle that same number of half turns and hope the doggy doesn’t shake on you. If the doggy shakes, you go back to the home position but you also pick up a white token which corresponds to your game piece. The next time the doggy shakes on your turn, you simply turn in your token instead of going back to start. If you roll a question mark, it means you roll again. If you roll a paw print, you advance to one space in front of whomever is in the lead! WRAP UP AND TOWEL OFF! I really enjoyed this game. It was simple, fun and unique. The dog is really well done and the action is fantastic. Kids and adults alike will have an absolute blast playing SOGGY DOGGY! Me and Emma-Lou give it four paws way up! My suggestion is to place this game on a towel when you play because despite your best efforts, your table will get wet no matter what you do. Thanks for reading and come back next month for another awesome adventure here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! NOW GO WASH YOUR DOG! *** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! Super Supporters also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed? watch the video below!

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! Don’t adjust your dials! This IS the Dandy Fun House, but today my good friend, Neil Dandy asked me – COUNT DRAHOON to fill in and guest host this very special HALLOWEEN episode! This will not be your typical Dandy Fun House episode, but instead will be the Count’s SPOOPY, SPOOKY SPOOK SHACK! And on the Spook Shack today, I am going to do a little tasting of all the classic Monster Cereals and give you my expert opinion on which one is THE BEST! Let’s dive right into THE SPOOK SHACK! I have great friends, but strange friends. I was honored and yet perplexed to be asked to eat… cereal. VAMPIRES TYPICALLY DON’T EAT CEREAL in case you didn’t already know that little factoid but we’re going to do our best. So what better use to call in a favor from a vampire friend than to have him try MONSTER CEREALS! (I couldn’t think of a better use of my time) so I am here to do a little taste test of these 4 cereals that I have here, put out by General Mills. You’re probably familiar with at least two or three of them. We have the classic COUNT CHOCULA! Wait a minute… I’ve always thought that this particular Count looked like my cousin Al. And there is a striking resemblance, but I’m not aware of any place in the vampire kingdom that is covered in chocolate. I’ll have to do my research. Next to Count Chocula we have the FRANKEN BERRY! Which looks like a really offensive caricature of my son, Darrell. But he’s sort of a more berry-infused version of Frankenstein’s Monster. I like the color but I don’t know how I feel about a berry taste. Basically, what I’m doing for my taste test is that I’m splitting this up in the rules of professional wrestling, or as they say way further south of the Mason Dixon Line, “Rasslin’!” Our main event being Franken Berry vs. Count Chocula preceded by our undercard match with the other two cereals. Here we have a ghostly little fellow called BOO BERRY! (that’s a delightful little pun!) He’s a bit like Casper but it looks like he maybe had some experience in vaudeville. Maybe he did a vaudeville act where he ate too much cereal and now he’s a ghost, who knows? And to the right of the Boo Berry we have the FRUTE BRUTE! I’m not really sure why it called a Frute Brute other than it’s a fruity cereal. The Brute isn’t actually a brute, it’s a WEREWOLF! So I’m thinking that maybe the marketing firm at General Mills ran out of rhymes and so had to come up with something on the fly. And I’d also like to note that there seems to be a disproportionate amount of berryism here. We only have the one sort of savory-sweet cereal with the Count Chocula and then everything else is fruits and berries. I feel like Count Chocula is sort of left to dry out here on his own. Such is the life of a vampire. HISTORY The line of monster cereals was actually released in 1971. And spooks and spookettes, if you know your monster movie history, this sort of coincides with the monster movie renaissance of the that was kicked off by famous monsters of filmland. There was a big demand of monster culture and old school monster films. And so General Mills probably felt this was a good opportunity to cash and give us a whole line of monster cereals and thus Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry have been with us ever since. These are wildly popular cereals. I DON’T EVEN EAT HUMAN FOOD and I know what they are! The line also included two othere cereals, Frute Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy which was actually discontinued sometime in the 80’s and Frute Brute went away for a while as well but this year they brought it back! So with this feta four-way, let’s dive right into… THE TASTING! UNDERCARD MATCH! FRUTE BRUTE vs. BOO BERRY! FRUTE BRUTE: Since they’ve recently resurrected Frute Brute from the dead, I’m going to dive right into the Frute Brute! Oh, no toy. Now keep in mind that I’m not a cereal conisseur. There’s a first time for everything. It’ looks tasty. It smells very fruity, but is it Brutey? (crunch, crunch..) interesting… so this is cereal. My favorite part is the marshmallow. I don’t really know what they’re in the shape of so we’ll just call them diamonds. Diamonds are a ghoul’s best fiend. I have to say that marshmallows in the cereal are kind of a strange texture to me. It sent chills down my spine and I don’t know if that’s an appropriate response. The grains of the cereal are sort of in the shape of little ghosts which is disappointing because you would hope they would have something in the shape of the brute like a werewolf. It’s an enjoyable experience eating food. So far so good. My first time eating cereal. Not bad! BOO BERRY: And now we go for the contender in this undercard match, the BOO BERRY! I just love that. It’s such a nice pun! Nothing to warm the cold heart of a vampire than a good pun early in the morning!   Opening the box of Boo Berry, I notice that the shapes are indentical to Frute Brute but different colors. with Boo Berry you do have more of a variety of marshmallows with little pumpkins, bats and ghosts. A little more going on here. So let’s go ahead and taste this little paparat! (crunch… crunch…) I don’t know what it is… I seem to be enjoying this one a little more than the Frute Brute which I feel was just Boo Berry dyed a different color. But this one seems like the real deal. This is BOO BERRY! This is what we’ve been looking for all of our lives. The combination of the Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant, all of that! UNDERCARD MATCH DECISION: Without a doubt – BOO BERRY!   MAIN EVENT! COUNT CHOCULA vs. FRANKEN BERRY! So for our main event, we have Frank Berry which has an oddly offensive caricature of my son versus Count Chocula which I’m about ninety percent sure is a long lost relative of mine. Let’s dig in! COUNT CHOCULA: I’m going to take a break from all of the berryism and go straight into the Count Chocula which I’m told is the highest-selling of all the monster cereals. So let’s see what all the fuss is about shall we? The shapes are pretty much the same as the other two cereals I’ve tasted so far so this appears to be just a consistent design across the line of monster cereals. It’s as if General Mills doesn’t know that MONSTERS CRAVE VARIETY in our cereals… I guess. More marshmallows in this one. There does seem to be a difference in that we have different colors of bats in here, some with swirls. And now for the big taste test… (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) Wow! (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) It still tastes great even after the other 80 bites. I can see why you spooks and spookettes like this. I think I could eat chocolate every day of my life. I may give up blood. I could eat this every day of my afterlife. What do they call someone who can’t stop eating chocolate? A chocoholic? I am a chocoholic! (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) This CAN’T BE HEALTHY FOR YOU! There’s now way! It’s delightful! It’s everything you dream about! If I could go to Heaven, this is where I’d want to be! (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) ok, that’s enough… one more bite… (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…). Maybe I’m a little biased because there’s a vampire on the box but that’s tough to beat! FRANKEN BERRY: This looks exactly like Frute Brute! Almost the exact same thing. The only difference is the colors of the marshmallows and this appears to have more variety. I have to unleash the palette! Attack! Attack! Hmmm… (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) This one… tastes… as if Frute Brute was really giving 100 percent. Frute Brute is the slacker college edition of what this cereal needs to be and Franken Berry is it’s full potential. I’m starting to think that Frute Brute was just a scheme to get more money and Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry are the real deal as far as the quality of the cereals. (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) I hope I don’t get canceled for that! (crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch… crunch…) I can see why these two are the main event. MAIN EVENT DECISION: This one was a little more difficult… but for the main event I have to give it to COUNT CHOCULA! Simply because this one really stands out amongst the pack! Everything else is just really fruity and berry and nothing beats chocolate! Even from an outsider’s perspective. I don’t see how you can get any better than putting chocolate in a cereal! That stated, I have to give Franken Berry an honorable mention but for this, I’m going to have to stick with my own kind. It’s just delicious how the chocolate mixes with the grains and marshmallow. This is definitely number one! The winner! No compromises! Still I have to say that Franken Berry and Boo Berry do deserve an honorable mention. I was a little disappointed in Frute Brute simply because there doesn’t seem to be anything different. I wish General Mills would be a little more sensitive to the needs of monsters around the world and maybe have differnt flavors centered around different monsters. Like maybe a caramel-flavored cereal with a Harpie or maybe a ketchup cereal with Jason Vorhees not withstanding copyright laws and all that! What a fun time I’ve had but now that I think about it… I really wish Yummy Mummy could have been here. But something tells me it’s probably not that much different from Franken Berry. Now it’s time for me to relenquish the reigns of the Spook Shack and return you to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! *** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! SUPER SUPPORTERS also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! *** COUNT DRAHOON LINKS: Website: http://www.FeatureOfFright.com Instagram: @countdrahoon Twitter: @countdrahoon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/countdrahoon Troma Now: https://watch.troma.com/search?q=count+drahoon Count Drahoon is the host of Count Drahoon’s Feature of Fright podcast bringing you original scary stories in the style of dramatic radio theater! Subscribe and enjoy at http://www.FeatureOfFright.com

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re braving the tundra to bring you the TOTY-award-winning game, YETI IN MY SPAGHETTI! Let’s step into the Dandy Warming Lodge before we freeze! Today’s mission is to unbox and show you how to play this modern classic from PlayMonster. PlayMonster has also been charged with continuing to bring you such classic toys and games as Wooly Willy, Spirograph, Fashion Plates, Colorforms and many others! Kudos to Play Monster for keeping the classics alive! It’s also TOTY-Award winning (toy of the year in the category of games). Nice going! THE BOX Whoever designed this box is a freaking genius! It looks like an Italian kitchen table and also has the actual Yeti figurine poking out of the box! The back shows kids playing and having a great time with it. It’s unique and immediately catches your eye on the shelf (at least it did mine). The marketing team absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one! UNBOXING A couple of adhesive tabs keeping the theives at bay secure the flap. This leaves the unfortunate choice to either slit the tape or tear it and mar the box. I chose to be a brute and mar the box. Inside you have a big red pasta bowl, a plastic bag containing the instructions and 30 strands of wavy, plastic spaghetti and then you have the YETI. The Yeti is under a bubble pack of its own glued to a cardboard insert which makes it poke out of the front of the box. It took me a minute to figure this out and slide the insert from the box. Then I tugged at the back of the Yeti before finally pulling the plastic bubble pack away from the cardboard backing to give birth to my Yeti and feed him his first taste of spaghetti! THE OBJECT You have 30 strands of wavy plastic spaghetti and you lay them across the top of the bowl in a criss-cross random pattern. You then set the Yeti on top of the spaghetti strands and players take turns removing strands of spaghetti one-handedly until someone makes the Yeti fall into the bowl. That person is the LOSER! Just that simple. Just that fun! It’s sort of like Jenga except this is actually interesting. Does Jenga have a cute little Yeti toy? I don’t think so! GAME PLAY After taking just a few seconds to lay my strands of spaghetti across the bowl and set my Yeti atop, I started pulling strands. Very simple at first, but once you’re about 10 strands in, things start to get hairy! The waves in the spaghetti grab each other making it a challenge to remove one without disturbing the other strands and making the Yeti move. But eventually I did lose to myself and make Mr. Yeti fall into the bowl to his awaiting fate in the pretend marinara! CONCLUSION I’m in my 50’s and I HAD FUN! I had fun unboxing it, setting it up and also playing with it. It’s a great time for kids and adults of all ages and there are no parts small enough to be a choking hazard unless you try to play sword-swallower with a strand of plastic spaghetti, but those are so long that you could probably just pull it right out anyway. Hey, maybe Play Monster could make a sword-swallowing game! Just a thought! I can see why this won game of the year. It’s so simple and fun! On a scale of 1-10, I give Yeti in my Spaghetti a SASQUATCH! SHAMELESS BEGGING IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! Super Supporters also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! DON’T FORGET Next month is our annual Halloween episode and this one is going to be a doozy! We’re having a Monster Cereal Showdown! The undercard match will be Frute Brute vs. Boo Berry with the main event being the two titans of the monster cereal world going head-to-head! COUNT CHOCULA VS. FRANKENBERRY! Be sure to get right back 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re gonna pop it, lock it, drop it in the oven! No pushin’, no shovin’, gonna bake a little lovin’ ’cause we’re gonna make one of those strange desserts that could only come from the south… SODA CAKE! Let’s step into the Fun House! Head chef, Neil Dandy here! If you’ve been itchin’ to produce some Southwatering flavors from your kitchen, you’ve come to the right place! Because today we’re going to make soda cake! Soda Cake is one of those oddball sweet treats from south of the Mason Dixon Line like RC Cola, Goo Goo Clusters, Moon Pies, Chess Pies, Sweet Tea you can stand your spoon straight up in and for some reason God only knows – molded Jello with marshmallows and fruit inside! Yikes! But this confederate confection promises to perch right at the top of that redneck mountain of sweet treats because it’s supposed to be delicious and it’s supposed to be oh so simple. Why am I saying “supposed to be? It’s because I’ve never made nor tasted soda cake, but apparently all there is to it is to simply purchase a boxed cake mix of your choice, mix in the soda of your choice (no other ingredients even if the box calls for them! No butter. No eggs. No nothing.) and bake it in the oven per the instructions on the box. Just that simple! Or so we hope…   There are many different combinations depending on the cake you want to make such as Creamsicle, Purple Cow, Strawberry Shortcake, Ginger Spice, Very Cherry Chip, Devil’s Cola, Zesty Lemon and Chocolate Rootbeer Float. I’m sure there are many others, but these were from a graphic I found online which has been circulating around the internet recently so I’ll just stick with these for now. So the big question now is WHICH ONE TO MAKE!? To help us decide, let’s head over to one of my favorite internet destinations, spinnerwheel.com where indecisive folks like myself input our options, spin a digital wheel of destiny and let Mother Internet decide! I’ve designed my wheel and chosen a circus theme, input our choices and here we go! PURPLE COW CAKE IT IS! MOOOOO! For this, all we need is 12 ounces of grape soda, a boxed white cake mix and frosting. Let’s go shopping! I went to three different stores in my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee where people told me I could find Southern brands of grape soda like NuGrape, Grapico and Nehi. First I tried a local soda shop all all they had was some French stuff called Grape du Raisin (ummm…. no.) Then I tried a favorite local bbq joint that has a cooling tub full of vintage-style sodas (no grape there). And unfortunately I also struck out at Cracker Barrel! So off to the regular ol’ grocery store I go! I found my self at the Kroger about a mile from home. The grape sodas were a bit slim pickins here too. I found a 2 liter of Fanta, a 12 pack of the generic Kroger brand and individual 20 oz bottles of grape Crush. Just what I needed. So I grab a bottle of grape Crush and head to the baking aisle for some Betty Crocker white cake mix and some fluffy white Betty Crocker frosting which I plan to mix my excess soda into and turn purple! So here we are back at Mrs. Dandy’s Kitchen. She lets me in here every once a while and I make a horrible mess. First off, we need to properly grease and flour or baking pan (this is only going to make enough for a single layer cake). Since I don’t have any lard in my pantry, I got my Paula Deen on and coated the pan in buttah! Then of course a good dusting of flour.   First we’re going to preheat our oven to 350 degrees just like the instructions tell us and while that’s warming up, we’re going to start mixing our batter, starting with our 12 ounces of soday (cup and a half) slowly adding in our mix and keeping up our stirring until everything is nice and smooth. And I’m using a wooden spoon in honor of my grandmother Alma who used to beat me senseless with a wooden spoon when I was a child (and I deserved every whack I got!) Then we’re going to gently pour our batter into our cake pan, being sure to scrape the sides of our mixing bowl so as not to waste. Waste not want not my mama always said! and of course, lick the spoon! Alright, our alarm has gone off indicating that our oven is fully up to temperature and we’re going to gently set our pan onto the center rack, close the door and set our timer to 30 minutes just like the box tells us. But we’ll come back in 20 minutes and do the toothpick test. The toothpick test is where you stick a toothpick into the center of your cake and if it comes out wet, you need to put the cake back in a bit longer. If it comes out clean, your cake is baked! While our purple cow is baking, we’ll prepare our frosting! I was warned by a couple of friends when they learned I was planning to mix soda into the frosting that I was headed for disaster. They told me it would break down and become useless or reduced to a glaze at best. But torpedos be darned, I’m doing it anyway! I dish out 2/3 of the frosting can into a small mixing bowl and start introducing the grape soda into it. Once I get it to a nice light purple color, I notice my frosting is a bit too loosey-goosey so I cover it with a plastic Walmart bag and put it in the fridge to chill and hopefully coagulate a bit. This leaves me with about 15 minutes to relax before I’ll need to check on the cake, so I’ll just log onto the internet and watch a nice episode of Dukes of Hazzard. If you skip the commercials, it should time out just about right! Yep, them Duke boys don’t know it yet but up over yonder, Daisy’s baking up a whole heap o trouble down at the Boar’s Nest! (15 minutes later…) I do a quick check on the cake. It’s jiggling a bit and the toothpick goes in and comes out wet, so back in for another ten minutes it goes! (10 minutes later…) What’s that I hear!? It’s our timer letting us know that the cake is baked! But before we take it out, let’s do the final toothpick test! Ok, our toothpick is clean and let’s Gently, gently, gently use our kitchen towel to slowly pull it out and place it on the stove top to cool. I’d love to leave it open to the air, but because we have a dog that sheds like crazy, I have no choice but to cover it up with a plate. After about an hour, I pull the plate off on my way out the door for the day and notice a lot of condensation on the underside of our covering plate. So I dry it with my kitchen towel and ask Mrs. Dandy to check on it and dry it again later in the day while I’m out. (The following morning…) Well here we are to take our purple cow out of the pan and boy does it look great! As it cooled, it did pull away from the sides of the pan and hopefully that will help me get it out without too many issues. I flip it over onto our covering plate but it doesn’t come out on the first try and I have to come back and gently work the sides with my rubber spatula. One more try and it comes out easily although leaving just a little of the underside stuck to the pan. No biggie. Now I want to flip it back over onto our presentation plate and this leaves just a bit of the top stuck to our covering plate. Just a little residue though. The cake is still fully intact so our Paula Deen butterin’ job was a success! It’s time to frost this little lady of the antebellum so the moment of truth has arrived! I put the spreader into our bowl of frosting and… it’s smooth as silk and spreads like a Texas cattle ranch! “IN YOUR FACE NAYSAYERS! IN YOUR FACE!” I get my cake frosted and I’m going to use the remaining white frosting I held back to create some cow spots. They turn out more like white clumps, but it still looks good and our Purple Cow Cake is complete! I’m going to cover this up and I can’t wait to serve it to the Dandy Family later tonight when they get home from work and school! (Later that night…) And here we are! Everybody’s home from work and school and we are ready to cut into this Purple Cow Cake! Look at that purple color! The first slice goes to Mrs. Dandy for allowing me to wreck her kitchen over the past couple of days. The next goes to Evan the Boy Dandy and I take the third. On the count of three we all take a bite! Mrs Dandy: “It’s got a good flavor. It’s got a light grapiness to it. The cake is moist which is always a good thing and I think it’s very good! I like the flavor. It’s very delicious!” Evan Dandy: “It’s moist, has a cool color and cool frosting. It tastes good!” Neil Dandy: “I have to tell you, I like this cake!” (all together): AND THAT’S HOW TO MAKE SODA CAKE! And if you’d like to help us bake OUR cake here at the Dandy Fun House and support the production of future episodes, please visit our patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com . There you can watch all our videos, subscribe to the podcast and read the blog. Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material. Super Supporters will also gain access to exclusive bonus material PLUS I’ll mail you stuff from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios that Mrs. Dandy wants me to unload on some poor suckers so we can make room for her new hobby of designing Halloween-themed Christmas trees! Well, that cooks us for now, y’all come back now ya hear 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

This show's all about... The FLINTSTONES! How one of the most loved animated series in television was born, interesting history, fun facts, star-studded guest appearances, near death experiences, merchandising fever, reasons to fear the Flintstones Kids, jumping the shark and to top it all off I'm going to conduct a head-to-head taste test of the Flintstones cereals Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles! Are you ready to Bedrock!? Let's step into the Fun House!

Watch the video below! Listen to the podcast below! Rube Goldberg was an American author, sculptor, inventor and cartoonist who lived from the late 1800s through 1970. He was perhaps best known for his very elaborate drawings and cartoons of very convoluted machines doing very simple tasks such as operating a napkin or striking a match. These drawings were the inspiration for the world’s first 3-dimensional board game which is still a hot product to this day. I’m talking about the game of MOUSE TRAP. Mouse Trap was invented in 1963 by Marvin Glass and Associates who made no secret about drawing inspiration from the drawings of Rube Goldberg although they had no deal with Rube nor did they ever pay him a penny. It is believed that Goldberg protested a bit but never pursued legal action mainly because he didn’t feel he had a winning case. General ideas are unfortunately not copywritable. Rube did eventually strike a deal with the Modern Toy Company to protect his remaining drawings and intellectual properties that were able to be protected. Ok, onto the game. The box has a modern, updated blue design which touts an easier setup. The back shows children playing with the game and having a great time. Upon opening the box, there are many various plastic pieces along with a smaller box to hold the smaller pieces including a metal ball which I’m pretty sure would be considered a choking hazard for very young children. This is probably one reason the game is rated for ages 6 and up. In earlier versions, (from my research) the object used to be working with your opponents to put the machine together while playing the game, but in the modern version you apparently erect everything first before game play. Then the object is to collect 6 pieces of cheese while keeping your opponents from collecting cheese and catching them in the trap. I started trying to put it all together by just looking at the outlines on the board but quickly found that to be nearly impossible, but nowhere near as impossible as trying to fit the pieces into the slots on the board which I was never able to accomplish after many attempts. I finally started following the instructions which weren’t always very clear but I did eventually manage to finish putting the contraption together. I tried several times to trigger the chain reaction by snapping the stop sign against the boot which is supposed to kick the bucket over sending the choking hazard metal ball down the stairs, blah blah blah. But no matter how many times I snapped that dang stop sign, the boot simply would not kick the bucket over. I readjusted and readjusted with no luck. Finally I just knocked over the bucket by hand and as the metal ball got about halfway through the various chain reactions, it would always bounce off the side forcing me to chase it, lose it, find it, catch it, etc. and all this action on the board would sometimes cause the basket trap at the end to fall prematurely. Getting the basket back to the top was a frustrating challenge as well. Eventually I did get the entire chain reaction (with the exception of the stop sign kicking the boot) to successfully complete and by that time I was pretty much done with this frustrating mess of a game. I can’t imagine giving this thing to a kid and expecting them to put it together. I promise they’ll be calling for your help almost immediately. The fact that they would tout this as having an easier setup right on the box is a complete joke. If this is an easier setup, I would hate to see what it was before. So I’m guessing by now, you know how I’m going to rate this product. I give it an absolute THUMBS DOWN! If you want an exercise in frustration, this one’s for you! I personally gave myself some post-Mouse Trap therapy by beating the entire contraption against my kitchen table and throwing the whole mess across the room. Then I carefully boxed it all back up and donated it to the youth group at my church! Bwa-ha-ha! *** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF FUTURE EPISODES, PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING VIA OUR PATRONAGE PAGE AT http://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! Super Supporters also gain access to bonus material PLUS we’ll mail you some wacky stuff straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios if you give us your mailing address! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we're going to melt down the history of MAD Magazine! How it all started, the back stories of some of their most iconic contributors, battles with J Edgar Hoover, corporate takeovers and how a lawsuit against MAD Magazine filed by Irving Berlin set in place the legal protections for parody and satire that we take for granted today!

Watch the video below! Listen to the podcast below! Hi! I’m Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog! I bet you’re wondering how a dog can write an article. It’s simple! I just use bark-to-type! Anyway, in this extra special installment of the Dandy Fun House we’re gonna pull out some new tricks, roll over and invite you into the DANDY DOG HOUSE instead where we’re going to explore the TOP TEN PUP-FRIENDLY ATTRACTIONS IN AMERICA! Sit! Stay! We’re going for a ride… INTO THE DANDY DOG HOUSE! This one took a lot of research to find attractions you can actually go through with your doggie that aren’t just a greenway, state park or garden of some sort. Not that we don’t love these things because there’s always lots to sniff, but most people have walking paths and greenways and state parks within an hour or two of where they live. And here at the Dandy Dog House, we explore the world of amusements not the world of nature trails! So it really took some digging to find the treats! So without further adieu, here is our TOP TEN LIST OF THE BEST DOG-FRIENDLY ATTRACTIONS IN AMERICA! #10 TWEETSIE RAILROAD, Blowing Rock, NC https://tweetsie.com This one just barely squeak-toyed into our top ten and almost didn’t make it at all because pups aren’t permitted on any of the transportation, dining areas, rides or even the zoo! BOO! BUT there ARE dog-friendly theatre shows, a really cool path where we can check out a bunch of old-timey trains and there’s even a Frisbee Dog Demonstration! Sounds like I could learn some new tricks! #9 ALLIGATORS UNLIMITED AIRBOAT TOURS, Lake Wales, FL http://www.mildtowildairboattours.com This place offers a thrilling airboat ride through the Florida Everglades! Doggies are allowed on a case-by-case basis, so if your dog just can’t resist jumping in for a swim, this might NOT be the best idea for you. We like to eat the treats! We don’t wanna BE the treats! #8 PIMA AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM – Tucson, AZ https://pimaair.org If your pup’s a real space-cadet, this could be the perfect day trip for you! This is one of the biggest air and space museums in the world with over 300 air and space craft including many with major historical signifigance! Leashed pets are welcomed in all public spaces except the restaurant and tram tour. #7 TALLAHASSEE AUTOMOBILE MUSEUM – Tallahassee, FL https://tacm.com If your doggie is like me and loves to go for a ride, you’ll love this Fido-Friendly museum with a great collection of over 130 classic muscle cars, movie cars, motorbikes (hopefully with doggie side cars) and other awesome antiquities! *** #6 HAS INFORMED US POST-PUBLICATION THAT OUR RESOURCE WAS INCORRECT AND THEY ACTUALLY DO NOT ALLOW DOGS! SORRY! *** #5 FLORIDA MANATEE ADVENTURES – Three Sisters Springs, Crystal River, FL http://floridamanateeadventures.com If you’ve been thinking about going on a manatee or dolphin tour, good-dogs are welcome! Drinks and snacks are provided on your three hour tour! Three hour tour! #4 FANTASTIC CAVERNS RIDE-THROUGH CAVE TOUR, Springfield, MO https://fantasticcaverns.com This is almost a full-hour Jeep-drawn tram tour which takes you through the ancient underground riverbed where you can see all the amazing natural cave formations! Leashed pups are allowed to ride through the cavern and also into the building! #3 THE INTERNATIONAL UFO MUSEUM and RESEARCH CENTER, Roswell, NM https://www.roswellufomuseum.com If you believe the truth is out there and want to dig into it with your doggie, you and rover can go right over and be allowed inside the facility! Here you’ll learn in-depth information relating to the 1947 Roswell Incident and UFOs! And sorry, but I can’t resist here. It’s just a pet peeve of mine. The term UFO, doesn’t necessarily refer to aliens. It only means a flying object that hasn’t been identified. Next thing you know, people are going to start believing in article-writing dogs! #2 DINOSAUR WORLD – Cave City KY https://dinosaurworld.com/kentucky I took my family here a few years back and we had a bone-boomer of a time! We walked trails with lots of full-sized dinosaurs, dug for fossils and posed for fun pictures in some of the many awesome photo areas! I totally dug this place! #1 KNOEBELS AMUSEMENT RESORT – Elysburg, PA https://www.knoebels.com According to BringFido.com this free-admission theme park not only allows dogs into the park, but there are also a few gentle attractions like the train, vintage cars and even certain water attractions you can actually take your pooch onto! There are even dog-friendly dining areas! Two Paws waaaay up! Hold on! I’ve got one more for you! Here’s a BONE-US TIP! One fun thing we found while doing the research for this publication is that in almost every community we searched in, there were dog-friendly ghost tours where you can learn all about the spooky history and spirit legends of America’s most iconic towns! And if ghosts and goblins aren’t your thing, most communities also just have historical walking tours where you can bring your best friend along and learn all about the local history! And there you have it! The Dandy Dog House Top Ten Pup-Friendly Attractions In America! Now you know lots of stuff you can do with your doggie! And while I’m thinking about it, I want to give special acknowledgement to 3 amazing resources we used in the research for this episode!   BringFido.com TripsWithPets.com PetFriendlyTravel.com All 3 of these resources have tons more destinations listed for you to explore so be sure to check them out! And if you’ve enjoyed this installment of the DANDY DOG HOUSE, please consider supporting the productions of future episodes by visiting our patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features and super supporters will get special prizes mailed to them from right here at the Dandy Fun House studios IF you give us your mailing address! Thanks for hanging out for our special pooch party at the Dandy Dog House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog is the Executive Producer of the Dandy Dog House and Canine Mayor of Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Aren’t you impressed?

watch video below! listen to the podcast below! In this episode, we’re going to explore the storied history of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus and break the story on its imminent comeback! Phineas Taylor Barnum, or as he’s better known… P.T. BARNUM! If you’ve seen The Greatest Showman, you already know it was an amazing movie! It was based on the life of the legendary P.T. Barnum and was about as entertaining as anything the man himself may have presented and unfortunately just about as accurate too. But it’s a very tall order to condense a life as storied as Barnum’s into just 2 hours and change. After all, he was a newspaper publisher, showman, politician, philanthropist and so much more. But most of all, he looked NOTHING like Hugh Jackman! Not a lot of people recall this about P.T., but he actually served two terms as a Republican in the Connecticut Legislature, most notably speaking in favor of the 13th amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery. Although he DID have the museum of oddities in New York when he was younger, P.T. Barnum didn’t actually get into the circus business until 1872 when at the age of 60 he teamed up with entrepreneurs Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup. Together they formed P.T. Barnum’s Great Traveling Exposition and World’s Fair which is believed to be the first circus to add a 2nd ring which doubled the number of simultaneous performances and increased seating capacity. They also made it into a train traveling show pioneering the model for the railroad circus. This allowed them to take their show to towns in the midwest who didn’t get nearly as many opportunities for this type of entertainment as towns on the coast. Remember those boxes of animal crackers with all those lions, tigers and bears on the train cars? P.T. partnered with circus business veteran James Bailey from the Cooper and Bailey Circus 10 years later in 1880. That’s right, PT Barnum was 70 years old when Barnum and Bailey’s circus, The Greatest Show On Earth was established with Barnum as the face of the show and Bailey as the businessman. Together, they added a 3rd ring to the (at the time) circus standard of 2 rings and created the enduring standard that we know today as the 3-ring circus! Ten years later at the age of 80, PT Barnum passed away from a stroke and James Bailey carried on with the circus they founded as well as taking on the management of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Who were the Ringling Brothers? The Ringling Brothers were the 7 sons of German harness-maker Heinrich Friedrich August Rüngeling and a French-descended lady named Marie Salome Juliar. In 1882, 4 of the brothers Albert, Otto, Alfred and John formed the Classic Comic Concert Company, a touring song-and-dance troupe. After 2 years on the road, they began adding circus entertainers to their show and launched the Ringling Brothers Circus on May 19th, 1884 in their hometown of Baraboo, Wisconsin. It was a slow building process for the first 4 years as a circus troupe, that is until 1888 when they got an elephant and business started to rampage! In 1890, they followed P.T. Barnum’s lead taking to the railways with their show and by 1900 they were one of Barnum and Bailey’s largest competitors helped along by their penchant for buying up other circuses like the Forepaugh-Sells Circus and upon James Bailey’s death in 1906, purchasing the Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1907. Thus the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was born and were instantly the leading circus in all of America! In 1929, Ringling Brothers expanded their empire even further purchasing the American Circus Corporation bringing the total number of circus organizations operating under their control to 11. Their shows were massive for this time in history with a big top seating capacity of 10,000 people! The Ringling Brothers family continued their domination of the circus industry throughout the decades thrilling ladies, gentlemen and children of all ages until 1967 when it was purchased by Feld Entertainment, who own it to this day along with other shows such as Monster Jam, Disney on Ice and Marvel Live. Feld took the reigns and ran the circus like a well-oiled clown car including the Florida amusement park, Circus World which I actually had the pleasure to visit as a child and got stuck on a roller coaster that wouldn’t stop its first time back to the gate and I got to go an extra turn while my Mom freaked out! Beginning of the End At the turn of the millineum, animal rights groups began targeting the Ringling Brothers circus as they did incorporate Asian Elephants into their shows which were categorized as an endangered species. There was a lawsuit alleging violations of the endangered species act which was dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing, but the bad publicity still stung. In 2015, Feld Entertainment relented to public pressure and ended their elephant performances. And two years later touting declining ticket sales, higher operating costs and evolving tastes of modern audiences, They ultimately took the big top down for good in 2017 after 146 years. But What About Cirque De Soliel!? Cirque de Soliel has absolutely nothing to do with Ringling Brothers but I’m going to talk about them here for a moment anyway, because during the time that Ringling was declining and closing, Cirque de Soliel was growing and thriving with amazing performances, acrobatic acts, clowns and more. ALL WITHOUT THE INCORPORATION OF ANY EXOTIC ANIMALS! So… If you believe that an enterprise as iconic, enduring and well-known as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus could not be reimagined, updated and modernized with the help of some brilliant marketing minds, well… YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT! I did a little digging around, investigative work if you will. I visited ringling.com which wasn’t very helpful as it’s just a splash page with a sign up form to receive Ringling Brothers news and updates. I went ahead and signed up just to see what I would receive. One month later, I have received absolutely nothing. After clicking submit, it took me to another page which had a link to a Ringling Brothers merchandise store with somewhat sparse offerings and links to their social media sites which don’t appear to have been updated in a few years. I could literally feel the cobwebs coming off the web-presence of Ringling! So from there, I go to the Feld Entertainment website and clicked around. No Ringling on the front page. No Ringling in the press releases and finally clicked the menu link that said AUDITIONS where I found something very interesting… Under Feld Entertainment’s List of shows which they produce, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus was the VERY FIRST SHOW LISTED along with all the other shows they own. Was this simply a catalog of their various intellectual properties? The logo was clickable, so I clicked to see where this rabbit hole might lead me and it brings me to a page with a very modern and fresh-looking graphic which says LIVE AUDITIONS WORLD TOUR Las Vegas, Paris France, Cape Town South Africa, Buenos Aires Argentina, Moscow Russia, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia and Beijing China! Seeking Circus performers, physical comedians and characters, athletes, musicians, dancers, street performers, daredevils and other original acts! (nothing regarding animal acts). So NOW I’m getting excited! Still not sure if this might just be some old relic from a dusty page on their site which was never updated because there is nothing on this page which indicates a date or a year. No time reference. But there IS a link to start the audition process so… I click it! This brings me to a pretty bland, sterile-looking page with a very unimpressive version of the Ringling logo. But towards the bottom there is another link with a somewhat small typeface which says… THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH WORLDWIDE AUDITIONS 2022… Apply Now! So NOW I’m picking my jaw up from the floor because I’ve just uncovered something that has not yet been made known to the general public. I’m sure there’s what you might call a whisper campaign going on within the industry, but what I mean to say is that I appear to have uncovered quite the newsworthy bombshell here! So… I call the Feld Entertainment main office to see if I could get any information, stayed on hold for about 5 or 10 minutes and then got a recording that they couldn’t take my call and to leave a message which I did. I also left a message in their marketing department and sent an email to the general information email address for Feld Entertainment. Then I called an audible while I was in the thick of banging out the script for the very installment of the Dandy Fun House you are enjoying right now. The very next day I decided to do a short run-and-gun, lowkey production for episode 15 (the previous episode to this one) where I simply concentrated on what I had uncovered on the Feld Entertainment website regarding indications that after 5 years in the grave, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus were getting poised for a comeback! And right as I was wrapping up that quick little video and in the midst of rendering it in my computer, I take my phone out of airplane mode (which I always place my phone into when I want to immerse myself into the production of the Dandy Fun House and not be disturbed) and I see that someone has left me a voice message. This voice message turned out to be a woman from Feld Entertainment who did not identify herself but DID confirm that Ringling IS RETURNING! But she also had no further details she could share at this time. So at this point, I’m all excited because I feel like I just scooped a big, big story! That is until I realized I only have about 12 followers. But I’m still excited, so I run with and append this voice message to the end of episode 15 and shove it out there! Then the following day, I receive a reply to the email I had sent to the marketing department double-reconfirming the return of Ringling but also that they couldn’t divulge much more information at this time but that a press release would be forthcoming in the Spring of 2022! Ok, well THAT’S some information I didn’t have previously, so that email actually WAS helpful! The person who emailed me also encouraged me to reach out after the press release for a possible interview with their director of production, which is also pretty exciting. I’ve conducted tons of interviews in the past for a podcast I formerly hosted called Under Country Music, but I’ve never done an interview on the Dandy Fun House and I’m on the fence about doing so because this show is in the building process. I’m only 16 episodes in at this time and the first handful of episodes were largely me fumbling and trying to get my bearings and really hone in on what this show should be, what it should focus on and who the show is actually for. At this point I feel I’m pretty solid on those things in that this show is mainly a family-friendly retrospective of classic entertainment for grownups wishing to hearken back a bit without being “too stuck in the past” and get updated about where their classic forms of entertainment have evolved to in the modern age in a way that’s fun, entertaining and hopefully something they can share and enjoy with their own kids. I hope that made sense. But… (and bringing this clown car back into the garage…) I do not yet have a very big audience and would hate to take up the time of the production director of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus just to have them reach 20 people or so. While that would be very exciting for ME, I would much rather see them spending their time and energy reaching the masses in ways that will ultimately put behinds in the arena seats and help them be successful in this monumental comeback effort because (as I’ve said before at the end of episode 15) I think most of us can agree, the world could use a little Ringling right about now! WARNING! SHAMELESS GRIFTING AHEAD! And I could use a little jingling in my pocket baby! So if you enjoy this content and would like to support future episodes of the Dandy Fun House, please visit the patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com ! Supporters will gain access to exclusive bonus features, including my recent bonus feature of my Ringling Programs which I obtained at the circus in my childhood. 1976, 1979, 1980 and 1981. And I take you through them page-by-page! And if you are a super-supporter (meaning you support at a higher-level… ok, SEND ME MORE MONEY), I’ll mail you stuff from the Dandy Fun House studio (ok, my house) that Mrs. Dandy wants me to unload on some suckers! And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my resources for the information used in this episode: childrensmuseum.org Britannica.com neatorama.com feldentertainment.com ringling.com and of course wikipedia. You guys come back real soon to see what sort of trouble we can get into next 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!   LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW! RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS IS DEAD! … OR IS IT!??? Hello my favorite frivolitizers! ‘Tis I, Neil Dandy, host of the Dandy Fun House – the home of your favorite frivolities. And I’m sitting here doing a little research for my next episode which is going to be about the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus which as most people know, died in 2017. It was shut down, they lowered the big top and said “That’s it! It’s just too much overhead! Too expensive to run! Times have changed! Tastes have changed! Goodbye! Circus is part of history! We’re all done folks!” So, in my current phase of research, I was wanting to dive into the demise of the circus because I’m sort of at the end of putting that episode together. I get on the Ringling Brothers website which has all the indications of something that’s died because there’s not much there. You can sign up for a mailing list and also find links to their social media profiles which also haven’t been updated in many years. There is also a teeny-tiny unassuming text link to the Ringling Brothers online store. It’s so small that you really wouldn’t see it at all unless you were on a mission like mine where you are there scouring for any and all information you might be able to find. The store has a few hats, a few kids shirts, nothing at all under the link for men’s clothing but they DO have a nice selection of vintage show posters for sale which is pretty neat. But overall, hardly anything there like it’s been abandoned. You can almost feel the cobwebs on this website which saddened me to no end. Having not found anything on the official Ringling Brothers website, I then turn to their parent company’s website, Feld Entertainment. There were updates and press releases about all the various shows they currently produce such as Jurassic World Live, Sesame Street Live, Trolls Live, Disney on Ice, Marvel Universe and Monster Jam. Not a stitch about Ringling Brothers.   I click through the various navigational menu items to see if I could find something, ANYTHING AT ALL and finally come to the page for “Performer Auditions.” And what do you think I find as the very first option under performer auditions? That’s right! Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus! It was really just the logo itself along with the logos for all of Feld Entertainment’s various productions. I didn’t really know if I should think anything of it or not because it could have merely been a list of the various productions that they own and nothing more although it was curious to me that the only production of the bunch that had been shuttered was at the very top. So what the heck, I click on it and… MIND BLOWN! Clicking on that logo takes you to a page that says “RINGLING BROTHERS AND BARNUM AND BAILEY! THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! LIVE AUDITIONS WORLD TOUR! BE OUR NEXT SUPERSTAR!” and lists locations all over the world where auditions are being held including: Paris France, Cape Town South Africa, Las Vegas USA, Buenos Aires Argentina, Moscow Russia, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Beijing China. There is a list of various performers being sought such as physical comedians, athletes, musicians (including beatboxers), street stunt performers, daredevils and various innovative acts. No mention of animal acts probably because animal rights groups protesting the circus are largely believed to be what started the beginning of the end ultimately leading to it’s closure in 2017. But the absence of animal acts is something that stuck out to me on this list The page appears modern and fresh, so I ASSUME it’s current and not just an old page they neglected to delete, but I don’t know this for sure because every other indication I’ve come across to this point has largely solidified the common knowledge that Ringling is dead, dead, dead! But there IS a button on this page for starting the audition process, so of course I click it. This link takes me to a pretty sterile page with a very unassuming Ringling logo and just below that in a somewhat smallish type font it says WORLDWIDE AUDITIONS 2022! Ok, NOW I’m getting excited, so what do I do? Well, I figure I owe it to you guys to get to the bottom of things, so I call the Feld Entertainment Corporate office and stay on hold for about 5 minutes before a recording comes on that allows me to leave a message, so I do leave a message requesting confirmation regarding the return of the Ringling Brothers circus and any other information they may be able to share with me. After that, I find a number for their marketing department and leave a message there as well as sending a general email to an address I found on the website. The very next day, just as I am working on publishing the video of my findings (and of course while my phone is in airplane mode so I won’t be disturbed while recording) I receive a return phone call voice message from the Feld Entertainment corporate office confirming that Ringling IS RETURNING hopefully in the year 2023! You can hear the recording of this message in the video embedded in the top of this blog post. After publishing the video, the very next day, I received a response to my email reconfirming the return of Ringling and that they couldn’t disclose much at this time other than they are planning a press release for the Spring of 2022 and extending the possibility of my being able to conduct an interview with their Director of Production. SO BASICALLY, DANDY FUN HOUSE SCOOPS THE STORY ON THE RETURN OF RINGLING BROTHERS BEFORE IT’S MADE PUBLIC! Ok, I’m officially stoked now, but I’m not really sure what good a scoop does when you have an audience as small as mine. Also, does anyone really care about the circus anymore? Is it a relic of a bygone era or will Feld re-imagine the show from the ground up and bring us something fresh and exciting that will absolutely BLOW OUR MINDS!??? I certainly hope it’s the latter because I think the world could use a little Ringling right about now. *** Support the production of future episodes of the Dandy Fun House  via our patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material and super supporters will also gain access to bonus material plus I’ll mail you stuff from our house / Dandy Fun House Studios that Mrs. Dandy wants me to get rid of! (We’re doing a de-clutter right now…) That’s all folks! Be sure to bring your circus back here soon for the next episode of the Dandy Fun House where we’ll explore the history of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus! You might just learn something new right here 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

 watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this installment of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to unpackage and taste test the iconic Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll which I picked up from a roadside stand while driving through Alabama. You may be saying to yourself, what’s the big deal about some candied nut roll from the side of the road? Well… this particular pecan log roll is from the brand new batch in the brand new packaging from the brandly newly acquired factory from the brand new reorganization and revitalization efforts spearheaded by new CEO and granddaughter of W.S. Stuckey Senior himself, Stephanie Stuckey. We’re going to discuss the inspiring rise and the tragic fall of this chain of roadside stops that became part of Americana folklore with their tasty treats and kitschy, tacky, crazy souvenirs that would make your grandma blush and run straight to the safety of Cracker Barrel’s lobby. And of course we’re going to cover the underdog comeback fight currently being waged to bring this blast from the past back to its former glory. Ya feeling lucky Stuckey? Let’s step into the Fun House! Stuckey’s “was and is” a chain of roadside snack, convenience and souvenir stores mainly found throughout the United States Midwest and South with its headquarters located in Eastman, Georgia. Now why would I say “was and is?” Well, mainly because a large number of Stuckey’s locations you might have come across over the last decade or two have either been closed, abandoned, or if open; fallen under horrible neglect and disrepair. But that’s not the way it’s always been. In fact, in its heyday, Stuckey’s was that funky, fun joint your family might have stopped at while toodling down the highway to grandma’s house after playing car games like Punch Buggy, I Spy, or the License Plate Game because… no cell phones. Dad might have bought a toilet-shaped ashtray, your brother might have picked up a suction cup bow and arrow and tried to shoot you with it between the aisles and your sister might have gone gaga over a fairy disco roller skating doll while Mom was buying Pecan Divinity treats for everyone because… that’s what Moms do. Talk to anyone over the age of about 40 or 50 and they’re sure to have some fond memories of stopping at Stuckey’s for a bite to eat, something wacky tacky snacky, and gas to get em’ going way back in the day! Imagine it’s the early 1930’s in the farming and timber town of  Eastman, Georgia. W.S. “Sylvester” Stuckey Sr. is enjoying a bumper crop of pecans harvested from his family’s orchard. He borrows $35 from his grandma to buy some of the family harvest and sets up a lean-to roadside stand to sell pecans to Florida-bound tourists on Route 23 and makes a tidy little profit in the process. Clever business man that he is, he keeps the ball rolling, opening more stands along more routes while Ethel his wife whips up batches of treats like Pecan Divinity and of course the Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll. The first official Stuckey’s store was built in 1937 which added a restaurant, novelty shop,  gas pumps and finally that trademark blue roof! Now Stuckey’s no dummy. He’s got FOMO figured out long before it becomes an acronym (fear of missing out). He knows customers will come if they think others are already there. So what does he do? He has employees bring their cars and park them out front so they always look busy! Expansion continues until World War II and a brief decline due to sugar rationing. But after the war ends, Stuckey’s restarts like a rocket. Franchising and building a candy factory to supply their now over 350 locations! They also buy their own trucking and sign companies so they can stick their billboards right between the Coppertone Kid with the pants-pulling pooch and See Ruby Falls! 1964, Stuckey’s merges with Pet, Incorporated, makers of evaporated milk and other foodstuffs. Under this new ownership and eventual takeover by a Chicago conglomerate, locations unfortunately dwindle to less than 75 before the Stuckey’s brand is repurchased in 1985 and brought back into the family by W.S. “Billy” Stuckey Jr. who introduces “Stuckey’s Express – a store within a store” which is basically a stand of products placed inside various non-Stuckey’s stores where they license space. A third-party contractor is brought in to run the candy plant and this restructuring breathes new life into the company bringing Stuckey’s Express into 175 locations. Fast forward to the recession of 2009. Stuckey’s gets hit hard by the economy and the candy plant closes although their goods continue to be manufactured by outside vendors. During this time, many of the legacy locations of Stuckey’s had also slowly been falling into neglect, disrepair and abandonment altogether. It’s a bad decade to be a Stuckey. UNTIL… 2019. A spark of hope flickers when the granddaughter of founder W.S. Stuckey Sr., Stephanie Stuckey sinks her life savings and purchases the remnants of the family business. 10 months later, she partners with R.G. Lamar of Front Porch Pecans. Stephanie assumes the title of CEO and R.G. becomes President. Stuckey’s acquires Front Porch Pecans which brings fresh distribution channels and access to grocery stores. Stuckey’s is on a roll once again and momentum builds as they go barnstorming across the country tearing up trade shows and working one-on-one with their independently-owned locations to improve looks and offerings while de-branding stores that aren’t able to meet Stuckey’s standards. Purchasing a pecan processing plant (try saying that 10 times fast) in February 2021, Stuckey’s conducts a brand overhaul with a new look for their flagship products and brings production back in-house! At the time of this recording there are 65 locations of Stuckey’s remaining, along with an Eastman, Georgia distribution center, online shop at Stuckeys.com (where you can buy Stuckey’s socks! I need these in my life!), and hundreds of retailers with more being added almost daily! And this freshly-redesigned boxed pecan log roll right here in my hand is just one of the results of this new effort. How ‘bout we open this baby up and give it a taste test!? The newly re-designed yellow box with a design that gives a vintage nod echoes a bygone era while still being strikingly modern. It’s certainly pretty enough for gifting and that’s exactly what I did to thank a neighbor for watching our porch while on vacation. The expiration date on the outside is obvious enough to notice and to make you aware of the product’s freshness without being intrusive to the design. Thankfully the box was easy to open with the product inside wrapped in cellophane which was also easy to peel open. The nut roll itself is about 6 inches long (maybe a little longer. I didn’t measure it) with the girth of a large bratwurst. It’s neither hard nor soft with a bit of give when squeezed and a sweet, nutty aroma. Ok, time for my first ever bite (did I fail to mention that I’ve never tried one of these before?). It’s thick and a little chewy but not overly so. Just a really good consistency. The first thing I notice (and am surprised by) is a light maple syrup flavor followed by a nice taste of brown sugar and pecans. And in the center is a white fluff (nougat? I’m not really a confectionary expert here). I’m not really sure what I was expecting here, perhaps a glorified candy bar? Well, to put this in the category of candy bar would be a crime. The Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll is nothing short of a few bites of Heaven prepared by your sweet Southern Grandma! On a scale from 1-10, I’m giving this a solid rating of “DANG! THIS IS GOOD!” And there you have it! The legendary story of Stuckey’s still being written and the re-release of the legendary Pecan Log Roll! Oh! And I’d like to give a personal thank you to Stuckey’s CEO, Stephanie Stuckey whom I messaged with a request that either she or someone from her team fact-check my information prior to production to ensure that we’re shootin’ you the straight stuff here! She was extremely gracious and took time out of her barnstorming to personally review this content and provide more than a few much-needed corrections. And I’ll admit that even with her corrections, there is always a chance I may have gotten a small detail or two less than perfect during my final polish. That’s showbiz folks! … And if you’d like to help keep our pecan logs a-rolling and support the production of future episodes of the Dandy Fun House, you may do so via our patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material and super supporters will also gain access to bonus material plus I’ll mail you stuff from our house / Dandy Fun House Studios that Mrs. Dandy wants me to get rid of! (We’re doing a de-clutter right now…) That’s all folks! Be sure to roll YOUR pecans back here soon for the next episode of the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! You can sell anything if you hang it from the ceiling! – W.S. Stuckey Sr. Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

In this installment of the Dandy Fun House, instead of coming to you from our usual haunts of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, we figured we'd go inster-state-ular to the great state of Florida! We're taking a family day-trip to Busch Gardens Tampa and you're invited!

Neil Dandy takes you on a trip through the ages and explores the amazing origins and history of the legendary Kenner Toys! *** SUPPORT FUTURE PRODUCTIONS OF THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! Please visit our patronage page at our website http://www.dandyfunhouse.com for ways to support and gain access to exclusive bonus material!

Neil goes undercover at his local Halloween Spirit Store to see what's new for 2021 and also reviews the new Venom movie, LET THERE BE CARNAGE!

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!   LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW! I hope you’re strapped in  because today we’re going to get into the nuts and bolts of one of the most enduring action-packed games with over 50 years of metal skull-punching mayhem! I’m talking about none other than ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS! And I did procure the 2021 version by Mattel Games just for this review. Now if you’ll harken back to episode 9 of the Dandy Fun House you can enjoy my unboxing of this little slice of awesomeness along with my ham-handed attempt at assembling this without referring to the instructions because I’m a guy and that’s what we do. I DID eventually get it assembled and working, so in this installment, we’re going to learn the interesting history and backstory of Rock Em’ Sock Em’ Robots (some of it very dark and macabre!), look at some of the changes it’s gone through over the years including some interesting versions and fantastic failures. I’ll also announce some late-breaking news about Rock Em Sock Em Robots that will knock your block off and then we’re going to top it all off with a best-of-3 round death match to see who will be crowned the Dandy Fun House Rock Em Sock Em Robots Champion of 2021! Let’s get ready to crunch metal! ding ding! err… plastic metal! WHAT IT IS: While I’d like to assume that everybody under the sun already knows what Rock Em Sock Em Robots is, for anyone who maybe just arrived from the planet Zoltor I’ll quickly explain. This is a boxing game between 2 players who control 2 boxing robots, the Blue Bomber and the Red Rocker (hello Sammy Hagar!). The object is to land a direct chin blow on your opponent’s robot which pops his head back and up off of his neck and shoulders, effectively “knocking his block off!” It’s just that simple, that awesome, that classic. HISTORY: Rock Em Sock Em Robots was designed by Marvin Glass and Associates who were founded in 1941 and are also the designers of such classic toys and games as the James Bond 007 toys of the 60’s, Lite Brite, Inchworm, Super Sunday Football, Ricochet Racers, Mousetrap, Ants in the Pants, Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle (which we have done an episode on), Smash Up Derby, Hugo Man of A Thousand Faces (which is really weird and I personally owned as a child which might explain a few things), Mystery Date, SIMON, and Don’t Blow Your Top along with many, many, MANY others! Their very first licensed product was the Yakitty-Yak Talking Teeth which was produced and distributed through the H. Fishlove Company. Marvin Glass and Associates existed until 1988 designing toys most notably for Fisher Price, Hasbro, Ideal, Kenner, Matchbox, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers and of course Marx Toys, who in 1964 unleashed Rock Em Sock Em Robots upon our humble planet! Marvin Glass himself passed away in 1974 and was succeeded by CEO Anson Issacson whom along with two other company employees were shot and killed at the company’s offices in Chicago by a highly disturbed 33 year old employee named Al Keller who had been working at the company for 4 years as a toy designer. Keller ultimately turned the gun on himself and no motive was ever established. Anyway, let’s get back to our star of the show. Rock Em Sock Em Robots (according to Wikipedia) was inspired by boxing games people would play in the arcades of that era. Marvin Glass had actually cancelled the development of this boxing toy in 1963 due to a notable boxer named Davey Moore dying in the ring, fearing it would be in bad taste. Marvin’s partner, Burt Meyer didn’t want to give up on their boxing toy project and came up with the idea of dehumanizing the boxers by making them into robots that fall apart rather than people who fall over. And thus, Rock Em Sock Em Robots as we still know it today, was born! It was produced by Marx Toys and was sold for over a decade virtually unchanged until 1977 when Star Wars became all the craze, so they gave it a space-themed makeover for a while. In 2000, Mattel Games took over production and still produces it to this day. VERSIONS: As you might imagine with this toy coming up on 60 years in existence, there have been a lot of different versions including ones where the figures aren’t even in a boxing ring but standing on their own platforms. I particularly love the Batman vs. Superman version. There are also miniature discount store versions where the heads just sort of flop backwards. In the 1970’s, it was sold in the U.K. under the name “Raving Bonkers.” Other notable versions have been a Transformers version featuring Megatron vs. Optimus Prime. There have also been some video game versions produced but none of them were either designed very well nor were they very popular, so that’s about as far as I’ll go down that road today. DEATH MATCH! How could I do a full review of this iconic toy without holding a proper death match? Thus I recruited a couple of friends from a business networking group I like to attend and persuaded them with a prize purse of a pack of beef jerky and a 30 second commercial for their business in a best-of-3 rounds death match. Blaine Little of Momentum Seminars http://www.momentumseminars.com controlling the Blue Bomber Robot vs. Jeremy Ford of Curb Appeal Softwash https://curbappealsoftwashllc.com controlling the Red Rocker Robot Ok, so the match begins and these guys are really flailing away at each other for several minutes and nobody is getting their block knocked off. Then another friend walks up and points out that the contestants won’t be able to knock any blocks off because they are both placing downward pressure on their controllers while they fight. This motion slightly elevates the fighters up and off their respective platforms at a backwards angle which isn’t very noticeable visually but does render the fighters unable to knock their opponent’s block off nor have their own block knocked off. So we corrected their postures and back at it they went! After about another 30 seconds of action, the Red Rocker lands a solid chin-blow on his opponent and up goes the head of Blue Bomber. Red Rocker takes the lead. Blue Bomber’s head is reset and back to the action they go! It’s a cacophony of clickety-clacking plastic as the fighters give it their all, but alas Red Rocker gets a good position and lands 3 repeated uppercuts to the chin of the Blue Bomber with the final blow sending the chin back and away and up goes the head of Blue giving Red Rocker 2 of 3 rounds thus ending the match, raising Jeremy Ford’s arms in victory and taking all the beef jerky along with the title and a short commercial about his business! ***** Curb Appeal Softwash of Murfreesboro, Tennessee specializing in wood deck and fence restoration and staining. Curb Appeal Softwash can take your old, grey fence or deck, clean it up, put a nice stain on it and protect it for another 3 – 5 years. During the holidays, they also put up and remove Christmas lights as well as storing them in the off-season. You may visit their website at: https://curbappealsoftwashllc.com ***** ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS BREAKING NEWS: Ok, in our last installment where I did our grand unboxing and assembly, I teased a couple of times about some breaking news about our favorite robotic boxing game, so here it is…   Universal Pictures and Mattel Films are teaming up to produce a Rock Em Sock Em Robots movie and Vin Diesel has signed on to both star and produce through his own Film Company called One Race Films. The screenplay has already been written by Ryan Engel whom you may (or may not) remember from the movie “Rampage”. All we know about the plot so far is that it’s about a father and son (I’ll assume Vin Diesel is the father) who form an unlikely bond with an advanced war machine. As of right now, there is no projected release date as the cast has yet to be fleshed out and no production has yet been started. Not to mention Vin Diesel is likely fulfilling his obligations to Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and of course Fast and Furious 35: Arthritic Drift. I’m going to keep an open mind about the movie, but something tells me I’m going to have liked this movie better from the first time I saw it when it was called TRANSFORMERS! (insert my best David Spade smirk here). That stated, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to miss this flick! CONCLUSION: Rock Em Sock Em Robots is still rockin’ in the modern age and not quite ready for rocking chairs just yet! I really wish I had the original to compare side-by-side with the modern version but word on the street is that the current Mattel version (which is what I have) is much smaller than the classic Marx Toys version. Either way, it’s well built, a great comfortable size, and tons of fun! In my opinion, this toy is still an absolute hit and sure to knock your block off too! I’m giving this one 2 iron fists up! And… if you’d like to help keep US up… and running here at the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog, please consider visiting the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com. Supporters do get access to exclusive bonus features and super supporters will get stuff mailed to them by me personally in addition to gaining access to bonus material! And that’s going to do it for this installment of 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 and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?    

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW! LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW! In today’s adventure, I figured I would do an unboxing and assembly of a classic action toy that started in the 60’s but is still selling strong today. It’s one from my childhood and perhaps from yours too. I’m talking about none other than the bang em’ up, clang em’ up action of Rock Em Sock Em Robots 2021! I won’t be doing a full-on review here, just an unboxing and my ham-handed attempt at assembly without reading the instructions! BUYING MY ROBOTS: I started by ordering online from Walmart for a pick up, so as to avoid shipping charges. I immediately hit a snag when the Walmart I ordered from promptly canceled my order about 30 minutes after processing it and didn’t give an explanation, just that they needed to cancel and offered their apologies. This despite there being 4 Walmarts in the town I live in, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I then placed my order online once again, this time simply choosing a different store for pickup that was about an equal distance from my home. This one went through, I began my day by pulling up in front of the store and a nice man in an orange vest brought it straight out to my emasculating minivan. Thus I had my prize and was so excited that I took a selfie with it and posted it absolutely everywhere. And this selfie is indeed the thumbnail for the installment of the Dandy Fun House you are hopefully enjoying right at this very moment. One final complaint about my Walmart Pick Up experience was that they stuck the pick up label directly to the box which was not shrink wrapped. The not being shrink wrapped part doesn’t bother me, but now if I want a nice, pristine box for showing off, I have an unwanted project on my hands of trying to figure out how to remove this label without damaging the box. (insert sad face here). In my opinion, Walmart could improve their online ordering and pick up process by simply offering a different pick up location instead of outright canceling the order should the initially-chosen location be out of stock. But I digress. Let’s move on to the packaging! THE OUTER PACKAGING: The toy is still to this day, produced by Mattel. So I’m guessing the sales of this product over the years has been strong enough to keep as a forefront item rather than licensing to a 3rd party to market as a niche throwback. Which is nice to see. Looking at the box, it is obvious that they are attempting to evoke nostalgia with subdued colors, a matte finish to the box, what I can best describe as very simplified vintage-style graphics and even the picture of the two kids playing with the toy is in black and white with the exception of the toy itself which they did colorize. The main picture is 2 giant fighting robots! What could possibly be better than that!? It’s obvious that they really went out of their way to keep this thing looking retro, probably to market to adults like me desperately clinging to their pasts. The sides have the logo for the product, a smaller version of the main fighting robot graphic and the text which says “Knock His Block Off!” So it’s safe to assume that both robots are still male. On the back of the box, the pictures are more vibrant and less throwback showing how to play the game by using your own robot to punch the other robot in the face via thumb controllers until you dislodge your opponent’s head from his shoulders which just means that the head pops up. To continue, you just pop the head back down and keep fighting. You have a red robot (The Rugged Red Rocker) and a blue robot (The Bruisin’ Blue Bomber) and apparently, the red one is the defending champion and the blue is the challenger. UNBOXING THE BOXERS! : The first thing that struck me as I opened the box and emptied the contents was that there was absolutely nothing individually wrapped. No extra cellophane bags of items. No inner boxes. No padding and no space fillers. You basically just open the box and dump everything out on the table. I think this is great. Every piece is large and there’s nothing small to keep track of and worry about losing. And the fact that this is indeed a game of violent contact means that all the components are durable and don’t require any gentle handling which is also very nice. ASSEMBLY: The very first thing I did was to pick up the small paper assembly instructions and set them aside without reading them at all because… I’m a guy and that’s what we do! Then I set the boxing ring upright and of course immediately checked out the fighters who both felt very solid. More solid than I remember them from my childhood (IF I’m remembering correctly) which was also great to see. I then tested them to see how they get their blocks knocked off, which is with a direct blow to the chin and both heads did indeed pop up and away from their shoulders. I’m not sure if my childhood memories are accurate in this regard or not, but I seem to remember some sort of buzzy sound when their heads would come up and away and sort of a sawtooth gear which would become exposed. With these fighters, the heads just pop up and that’s it. No sound. No exposed sawtooth gear in the neck. But overall, my initial feeling is that the components seem to actually be of better quality now than they were back then. Continuing on, I slide my controllers through the undersides of the ring and snap the fighters onto their platforms and then try and try and try to snap the platforms with the fighters onto their controllers. This took a long while and many attempts before finally getting them to successfully snap into place. After I finally succeeded, I took a peek at the instructions and realized that you are supposed to snap the platforms to the controllers first and THEN snap the fighters’ feet onto their platforms. This could be why I had a lot of extra struggles. The last piece of the assembly was the ropes for the ring. You would think this would be the easy part, right? Well… this actually took a few attempts because I would get three posts snapped in and then because the ropes were a bit tight, as I’m trying to snap the 4th post into place, the tension from the ropes would pull another post out of it’s socket. But after a bit of gentle rope-stretching, I did manage to get everything properly seated and snapped into place and thus my assembly of one of the greatest toys ever created was completed! Of course I did box with myself a bit which is not easy because I just don’t have enough thumbs! But anyway, there you have it! The unboxing and assembly of ROCK EM’ SOCK EM’ ROBOTS in the year 2021! Who would have ever thought!? Be sure to come back for our next installment because I’ll be sharing the history of this toy, doing a full on review of it, challenging someone to a best-of-seven tournament and also sharing some exciting upcoming news about ROCK EM’ SOCK EM’ ROBOTS which I will only hint at here by saying “Coming soon to a ____ near you!” Once again, thanks for hanging out with us here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! *** IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT AND WISH TO SUPPORT FUTURE PRODUCTIONS, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO THE DANDY FUN HOUSE VIA THE PATRONAGE LINKS BELOW! Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus material! *Super-Supporters* get special prizes! ** SUPER-DUPER SUPPORTERS ** get all of the above as well as personal Zoom video call with Neil Dandy! Just visit the Dandy Fun House Patronage page at https://dandyfunhouse.com/patronage/ Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?