DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

The story of how Lee Majors became the Six Million Dollar Man, what he did after the show's conclusion, where he is now and tons of other amazing fun facts! Let's step into the FUN HOUSE!

In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we're gonna twist up a little wind whipper of our own as we unbox, assemble and play the game of… COWNADO!

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?      

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.

We’re going to unbox, assemble, play and review the 2025 TOTY AWARD NOMINATED STEM experiment kit: PINBALL MACHINE MAKER - GUMBALL RALLY!

We're looking ahead to 2025 for theme parks, movies, pinball and my favorite TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2025 Toy of the Year Awards!

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!

Today, we're going to dig into some Carmella Creeper cereal as well as review the board game Finders Creepers...

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!

Ten-year-old Cooper Dean of Valrico, Florida entered into a Young Inventors contest and caught the attention of international toy company, GOLIATH GAMES with her idea to bring a farmland pastime to kitchen tables everywhere. In this episode of the Dandy Funhouse, we're going to shovel in to the game of… Chicken Poo Bingo! Let's step into the Fun House!

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!

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!

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?

I'm gonna unbox, assemble, play and review an awesome looking game from PlayMonster called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES!

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!

Sid and Marty Krofft created iconic TV shows like Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Bugaloos, HR Pufnstuff, The Banana Splits and a whole lot more.

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!

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 the game of MONKEY SEE MONKEY POO!

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.

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!

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!

The object of GROUCH COUCH 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 whomever's got the most coins wins!

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 story of BASKIN ROBBINS! Let's step into the fun house!

As of December 5th, 2022, the final live performing version of Sha Na Na have at long last 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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!!!!?????

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

We're going to explore the history of the game of Mouse Trap along with unboxing, setup and putting it all into action!

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!

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!

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!

RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS IS DEAD! ... OR IS IT!???

In this installment of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to unpackage and taste test the iconic Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll

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!