DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this edition of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to close out 2024 by looking ahead to 2025 and seeing what’s on the horizon for theme parks, movies, pinball and my favorite TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2025 Toy of the Year Awards! All this ahead! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2024 year-end extravaganza where we celebrate retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and while most shows are just mailing it in this time of year and giving their audience a “best of” mishmash of what they’ve already done over the past year, this show is instead going to take the opportunity to look ahead into the New Year of 2025 and explore the most exciting things on the horizon. But first! I have to show you these futuristic DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts! They do have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them with the rattiest pair of scissors we could find! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! All because we care! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com While you’re there, be sure to load up on all the gogo juice you’ll need for the new year with our Coffee Badger t-shirts, mugs and bags of harshly-ground dark French Roast coffee! You don’t have to love France to love their harshly-ground coffee, but it helps! Just get your oui-oui over to dandyfunhouse.com and get busy! Alright, let’s get into this new year we’re starting down the barrel of. There’s a lot of amazing stuff on the horizon and we’re going to explore that right now starting with… THEME PARKS! And I’m going to start with the big thing everyone is talking about because it really is the attraction that is sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now as far as theme park chit chat goes and that is… UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, Orlando Florida – EPIC UNIVERSE. This is a brand new theme park located adjacent to Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure and it’s going to include 5 different specially-themed areas: Celestial Park, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the REALLY interesting part of this new theme park and the only part that makes me want to visit: DARK UNIVERSE! This is a special land within Epic Universe that is dedicated exclusively to the classic Universal Monsters, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man! Sorry, no live for the Mummy or the Creature From the Black Lagoon. I mean someone has to recreate the movie theater attack from THE BLOB at some point don’t they? Anyway, First off we’ve got an incredible looking ride called MONSTERS UNCHAINED: The Frankenstein Experiment. This one takes place inside Frankenstein’s Castle! Dr. Victoria Frankenstein continues the work of her ancestors deep below the family estate. A demonstration of her experiments to control monsters goes awry when Dracula leads a revolt of enraged monsters including The Wolf Man, The Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and more! Then we have CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF! This appears to be a roller coaster where you ride in gypsy wagons to escape a pack of hungry werewolves. One thing that stood out to me in the renderings was a picture showing people sitting sideways, forwards and backwards on this ride. The information doesn’t divulge whether or not the cars spin or if you merely have different choices on the type of seating, but further investigation into the animated tour of the overall land of Dark Universe actually does show the cars spinning freely from side to side. It has a top speed of only 37 miles per hour so as long as you can handle the werewolves, I think pops can probably handle this one with you! THE BURNING BLADE TAVERN: Upon first viewing from the outside looking in, this appears to be fashioned after the climactic final scene from Frankenstein where he (supposedly) meets his end in a burning windmill tower. It is indeed an eatery where you can enjoy burgers, wings, bratwurst and pretzels. But just the fact that they have the burning windmill from the movie Frankenstein with the windmill ACTUALLY ON FIRE is just blowing my frankin’ mind! Another eatery in this portion of the park is DAS STAKEHOUSE: (notice how STAKE is spelled). This is apparently the more upscale dining option in the area and is a Vampire-Themed dungeon filled with vampire artwork and artifacts. DARKMOOR MONSTER MAKEUP EXPERIENCE: This appears to be a laboratory where you, the visitors can yourself become on of Doctor Pretorius’ mad experiments and be transformed into werewolves, vampires, mummies and more! So, basically, two rides, two places to eat and a makeup shop. You’re not likely to spend your entire day in Dark Universe, but if the other lands, especially Nintendo, in this park interest you, then this very well may be worth your hard-earned theme park dollars. Regardless, you absolutely have to visit the Universal Orlando Website and see the animated tour renderings for yourself! They are amazing! Okay, let’s go to Sandusky, Ohio and CEDAR POINT: If you know anything about Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio then you know this is the Mecca for all things roller coaster. I don’t usually exhort about coasters on this show BUT they have a new one coming out for 2025 called SIREN’S CURSE based on the mythylogical Lake Erie lore of the sirens of the lake who lured sailrs to their doom with their sweet, seductive songs. Okay, a sea monster-themed roller coaster. Yawn! What’s the big deal about that? Well, this particular roller coaster is what is known as a “Tilt Coaster” meaning that the cars come up to a ledge where the track ends and then the entire track the riders are on tilts forward until they are all looking 160 ft straight down. The track then connects to another section of track which is also straight down and releases the cars to go hurtling at pretty much the highest rate of speed possible. Maybe some of you enthusiasts have seen tilt coasters before, but I personally have never seen anything like this before and it just looks absolutely sick! 2025 also marks the 40th Anniversary of DOLLYWOOD in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! Of course there will be all sorts of special shows going on for the year-long celebration, but I’m really not noticing anything new here except they are touting a bigger and more spectacular drone and fireworks show. Come on Dolly, step it up a little!   Moving on to PINBALL – Ok, I’ve been trying to find some lists of the best new pinball machines we can expect in 2025 but in my research, all I’m finding is old articles about 2024 and the search results are otherwise completely clogged by some website called The Pinball Spot with misleading headlines and what appears to be articles written by A.I. that don’t deliver the promise of the headline. Not sure how the search engines are allowing this, but it is what it is. But being the professional that I am, I trudge on. The most anticipated new pinball release I’ve learned about coming for 2025 in my opinion would have to be from Spooky Pinball: THE EVIL DEAD featuring the actual voice of the man himself, Bruce Campbell. Evil Dead Pinball is the 4th game by the designer duo “Spooky Luke” and Corwin “Bug” Emery. It features a double barrel shotgun ball launcher and more goodies than you can imagine. The shack, the basement, the hand and a life-sized version of the old lady even pops out of the top of the backboard! This thing just looks absolutely bonkers! I can’t wait! Dutch Pinball is highly rumored to be releasing an all-new version of Back To The Future expected to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the film’s release and this would also mark 35 years since the release of the first Back To The Future Pinball release by Data East Pinball in 1985. I did learn via knapparcade.org of a likely new release from STERN PINBALL which would be X-MEN ’97. And if you’ll be around the Frisco, Texas area this coming March, you might want to flap your flippers into the 2025 TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL happening from March 21st through the 23rd at the Embassy Suites. This will have an abundance of exhibitors where you can see the latest and greatest along with long lost classics, tournaments and just about everything pinball your feeble brain can handle. Learn more and register to attend at www.texaspinball.com ! I also stumbled across the 41st Annual Pinball Expo which will be happening from October 15th through 18th in beautiful Schaumburg, Illinois at the Renaissance Shaumburg Convention Center Hotel. At the time of this recording it’s a bit soon to tell you about everything this expo will have, but after 41 solid years of holding this event, I’m pretty sure they know how to do it right and this one should be worthy of your time and attendance should you be able to get your shiny silver balls to Schaumburg! Are you ready for some MOVIES? Before I get into the movies I’m looking forward to in 2025, I want to acknowledge a few of my favorites from 2024. First off: JOKER Folie A Deux with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gag Gag. This movie was panned so hard I thought it would get a flat nose and I don’t see how this one is not going to receive a Razzie Award. It really is hands-down the biggest box office flop of the year. Knowing how everyone was screaming about what an absolute dud this thing was, I decided to go see it, clear my mind of all expectations of the payoff of finally getting to see Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker run around Gotham doing Joker stuff like everyone wanted to see him do. Instead, I let all of that go, cleared my mind and allowed the movie to take me where it wanted to and tell me the story IT had, not the story I wanted it to have. What I came away with was a magically tragic tale of the prison life of Arthur Fleck, his experience with a mentally unstable woman with a romantic prisoner infatuation combined with a burning desire for personal fame and attention. And no second thoughts whatsoever about using Arthur Fleck for however much of this she could wring from him. And finally the courtroom drama of Fleck’s mass murder trial and his ultimate, quite unspectacular demise at the hands of a fellow prisoner with a shank. It was an interesting-yet-uncomfortable tapestry of tragedy, fantasy and the human condition interwoven into a mega box office flop of preposterous proportions! And for the chutzpah of taking everyone’s expectations (and money), wadding it all up, tossing it in the garbage while extending a huge special finger to all the built-up pretense surrounding this sequel and the audience along with it, JOKER FOLIE A DEUX has indeed earned the respect of THIS moviegoer! What say you? Another one that surprised me was WICKED. I did not expect to like what I thought was going to be just some silly chick-flick. I tried not to like this. But I did. This is an adventure beyond measure, a massive undertaking from the visuals to the acting to the music. It’s just filled with performers that I don’t like who are blowing it all out of the water anyway and shoving their raw donut licking talent right in my face and making me eat a heaping helping of spectacle pie whether I wanted to or not. This movie abused me and I liked it! Fantastic all around, and this was just part one. Grab your broom and go see it! And speaking of broomstick riders, Demi Moore in THE SUBSTANCE! Wow! I mean just wow! If you’ve ever wanted to see Demi Moore in the craziest horror sci-fi film you’ve ever experienced, you have to see THE SUBSTANCE but don’t take the kids cause she’s nekkid in it. OK Moving right along to the movies I’m looking forward to in 2025! Lilo and Stitch, the live action remake. This could be good or it could burn like a kerosene-soaked tiki hut. Jurassic World Rebirth – I don’t know… I’m pretty over the whole Jurassic thing but I’m sure this will be a fun popcorn movie. Then we’ve got the new Superman movie entitled… Superman. As you probably know, Henry Cavill is out and David Corenswet is in. Henry was a fantastic Superman and was set to reprise this role and for some reason, Director James Gunn recast the part which I’m really troubled by. I was really enjoying the harder edged, darker places they were taking things with Henry Cavill and now I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I will say I like the new emblem which looks more like an alien symbol than the letter S, which in my opinion is exactly what it should have always looked like. A Minecraft Movie – This is the big Jack Black flick of 2025 and it looks like a fun one for the kids that adults can also enjoy. I’ve seen the trailer and to me if looks like one of the new Jumanji movies repackaged in that 4 people get sucked into the game and connect with an expert builder who helps them survive the endless challenges and pitfalls of this crazy, crazy digital world (zeros and ones!) Then there’s the live action remake of Snow White. There was a lot of ridiculous controversy this past year over a picture of a group of actors who were portraying the dwarves and people were wringing their hands and clutching their pearls in that they didn’t look like the dwarves they grew up with. And I’m going to say it, they were upset that the actors portraying the dwarves weren’t white and believing that they weren’t white because of the woke diversity-pushing agendas of Hollywood. I don’t even know where to begin with this except to say, These were pictures of the MOTION ACTORS BEING REPLACED WITH CGI ! They used these real actors to play against and to capture better human movements and interactions between the characters! It didn’t matter what they look like! I can understand being sick of identity being interjected for the sake of an agenda but for the love of God, get a clue before getting offended by every picture you see floating around the internet people! This stated… speaking of looks… The premise that the gorgeously stunning Gal Gadot playing the evil queen would be jealous of a Dora the Explorer-looking Snow White with clammy skin and a giant hairy mole on her face (still cute, I’m just saying in comparison to Gal Gadot) is beyond credibility. It’s like that SNL skit where Chris Farley competes with Patrick Swayze for the last open Chippendales spot. What are we doing here folks? Captain America – Brave New World : OK I’m not crazy about the title. It’s not bad. It’s just not good or interesting. That said, the upgrading of the B-level superhero FALCON finally putting on his big boy pants and taking up the shield of Captain America is an interesting angle that I’m looking forward to. It’s about time FALCON got his due. Too bad it will not be in the form of a true FALCON movie (I guess you could argue that this is a true FALCON movie in that it combines his strengths with the remaining assets of Captain America to take him to the next level), but this is pretty close and I’ll take it! I think what I’m reserved about is that I feel this movie is telling me that FALCON couldn’t measure up the way he was and needed Captain America’s leftover technology to bring him up to snuff. And to me, that hints of a disrespect for the legacy that’s been built up over several movies for the FALCON character. Regardless, it’s an interesting dynamic, I’m looking forward to seeing it. I just would have at least liked a better title. Brave New World is just sort of lackluster to me. Guillermo Del Toro’s new adaptation of Frankenstein which will star Mia Goth is also coming in the new year. There’s not a lot of information out about this one, much less a trailer but I’m of two minds about this one. Half of me us saying Do we really need another Frankenstein movie? Let’s move on to something new and fresh. While the other half of me is screaming with joy like a little teenaged fangirl. If course we need a new Frankenstein movie! Then we have Popeye the Slayer Man (yes, you heard that right) who was apparently misconfigured and physically altered by a chemically tainted batch of spinach. He now lurks in the shadows of the old abandoned spinach factory on the docks and metes out his horrific punishments on any who might dare trespass. I’m guessing the rights to Popeye have recently become public domain. Umm… Yeah . There’s a whole lot more in the world of movies but honestly it’s mostly sequels, remakes and reboots but hey.. Dogman is finally getting his own feature film and that’s Hollywood throwing us a bone! 2025 TOY INDUSTRY NEWS! Ok it’s a bit tough to get a list of next year’s most anticipated toys when we’re in the middle of Christmas season for this year, so in the TOY category what I thought I would do instead is to let you know some of the most interesting toys of 2024 that are currently nominated in various categories for a coveted 2025 TOTY Award (Toy Of The Year). ACTION FIGURE OF THE YEAR Probably the coolest nominee in this category I found had to be the Godzilla x Kong 13″ Mega Figures by Playmates Toys, Inc. How can you go wrong? COLLECTIBLES In the COLLECTIBLES category, the one that caught my attention the most would have to be Deddy Bears Plush in Coffin by Innov8 Academy which are cute stuffed bears that come in coffin-shaped boxes and I suppose the idea is for kids to get comfortable cuddling corpses? CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR For CONSTRUCTION PLAYSET OF THE YEAR I’m giving the nod to Gecko Run: Marble Run by Thames & Kosmos which is a playset where you set up a series of tracks, tubes, funnels and loops to hurl your marbles through crazy adventures and scenarios! CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR In the category for CREATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR I’m really liking the Clixo Tropical Birds Pack by Toyish Labs which consists of various colorful foam parts that you snap together to create your own flock of tropical birds! Now that’s neat! DOLL OF THE YEAR There’s also a category for DOLL OF THE YEAR which I’m going to skip because as a 56 year old man I don’t feel quite qualified to make a pick here but I will venture to say the doll collection NAME I found the most interesting in this category would have to be YUMMILAND! EDUCATIONAL TOY For the best EDUCATIONAL TOY I’m thumbs-upping the National Geographic Epic Circuits Science Kit by Blue Marble. I’m looking at pictures of this kit and I couldn’t tell you what half the things are here but it looks cool! Way cooler than the science kits I played with when I was a kid. I just want to dig in and geek out like crazy on this thing! GAME OF THE YEAR For the best GAME OF THE YEAR, honestly the only one nominated that I found interesting was SNAP 2 IT by Elenco Electronics which looks like a bunch if components you snap together to make various electronic gizmos that do electronic gizmo types of things. I’m not really sure how this is a game but I’m guessing it must be competitive in some nature for it to be in this category. GROWN UP TOYS In the category of GROWN UP TOYS I didn’t see much that really caught my attention except this line of high end hot wheels cars with crazy teal-colored tracks to run them on called Hot Wheels x Daniel Arsham Collection. This just looks like a super nice set of collectibles for the adult Hot Wheels enthusiast. The cars appear to practically be jewelry! Or if Hot Wheels and Faberge eggs had babies… INFANT / TODDLER TOY Speaking of babies! For the tiny tots in the INFANT / TODDLER TOY category, I found the Ms. Rachel Surprise Learning Box by Spin Master to be the neatest thing. It looks like you get a colorful box that you stick your hand into and pull out a variety of different toys. Because teaching kids to stick their hands and fingers into dark hidden places with the promise of a toy surprise is always a great idea dontcha think? OUTDOOR TOY In the OUTDOOR TOY category I’m really liking the EastPoint Sports Premium Axe Throw Target Game by Buffalo Games. It’s a freaking home version of axe throwing! How can you not want this!? PRESCHOOL TOY OF THE YEAR Fisher-Price Rockin’ Record Player has this one hands down! I mean, it has to be! It’s a modern version of the classic toy record player from the 60’s and 70s but instead of just being a glorified windup music box, this thing plays real recordings and scratches like a record when you move the tone arm and has a great modern look! Nicely done! SPECIALTY TOY OF THE YEAR I absolutely have to not only go with Pinball Machine Maker: Gumball Rally by Thames & Kosmos but I don’t see how I could stand to live with myself if I didn’t get my hands on one of these and do a full-on review for this show! It’s a kit where you put together your own actual working pinball machine that uses gumballs! It’s pinball and a treat! This WILL be on my show agenda for early 2025! TECH TOY In the TECH TOY category I don’t know if I actually like this thing, am creeped out by it or a little of both, but I found the Hero: Sound-Sensing Robot by Thames & Kosmos to be the neatest thing going here. You basically assemble a 6-legged robot that responds to audible cues via a handheld clicker not unlike robot toys we had in the 70s, but this thing is a bit more sophisticated I believe and it also dances. It looks kind of like a mechanical cyclops spider. Definitely something you want to point towards your sister’s bedroom and march right in there after dark! And that’s our look ahead at the amusements to watch for in 2025! What are YOU looking forward to? Let me know! If you’re enjoying this episode on one of the socials, leave a comment. Otherwise you can email me at neil@dandyfunhouse.com MY FAVORITE DANDY FUN HOUSE EPISODE OF 2024! I don’t usually like doing retrospectives but I am going to look back at 2024 for just a moment here and would like to say my favorite episode was undoubtedly the Halloween episode. It’s always the Halloween episode and it’s always the episode that results in my lowest ratings as far as viewership and listenership. But I don’t care. I love Halloween and this year we had the amazing return of Count Drahoon which just put everything on a whole nuther level! DANDY FUN HOUSE Plans for 2025 I would love to start including content from YOU! Yeah YOU! Like your theme park visits, toy and game reviews, favorite retro amusements. I would really like someone in the pinball business to show off new pinball machines as well retro classics. Just remember, while this show is not aimed at kids, it is family-friendly and made to be something you can enjoy with the kids! So don’t be raunchy. You can be gross, just don’t be raunchy! Feel free to include a quick plug for yourself and/or your business as long as the whole thing isn’t just one big commercial. Sound interesting? Send me links to your SHORT FORM videos at neil@dandyfunhouse.com or just use the contact form on the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com Where you’ll also find our PATRONAGE PAGE! If you’ve ever found any value at all in the Dandy Fun House and would like to support future productions, please consider either buying some merchandise from our DANDY FUN SHOP or becoming a Fun House Supporter via a financial donation ! SUPPORTERS gain access exclusive bonus content AND SUPER SUPPORTERS gain that same access plus I’ll personally send you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you include your mailing address! Podcast Listeners may often support through a donation link in your listening app of choice of the app offers it, I understand not all do. And your 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them are always highly appreciated! And THAT ladies and gentlemen puts a bow on 2024. Come on back next year for some amazing new adventures in 2025,right here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! See ya next year! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   In this extra creepy Halloween 2024 edition of the Dandy Spook Shack, we’re gonna try the all-new Monster Cereal, Carmella Creeper. Also, we’re going to unbox, figure out how to play, and do a full review on the brand new extra creepy board game, Finders Creepers! Let’s step into the Spook Shack! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Spook Shack! I’m your ghost with the most, your ghoul of cool, Neil Dandy. And welcome to my haunted studio! Today, we’re going to dig into some Carmella Creeper cereal as well as review the board game Finders Creepers… BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about the brand new extra creepy Dandy Fun House t-shirts! They come with a front and a back so you don’t get cold and also four holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to poke your hopefully not decapitated head out of, two to poke your arms through! How’s that? I couldn’t have done better with a pair of scissors! Go to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours today! Oh and while you’re over at dandyfunhouse.com, check out the all new gear for the all new line of products, Coffee Badger. Why Coffee Badger? Well, a Coffee Badger is somebody who works remotely, but has to go into the office once in a while to make an appearance for absolutely no apparent reason, because their boss doesn’t want to feel like they wasted all that money buying the office space. So if you’re a coffee badger, you go in, you make your presence known, grab a cup of coffee, throw it down the old pipe, and then you badge out, wave adios and go back home to get all your real work done! Back to your own little haunted mansion, dungeon, whatever you’re doing. Maybe you live in a tree and hang outside down with all the bats. I don’t really know what you do. Hey, speaking of bats…   CARMELLA CREEPER MONSTER CEREAL Before we dig into this box of Carmella Creeper, it might be a real good idea to call upon someone who knows their bats! Who knows bats better than…Count Dracula!? Hey, do you think if we try real hard, we can summon Count Dracula? Let’s try it. Calling Count Dracula! Calling Count Dracula! (Smoke fills room and Neil starts coughing while a vampire who is not Count Dracula appears…) Neil: Uhhh… You’re not Count Dracula… Count Drahoon: No, no, I’m Count Drahoon. Sorry, Dracula couldn’t make it tonight. He’s actually on vacation right now, so they sent me. Neil: Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t you the vampire that took over my show a couple of Halloween’s ago and reviewed all the monster cereals? Count Drahoon: I sure am! Neil: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Count Drahoon! (Audience goes wild with applause) Neil: The powers that be must have seen that we were introducing the new monster cereal, Carmella creeper and thought that you might be the better fit. Count Drahoon: Well, I don’t know. It’s been a while since I’ve actually ingested human food, but I’ll be happy to give it a try. Neil: Well, that sounds great. I’ll try it with you. I’ve actually got two blood red bowls! Count Drahoon: Oh, beautiful. No milk, though. We’re eating this depression era style. Neil: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Of course. I found this box of Carmella Creeper in the grocery store just last week. I was checking out the monster cereals. I was like, I have not seen this monster cereal before. Is it brand new? I don’t know. So I took it off the shelf and I learned a little bit about Carmella here. She’s a zombie. Count Drahoon: Okay… Oh, so she is. Neil: She’s Frankenberry’s long lost cousin and she’s a DJ and she likes to spin at parties at the haunted mansion. And apparently her flavor is caramel apple. Count Drahoon: Okay. It sounds good on paper, but… Neil: yeah… that’s pretty much what I was thinking there myself. All right. Are we ready? Count Drahoon: I’m ready if you are. Neil: Hey, you guys want to open this box of Carmella creeper??? Count Drahoon: Let’s do it. Let’s dive right into it! Neil: Wait. We didn’t really look at the box too closely. Count Drahoon: Let’s examine.So we have the Carmella Creeper. She looks pretty hip, I’d say. Yeah. Yeah. This is what the kids are into. Neil: Yeah. She’s got kind of a Latina vibe going on. Count Drahoon: Yeah, I could see that. Especially with the name like Carmella. Maybe we’re saying it wrong. Maybe it’s not Carmella creeper. It’s kind of a creepe. But that’s like if you’re eating crepes. Maybe she can have like a French alter ego when they do like a crepe flavored cereal. Neil: Looks like she’s holding a swirly bat. Count Drahoon: Yeah. It’s really green though. And I’m a little concerned about that because sometimes this color green, it could be really hit or miss. Maybe some of your spooks and spookettes know better than me. I’m old, but this is kind of like standard club lighting, isn’t it? Like this kind of green or just more like a traffic light. Neil: I don’t know. I’m more worried about what sort of chemicals they put in there. Count Drahoon: Oh, no, for definitely! Neil: I mean, you being being what? Three thousand years old… Count Drahoon: Well, not quite. More like a thousand. Neil: I don’t know if it would preserve you longer than you’d like to be preserved. I mean, formaldehyde, I don’t know. Count Drahoon:It might preserve me less. Neil: It looks like we have some skulls in there, a swirly bat. I mean, she’s even got a little snake friend up there. Count Drahoon: And he and the snake friend’s got stitches, too. So it’s like zombies. Yeah, a zombie snake or a franken snake. However, you want to spice that. Neil: What’s on the rest of the box? I think she’s holding up a certain finger on one of the sides I’m looking at. Count Drahoon: Oh, I didn’t even see that. Oh, yeah. She’s pointing up. Neil: It’s more of a more of a number one. Not the other finger. Count Drahoon: This is a kid’s cereal. And she’s got black fingernails! Neil: She does. And another zombie snake friend. Count Drahoon: So, yeah. And the fingernails, it’s like, is this a fashion statement or is this her corpse? You know, because they could be rotting fingernails. Maybe both. I don’t know. Neil: They don’t look like they’re falling off her hands. Count Drahoon: No. So they probably are manicured that way. So that’s that’s a good sign. Yeah. We got a franken snake down here and and it’s with frightful friends, marshmallows. Oh, yeah. Neil: What’s on the back? Count Drahoon: I kind of like the back. So it’s like different rooms in the house and each of these pets are doing different things. So you’ve got the snake. He’s doing a little the DJ scratch as it were. And then see, there’s an Igor, Count Chocula, fearless guard spider who’s fiercely loyal. Can you find his teddy bear? So it’s like a little scavenger hunt on the back of the cereal box. So that can keep you preoccupied for a couple of minutes. Neil: I like it. I like it. So this is the haunted mansion where she throws all her DJ parties. She’s got the Frankenberry and Count Chocula and Boo Berry and a little kitty cat. Count Drahoon: Yes. Meowberry. Oh, I like puns. I appreciate. I appreciate a good pun from time to time. Neil: All right. Well, let’s let’s try Carmella’s cereal! (pours cereal) That is some bright green cereal right there! Count Drahoon: It’s very, very bright green. That’s just really not right. Neil: I remember the last monster cereals we had. They tasted like styrofoam covered with sugar. (Neil and Count Drahoon taste the cereal) Count Drahoon: That’s not bad. I’m really not getting the caramel apple thing though. Neil: I’m not either. It’s sugary. Count Drahoon: There’s a very slight hint of the caramel apple towards the end. It’s more like an aftertaste, but it’s basically like fruit striped gum. It’s here and there. Neil: I’m going to try one of these marshmallow bats. Count Drahoon: It’s more like a shriveled dried up corpse of a marshmallow. Neil: Mine’s seen by the days as well. I tend to be getting more of the caramel apple thing off the marshmallow, but still not much. It’s more. I feel like we’ve been taken in by another gimmick. Count Drahoon: No, I think you’re right. It’s funny because I don’t taste the caramel apple with the shriveled up bat. Let me try the shriveled up… There’s also a shriveled up jack-o’-lantern??? Kind of looks like a really deformed bear. Neil: Actually, that’s not a jack-o’-lantern. Count Drahoon: It’s not? What is that? Neil: That’s Frankenberry. Oh. She’s Frankenberry’s long lost cousin. Count Drahoon: That’s right. Well, Frankenberry looks like he’s seen better days. Neil: Yes. I think they all have. Count Drahoon: But I’m not getting I’m not getting the caramel apple and the marshmallows. It just tastes like straight sugar marshmallow to me. Neil: This is indeed General Mills’ very first female cereal monster. Count Drahoon: Stunning and brave. Neil: That’s what I was going to say. That’s what we have to say by law. She was introduced in 2023, but I did not see her. Count Drahoon: I completely missed that. Neil: I didn’t see her on the shelf until this year, so I don’t know where they were keeping her. Count Drahoon: In the dungeon… Neil: What what are we rating this cereal? Count Drahoon: So… not as good as Count Chocula. Count Chocula is just the best. You can’t beat it. Neil: Well, I wouldn’t know because you ate the whole box. Count Drahoon: I did eat the whole box. I’m sorry. I owe you a box of Count Chocula. But Count Chocula is by far the best. I think I said that Frankenberry was a close second. Frankenberry was decent. But then once you get into Boo Berry and then oh, what was the other one? The fruit… It was the fruit one with the werewolf on the cover of it. Neil: Frute Brute! Count Drahoon: Oh yes! They tasted eerily similar. I will put Carmella Creeper above Frute Brute. Neil: Yeah, I would too. Count Drahoon: There is some semblance of a caramel apple flavor to it, but it’s very, very faint. So I would rate it better than Frute Brute but not quite as good as Boo Berry. Neil: Not quite as good as the classics! Count Drahoon: That’s right! Exactly. Neil: OK, well, then there you’ve got a Carmella Creeper, everybody. And I believe we’re going to continue snacking on Carmella Creeper while we check out the game of…   FINDERS CREEPERS AUGMENTED REALITY BOARD GAME REVIEW! Neil: Let’s look at the box… Count Drahoon: That looks kind of fancy. Neil: Look at the packaging. They have a little thing here. You move it around and find things on the box by moving this little viewfinder around. It’s by Micro Games of America, MGA. It’s an app-vanced game. Now, what that means is that it uses augmented reality with your phone. And in addition to finding monsters in the game, you also find monsters out in the real world. You basically hunt digital monsters with your phone. Count Drahoon: So we’re giving kids more of an excuse to use their phone! Neil: That’s pretty much the idea. Count Drahoon: Wow. Neil: Now, normally on this show I shy away from board games in particular and anything that doesn’t have a tangible object that does something interesting. But since this is the Halloween episode, I figured this had an interesting box and you’re going to be able to find animated ghouls and spooky things in here with your phones. I figured it might make for an interesting episode. Count Drahoon:I think so. Neil: Or we might find out that this is a complete piece of garbage. Count Drahoon: A complete dud. Just like the Carmella Creeper. CHECKING OUT THE BOX Neil: So here we’ve got the Finders Creepers box. I really like the way they’ve done this. Count Drahoon: It’s pretty eye catching. Neil: That’s what caught my eye was the eye catchiness of it. So you’ve got the front of it here where you can kind of use this viewfinder kind of thing to move around and discover things on the box. I think it’s just a piece of white cardboard behind it that makes stuff show up a little better. But still good packaging. Have a look at the sides here. They are pretty much all the same. Good graphics though. And then on the back you have a shot of the board itself. Count Drahoon: Uh, how you would use your phone? Neil: Looking at the board… Apparently you see the monsters jumping out of the board at you. That’s how you find them. Count Drahoon: And you’re supposed to hunt monsters? Neil: I believe you capture three of them to win. And then apparently the monsters can also appear around the room. Count Drahoon: This is already starting to feel like a Black Mirror episode. Neil: What is the black mirror? Count Drahoon: It’s this show that’s kind of like the modern Twilight Zone minus a host, but it’s like cautionary sci-fi and horror tales in an anthology format. And I just feel like the idea that you’re playing with monsters that come out of your phone just strikes me as a Black Mirror episode. Neil: By the way, you have just flown back from Hollywood. Count Drahoon: I did. Neil: And your bat wings must be very, very tired. Count Drahoon: That’s why I said I had a really long flight getting here. Neil: Ok, I’m here trying to open this box of Finders Creepers and I’m not having much luck with it. I cannot figure out how they’ve got this thing sealed up. I don’t see any tape on it. Count Drahoon: It must be packed in really tight. Oh, I think you got it. Yeah, you got a little bit of it. Neil: Ahhh… here it is! There’s a flap on the end with two pieces of tape. But that also means I have to find a sharp object to cut the tape. Sing a song. I’ll be back with something sharp. Count Drahoon: Um, how about a poem instead? Once upon the midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary over a many-acquainted and curious volume of forgotten lore, while I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping as if someone gently rapping at my chamber door. Tis some visitor, I muttered, only this and nothing more. Ah, yes, I remember it was the bleak December and every dying ember wrought its course upon my books, sir cease of sorrow for the lost Lenore. (Edgar Allen Poe) Neil: (back with a knife) All right, let’s slice it open and see what we’ve got! Count Drahoon: Slasher rules applied. Neil: There we go. Time to open the coffin lid. Oh, it magnetizes closed! They’ve really gone all out on the presentation here. Count Drahoon: Wow. Neil: (opens box) Look! It’s an entire graveyard! Count Drahoon: That’s beautiful artwork, actually. Neil: (reading the text over the graveyard) It was the fateful night the relentless members of Invisible Inc. had been waiting for. The paranormal hunters tracked down the tombs. 12 of the most horrible monsters you could imagine. Was it a mistake to open their graves and release them onto the world? Let’s not quibble about that now. There are monsters to be caught! Each member wants to prove they are the best and find and catch these creepers inside the horrible haunted house. Get ready to join the mission! (Looking at the graveyard) Now, this is kind of like an advent calendar. Count Drahoon: It does kind of look a little bit like it. Neil: You want to do the honors? Count Drahoon: Sure. So you peel open the first flap and you find Abby Stabby! Battery included is what the first gravestone says. You get this little number, this little chip right here (holds up an Abby Stabby game token). And let me tell you, she is she is a beaut, just an absolute beaut. Neil: Now, she one of the monsters? Count Drahoon: Yes! Next we have Papa Poppets. He’s a little like a professional wrestler from the 90’s named Papa Shango, who was like sort of like a voodoo guy. And that’s kind of what he reminds me of a little bit. Some of these characters however don’t they don’t feel entirely original. Neil: I will say they’re not flimsy! Count Drahoon: Next we have Curse the Cat. Neil: I see they’re they are on cardboard, but they’re on nice, thick cardboard. I’ve reviewed some games where it’s just like little cheap flimsy floppy things and this seems to have much better quality. This Curse the Cat character appears to be just a scary black cat. And I like that. Neil: Cats don’t really get scary on their own. I think cruel humans make them scary. Count Drahoon: Right. Especially when you’re walled up with one like in the movie The Black Cat! Next up, we have Harper the Hag. Is it a boy? Neil: I think a hag is usually reserved for a female. Count Drahoon: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Neil: Like the sea hag from Popeye. Count Drahoon: But I guess nowadays a hag can be gender neutral. Neil: Well, you know, once you visit the Vanderbilt Clinic, anything goes! Count Drahoon: Next we have Sir Henry Chestershire. It’s like a werewolf cat. Neil: A werewolf cat? Count Drahoon: That’s what it looks like to me. Neil: Nah, that’s just a werewolf. Count Drahoon: That’s a werewolf. But but but Chester, that’s kind of very cat name. Neil: Yeah, it’s a very cat name, but it’s kind of British. So, you know, the whole werewolf of London kind of thing. Count Drahoon: Our next monster is Slimm Grimm. This is more of a more of a ghoul kind of. It looks like Bat Boy all grown up and working as an accountant. Neil: (lifting out the cardboard graveyard and finding a large booklet) Well, I guess these are the instructions. The rule book. Now, I DID take the liberty of going online and watching a video on how to play. The video was 12 minutes long and there were five million rules to this things. And it was just the most convoluted, complicated thing I’d ever seen in my life. You know, I kind of just want to pull out the board game, flash my phone at it and look at the cool monsters. And you know, it should just be obvious how you play it. But from what I saw, it’s very involved. Now, I’m hoping once we actually get in and play this thing that everything will become real obvious. But first you have to download the app and I have already done that. And I’m going to launch it now. Count Drahoon: That’s a neat looking app I must say! (APP INTRODUCTION VOICE) Welcome members of Invisible Inc. The premier paranormal investigation organization. I’m your assistant, Boogle. Count Drahoon: Run! (App continues) your guide through your mission. Neil: You’ve got a tutorial here and it is 12 minutes long. We’re not going to do that today. Count Drahoon: What? A 12 minute tutorial? Neil: I’ll skip and scan through some of this. (App continues) 12 monster tombstone tiles, eight run special action chips and eight gear special action chips. You can pause. I’ll wait… The monster guide shows you the gear needed to catch each of the monsters. Your app includes the monster guide as well. Each monster has an icon associated with them. Place the tombstone tiles on the corresponding icons. Find the full list of icons in the rulebook. Now get the gear tiles ready. There are six kinds of gear to collect. Separate out the six haunted objects and four holy object tiles. Set four of the haunted object tiles aside. Shuffle the upside down gear tiles and make 12 stacks of three tiles. Now shuffle up the remaining six gear tiles, two haunted object and four holy object tiles and randomly deal one to the bottom of each of the piles. Neil: Be sure to hold your left earlobe while standing on your right leg… Count Drahoon: and be sure to scratch there. Sniff that. (App continues) Haley, Ruth or Diego. Count Drahoon: Who are these people? Neil: They’re the monster hunters. (App continues) If No one has spotted a spirit, The oldest player goes first. Count Drahoon: Well THAT’S discriminatory! (App continues) Place your hunter figurine at the enter gate. Now let’s use the app to set up a mission. One player must be the host and the other players will join their mission. Neil: So you would have to download the app and then join my mission with your phone. (App tutorial continues despite Neil desperately trying to stop it) Neil: I’m trying to stop this thing. Count Drahoon: You can’t. It doesn’t stop. It never ends. (App continues) Once everyone is done, it’s time to start the mission. Neil: I mean all that and we haven’t even started it yet. (Neil finally makes the app shut up!) I had to swipe the whole app away to get it to stop! 12 minutes. 12 minutes of that and it’s really complicated how you move from room to room, find things and if you don’t do something right, it sends you back to the start. Okay, there’s a bunch of cards here and I guess you have to punch them all out. Count Drahoon: Okay. Oh, it’s like demonic Beauty and the Beast. Neil: Fire extinguisher. You’ve got the Necronomicon. Count Drahoon:vYeah, this is a lot to break down. Neil: There are nets, Ghostbusters cannons and these are all the things you use to catch the ghost when then you’ve got a blowtorch and some kind of spike. Count Drahoon: So you so everyone gets these or do you get to choose? Neil: I’m not really sure and it would take you so long to learn what you have to do, I’m not quite sure I want to sit through all that. I will say they’ve gone all out on the graphics. Count Drahoon: They really have. Neil: I’m sure maybe once you spend some time with this and really get into it, you’ll understand what’s going on. Here’s the instructions on how to play. Several pages! (turning pages) We’re still going here. Still going… Still going… And do you really want to read all that? Count Drahoon: Out of curiosity how how long do most instruction manuals last for your basic board game? Neil: Most games that I review are usually just a one sheet thing and at the most it’s maybe two pages. You know what I haven’t found yet? Count Drahoon: What’s that? Neil: The board. The game board. Where’s the actual game board itself? Count Drahoon: Is it under that white cardboard flap? Neil: OH There’s a slot in the bottom of the box where it just slides in! Count Drahoon: That’s kind of neat. Neil: I was about to rip this whole thing apart. Count Drahoon: Wow. Neil: You want to give instructions? That’s what you should give the instructions on! I’ll tell you what. I absolutely refuse to read all these instructions in a game review. It’s just not going to happen. We’re just going to open the board and have whatever kind of fun we can have with this thing and leave it up to our audience to decide if you want to explore further. But wow! Look at the size of this game board! Count Drahoon: That’s a beautiful board. That’s amazing. Neil: Here is our game board. And I’m going to host the game. You can choose a high intensity or a low intensity version with the app. I’m going to choose high intensity. (Game asks for age verification for the high intensity mode) Count Drahoon: Nosey question. And it’s showing some interesting graphics here. I’ve never done anything like this. Neil: I haven’t either. Count Drahoon: So apparently you choose which hunter you want. I’m feeling Diego. (App starts game play) Get ready. Game is starting. Scan the board first… The monsters are out! Neil: OK, so you can see the monsters on the board with your phone. Count Drahoon: That’s that’s kind of neat. Neil: I think you’re supposed to memorize what rooms they’re all in. Count Drahoon: It’s my turn. I’ll try to catch a monster. (app instructs player to touch a room to search for monsters) Count Drahoon: Sure. I’ll touch a room and search for Numbskull the Clown monster. (zombie comes out and eats the player) Oh, what? What? What just happened? A zombie came out and ate me! Neil: So basically, I think the bottom line to Finders Creepers here is that this takes some time and attention. Count Drahoon: Yes. You have to be willing to get into it, get into the instructions, get into the game, learn the different nuances of it and really spend some time. Neil: And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Count Drahoon: No, it’s not. This is probably a game for somebody that has like intermediate gaming experience, both online and with board games. So if you’re good at both of those or if you have intermediate expertise with board gaming, I think this could be a good game for you. But for somebody that just maybe plays Monopoly casually, you’re probably going to need to make room in your schedule to sort of sit down and really learn how to do this because it does seem a bit complicated. I think it would probably be worth it, though, because it’s really neat how the whole game is set up. It really integrates AI very well. The designs for everything are really top notch. This is a high quality game. But yeah, it does seem a bit complicated. Neil: I agree. This game is more for the board game enthusiast. Somebody who wants to roll up their sleeves and dig into something. And it’s something that I don’t think they’ll get bored with it quickly because there seems to be a lot of things going on. And if you really want to sink your teeth into it, there’s a lot here to get into and sink your teeth into. I was personally ready to give this a bad review. And the reason I was ready to give it a bad review is because while I was preparing for this show, I was watching the video on how to play it. And it just got so involved that my eyes just glazed over. I was like, you know, drool black drool started coming from the corners of my mouth. Count Drahoon: Oh, that’s where it came from… Neil: Yes, yes. And, and I was just like, Oh, this is horrible. This is a train wreck. Who wants to do all this? But now that I’ve opened it, and I’ve looked at the quality that they’ve actually put into this game and how interesting they’ve gone into making the packaging and the development of the app. I mean, not only do you see ghouls and goblins and things in the haunted house jumping out at you through your phone, but there are parts in it where you’re going to be able to go around the room and see them actually where you’re hanging out. And for that reason, I’ve changed my mind, I’m gonna say they’ve knocked it out of the park with this thing. It’s not for me. But it wasn’t made for me. Count Drahoon: No, I agree. This is this is a hardcore game enthusiast game. So on that end, if you’re grading it on that curve, this gets high marks, definitely. Neil: FINDERS CREEPERS! Find it wherever you creep! CATCHING UP WITH COUNT DRAHOON Neil: Count Drahoon, you left us here in Murfreesboro all by ourselves for a while. And I believe you went and spent some time in Hollywood, California? Count Drahoon: I did. Neil: So what were you doing out there? And I understand that you’re now back in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. So tell us about that. Count Drahoon: Yes. So, California, I was out there just trying to sort of expand the web as it were for, you know, all things Count Drahoon. I think I did to an extent. I hosted horror films out of LA for a while. But I got homesick and I decided it was time to come back to Tennessee, because I think things are really happening out here. And I think this is the place to be. So I wanted to come back home to Tennesseevania and I’ve really started hitting the ground running and it’s almost as if I never skipped a beat! And I’m doing all kinds of stuff out here in in Murfreesboro! Neil: I noticed you’re doing Monday night classic horror films at Hop Springs Brewery. Count Drahoon: Yes. Neil: It doesn’t mean a whole lot to any of you who are not in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. But it means a lot to us. So you’re hosting classic horror movie nights there. What else are you doing around? Count Drahoon: That’s mostly what I’m doing right now. So Monday nights, I’ve dubbed it the Monster Movie Mondays over at Hop Springs. I’m doing double features every Monday for October and one Wednesday. And then I’m also doing a few other shows around town. We just had one last night from where we’re recording at Cedar Glade Brews. Went very well. I did that with my friend Scufflemoss Treeman, who’s a forest troll. Murfreesboro is a very strange town. We did a live riff track of the Beast of Yucca Flats, which is one of the worst movies ever made. But it’s a lot of fun. Neil: So for the people who are not in Murfreesboro who want to dig into the world of Count Drahoon, where do they go? Count Drahoon: Yeah, so I do have a YouTube channel. It’s called Count Drahoon Presents. And I do movie reviews of horror films, but I’ve branched out a little bit. So I do like top 10 countdowns of my favorite movies of the year. And I do include non horror titles in there. Neil: So basically YouTube is where you find Count Drahoon these days. Count Drahoon: Exactly. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE VIDEO SHOW, PODCAST AND BLOG! Neil: All right. And where you find the Dandy Fun House is of course at www.dandyfunhouse.com, where you can support the show! SUPPORTERS get access to exclusive bonus features and SUPER SUPPORTERS not only get access to those exact features, but also I’ll mail you something from right here at the Dandy Spook Shack IF you provide your mailing address! PODCAST LISTENERS often will have a little button with the dollar sign in your listening app of choice and you can donate to the show that way if you found any value at all. And if nothing else, FIVE STAR REVIEWS anywhere you can leave them get our undead gratitude! Count Drahoon, thank you for stopping by. Count Drahoon: Thank you for having me. Neil: Right here at the Dandy Spook Shack where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! So what do you do now? You just disappear in a puff of smoke? Count Drahoon: You’re kicking me out. Neil: The show’s over. Count Drahoon: I thought we could hang out for a while. Maybe dig into this Carmella Creeper cereal. I mean, that’s a lot of it… Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?  

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! Ten-year-old Cooper Dean of Valrico, Florida entered into a Young Inventors contest and caught the attention of an international toy and game company with her idea to bring a farmland pastime to kitchen tables everywhere! In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to shovel in to the game of… Chicken Poo Bingo! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House! This is your home of retro pop culture, toys and games, and all the fun stuff. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and in this episode, we’re going to shovel up something amazing with the game of Chicken Poo Bingo! And I’ll tell you more about that in just a few minutes, but first, I want to show you these awesome Dandy Fun House T-shirts! They look great! I designed them myself so you know they’re awesome, and they come with four holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of, and two to poke your arms through! That’s how we do it here at the Dandy Fun House. It’s got a front and a back so you don’t get cold. Head over to http://www.dandyfunhouse.com today and see what’s shaking! Oh, and while you’re there, don’t forget about our brand new shirt, Coffee Badger. Are you a coffee badger? Do you know what a coffee badger is? Badge in, caffeinate, badge out. That’s how the coffee badger does it. Okay, back to the show! Cooper Dean, a 10-year-old girl from Valrico, Florida, was on a camping trip with her parents, and she noticed a game that they were playing at the campground, with chickens pooping on a board with a bunch of squares in it, and it was called Chicken Poop Bingo. It’s pretty obvious how it plays, the chicken eats chicken feed, then it walks around on this game board in an enclosed pen, and it poops on different squares, and that’s just like the bingo caller calling out the letter and number until somebody shouts, “Chicken Poop Bingo!” and they’re the winners. She took this idea and worked on it at home using a toy wind-up chicken that pooped little pellets out, (you’ve seen those things, the little kind that you get at the little dollar store), and she worked up a game that you could play at home that didn’t require real poop, and she called it Chicken Poo Bingo! She then took her new game, which she and her friends had a blast playing, and entered the People of Play Young Inventor Challenge, which allowed young inventors to present their ideas to big name companies! Well, one of these big name companies was Goliath Games, and if you haven’t heard of Goliath Games, well you should have, because you go back a couple of episodes here at the Dandy Fun House when we were talking about the game of Greedy Granny, and I brought you the love story of Adi and Margrethe Golad. It’s amazing, you got to go see it. Go back a couple episodes, check it out here. But anyway, back to this. Goliath Games took notice of this game, and they said that’s brilliant, it’s amazing, we’ve got to work with this awesome girl, and so they did! They had zoom calls and conferences, and they cut a deal, and the result is Chicken Poo Bingo, which you can find on shelves all over the world now! Alright, without further ado, I’m going to unbox this thing, assemble it, and we’re going to figure out how to play it. It’s just like Bingo, you already know the deal here, but I have no idea what to expect when I start cracking into this box. I made it an intentional decision to not look at it too much, because I wanted my initial reaction to this game to be exactly what appears on camera. So let’s crack into Chicken Poo Bingo! OUTER PACKAGING So as you can see, here’s the box, and it’s got great graphics. You never know where the chicken will go! They always do it great at Goliath Games, I’ve gotta tell you, it’s an amazing company. They didn’t do anything special on the sides, they just kind of put the same graphic on every side, but it’s an awesome graphic. They just kind of repurposed the front of the box. On the back of course, same as you always have with these types of things, you’ve got the kids playing on the back, as well as a picture of Cooper Dean in the corner, who invented the home version of this game! “This silly chicken has to go, so you can get Bingo. So, in this fun farm themed game, a chicken is in charge of which cute and colorful squares are chosen each round of Bingo. Just wind it up and watch it go. That’s right, the Chicken Poo tells you what to match on your Bingo card. Crazy cows, fluffy pigs, and more are waiting to be chosen every game. Match five in a row and shout Chicken Poo Bingo! to win and bring a blast of laughs to your family!” And I did pick this up at Bass Pro Shops. The reason I picked it up at Bass Pro Shops is because it was the only store local to me that actually had it on the shelf, and I was running a little late on time. I just overhauled my whole studio here, and I didn’t have time to order it online and wait for it to come. So, hit Bass Pro Shops I did, and I paid about eight extra dollars than I would have had I ordered it online, but you know that’s the price that I pay to bring you Chicken Poo! All right, let’s open this thing and see what we got here. And since the chicken is wind up, that was a question I had. I was concerned that I was going to have to get batteries, but Goliath Games came through once again and made it mechanical and not battery powered, and they’re really good about that stuff. So, another big shout out kudos to Goliath Games! Let’s open the box and get our first impressions here! UNBOXING There’s not much to see in that box, is there? It looks like a pretty empty box. It looks like I got ripped off! There’s nothing in there! Look at that! Look at this! It’s not empty, however… Just got to do a little creative digging here. We’ve got cardboard. Let’s lose that. Here we have an entire sheet of Poo tokens! Oh, and here’s different game pieces. This is kind of interesting here. Various game pieces with different patterns on them. Good branding on it all. What else we got? We have our instructions here.(…) We have a funnel… and little nuggets of poop. Yay! Poop funnel! And we have a chicken here. The star of the show, our chicken… and our chicken isn’t too bright. Chicken stuck its head in a plastic bag, which is not really advisable because there’s really no air holes in there for the chicken to breathe. And then we have the game board. I like this already, and you know why I like it? Because usually when you see a game board that it’s this small, it’s usually like you’ve got half of it in one piece, and then you’ve got a half-cut part, and then it flops open into a bigger board, and I hate that little quarter cut. I like it when you just open it and there it is. Now let’s turn it around and see what we got. All right, that’s colorful. You have a start square, and then I guess you just match up the different animals and farm features, I guess. These have got to be the bingo cards that you hand out, and they must be because they all have different configurations. Well, the first thing… We’ve got to fill up our chicken. And what you do is you grab it down here, probably not by the feet because the feet are motorized. So you want to grab it by the body and then just rip the head of the chicken off. And that’s pretty much how you kill a chicken anyway when you’re getting ready to pluck it for dinner. Then the poop pellets, obviously, go into this little hole right here, and I guess that’s where the funnel comes into play. You don’t really need the funnel, but I guess it just makes it easier to load your poop pellets into. I’m having trouble getting all these in here, so okay, I guess we’re not going to load them all in here for now. In our chicken head, there’s a tab to the side, and there’s a notch in the top of the chicken’s body. You want to line those up and just snap the chicken head back on. INSTRUCTIONS Object: Be the first to get five poo tokens horizontally vertically or diagonally and shout chicken poo bingo! Playing the game: The youngest player goes first. On their turn, players wind up the chicken about eight rotations or until the gear feels taut and set it on the start space in the center of the bingo game. Players may choose to place the chicken facing any direction. As the chicken wobbles along, watch for those poo nuggets as the chicken poo lands on the colorful squares. Players should match them to their bingo cards and place a poo token on that square on their own card. You never know when you might get a chicken poo bingo! If no one has a chicken poo bingo after everyone has finished checking their cards, that round ends and play passes to the left. The next player starts the next round by gathering the poo nuggets and refilling the chicken and winding it up and placing it on the start space facing any direction. Players take turns refilling and placing the chicken on the bingo game board and checking their cards each round until one player has five poo tokens in a row on their bingo card. Okay, so you just keep it going. You keep putting poo tokens on your game card and you don’t take them off after each round. You just keep it going until someone gets bingo it like you would if you were actually playing regular bingo somewhere without poop involved. You know what… this is the second fecal themed game that I’ve reviewed this year! HISTORY OF POOP BINGO But while I’m popping out poop tokens here, I’m going to tell you kind of how the whole concept of poop bingo started. It actually started as cow poop bingo (for lack of a more family friendly term) out on farms. They’d make a great big grid pattern on the ground in the cow pen and the cow would walk around and do what cows do and people would mark off their bingo cards until somebody got the bingo. Everybody would pay a few dollars to play and the money would either go to support the farm or a local charity. Well, there was a musician who was playing at a bar who had experienced this game happening out on farms and he presented the idea to his clients, the bar owners, of bringing in this game to their establishment but adapting it instead of cows (because cows can’t go to bars), chickens, which you could actually bring indoors if you needed to. The owners loved the idea and it brought in some additional revenue. And so that’s where our young inventor came up with the idea. Not that she’s going out bar hopping with her parents, you know what I mean? She saw it at a campsite, not at a bar that let in 10 year olds.uhh… yeah. All right, now we’re ready to play some chicken poo bingo! LET’S PLAY CHICKEN POO BINGO! I’m going to shuffle these cards so I don’t know which one I’m going to get here. I’ll pull one from the middle. Okay, that’s going to be my card right here. Youngest player goes first. Well, that would be me! So eight turns on the chicken… Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, or until taut. I think it’s tight enough now. I don’t want to screw up the winding mechanism. So we’ll just kind of put it here in the center start space. Now, my big question is, is this thing going to walk in a straight line or is it going to, you know, meander around in circles, which I would think it would probably be better for it to do. You know, it should be a little unpredictable… So here we go… It dropped one in the start space on the border between the start space and on a line. I’m not going to count that one. All right. Got eggs, tractor. Oh, I see! The poop pellets roll around and they could land pretty much anywhere as long as you’re on a level surface. Okay. So the chicken has dropped on the tractor and the eggs. So do I have a tractor and do I have eggs? I have a tractor. I think everything’s on each card. They’re just in different formations… and I have eggs! Let’s, let’s wind up some more. I’m just going to leave the chicken right where it’s at. Oh wait. And we, and we got one on the dog. Where’s the dog? Right there! Okay. Then start it from right where it stopped. We’ve already got our cards marked. So we don’t really need to leave poop pellets sitting around on the board because that could get in the way of the chicken walking around. So rip the chicken’s head off again for our funnel here. You know, chickens actually will continue to run around after you pull their heads off in real life. Don’t ask me how I know that. They gave way more pellets than there’s room for inside the chicken. And I think that’s probably because they’re expecting you to lose some of them. Okay. Let’s, let’s go back to the start here and I am going to actually face the chicken the opposite direction this time. Go until the spring is taut. Instructions said eight turns, it probably meant eight full turns. Okay. Looks like I’ve got a bunny. Barn. Donkey. Cow. Another one on the barn. And I think that it’s gonna be tough to get the edge of the board because the poop rolls off the edge. The crease in the middle of the board can also play a role in this because the pellets fall into that groove. piggy… (…) Tractor… (…) I think a better idea would be to start the chicken in different positions on the board or just from wherever it stops. I think Starting the chicken in the middle start square is a losing proposition because the the chicken’s not going to walk much further than that and you’re gonna really miss the opportunity of getting droppings into the corner spaces. With this in mind, maybe we’ll start this chicken on the hay bales over here in the corner and it seems that wherever you start It’s a pretty safe bet that it’s probably gonna drop one there. But let’s ee what happens… (…) We got the lamb… (…) And of course we get the chicken… (…) And a cow! (…) Cow and chicken! I love that cartoon! I think I’m getting really close to a chicken poo bingo here… it’s kind of tedious having to rip the chicken’s head off every time I wish there was a better way to load this thing and I wish that it would you could just load it with all of the poop and not have to do this after every single winding. And it’s really easy to lose all these little pieces. I’ll talk about that more in the wrap-up. We’ve got boots… (…) Bunny… kitty, I’m getting really close here on my game card. Oh Oh CHICKEN POO BINGO! And that’s how you play Chicken Poo Bingo! FINAL THOUGHTS Alright, that was a lot of fun. I like the fact that it doesn’t use batteries. Goliath games is really good about keeping a lot of their games battery-free and that’s a great thing! This chicken… the fact that you have to pull it apart after every round to refill it with just 5 pellets and you can kind of feel plastic cracking under your fingers and along the seams and things.. I feel this translates to an early demise for this bird. I just don’t see it holding up over the long term. I think the tedious nature of having to refill this thing so much is going to be such a pain that kids aren’t going to stick with it very long. It’s like those little wind-up toys you get in your Easter basket. They’re fun for a few minutes. Then you get sick of it and it breaks quickly too. I could be wrong Kids could have a blast with it and the chicken could keep going for years. It just doesn’t feel like it to me. But also you’ve got these little tiny poo pellets. Is that a choking hazard? I don’t know. It’s so small. You know bigger kids are going be playing around smaller kids. Are they going find them all and put them away? Magic 8-ball says not likely. I think there’s just too much little stuff that’s going to get lost. Paper thin tokens and game cards too. It’s a great way to bring the fun of poop bingo whether it be cow or chicken to your dining room table, I just wish they made this more durable, with more poo capacity and a border around the game board so the pellets don’t roll off the side would be the only other thing on my wish list for this game. I FINAL RANKING So how am I gonna rate Chicken Poo Bingo here? Okay on a scale from one to ten chicken droppings… I’m giving it a SEVEN because I love the concept. I love the back story too. I think it’s awesome! Do I regret buying this? No, not at all This actually was fun and I’m going donate this to the youth room in my church and see what reaction it gets.Especially since we just had a flood in the church. So maybe some of the games I had up there might be ruined when I go in on Sunday morning and this will be a nice new one. SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE! If you’d like to help keep this show out of the poop house, please consider becoming a Dandy Fun House Supporter by visiting https://www.dandyfunhouse.com and look for the patronage page in the menu. You can donate in a variety of ways: Buy Me A Coffee, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, whatever you want to do! Supporters get access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public and Super Supporters get those same bonus features PLUS I will mail you something poopy from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast Listeners can usually donate via a little button in your podcast app. There’s usually a little dollar sign button and that gives me cryptocurrency. I take cryptocurrency, bus tokens, belly button lint… DON’T SEND ME BELLY BUTTON LINT! And if you don’t have anything to donate but still wish to support, please leave a five-star review anywhere you can. That would be really really appreciated because it helps the show grow! Alright, that’s gonna be about it. I’m gonna get the poop on out of here! You guys come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?

watch video below!   listen to the podcast below!   Do you have a fat, stingy grandma? Have you ever wanted one? Well today’s your lucky day because on this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to unbox, assemble and play none other than the game of GREEDY GRANNY! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! This is where we hoard all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff we can find! I’m your host, Neil Dandy and today we’re going to get into a game that’s been around since about 2018 and started off as a Toys R Us exclusive. Obviously Toys R Us isn’t around anymore but now this game can be found just about everywhere and the fact that it’s had the staying power to endure on the toy and game aisle shelves for this long is a testament to it’s appeal. I’m talking about the game of GREEDY GRANNY by Goliath Games (try saying THAT ten times fast!) from Deutschland.   But first I want to show you these awesome DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They come with a front AND a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them at our website https://www.dandyfunhouse.com ! And while you’re there, check out our brand new NO ROBOTS! T-Shirt and tell Cyberdyne where to stick it! HISTORY OF GOLIATH GAMES The history of Goliath Games is actually a love story about two people named Adi and Margreeth Golad who fell head over heels for each other over a game of Rummikub while visiting the Israeli desert. We don’t know if it was the moon or the Manischevitz but in addition to their passion for one-another, they also found a burning passion for the game of Rummikub. Margreeth soon returned home to the Netherlands where she shared this game with her family who also became consumed with an unquenchable passion for the game of Rummikub. Margreeth and Adi soon connected back up and decided to not only join together to pursue a business desire to bring Rummikub to the world but also join together in holy matrimony and in 1980 founded GOLIATH GAMES. Adi left his mechanical engineering career and traded in his car for 500 games of Rummikub which he sold on the streets of the Netherlands, obviously not out of the trunk of his car. I guess he set them out on a blanket and probably started a lot of conversations with “Psst buddy!” There were challenges along the way, but when they were hungry, Rummikub kept them alive (Hey, I think that’s and Eagles song!). Nonetheless, Adi and Margreeth persisted on their all-out Rummikub rampage and proceeded to build the game into the iconic, multi-generational classic that it is today. In fact, the game eventually became so popular that it set the world record as the most number of games played per capita in a single year. Goliath Games and Rummikub still hold this record to this day! Together, Adi and Margreeth built the foundation of Goliath Games and nurtured it into a leading global manufacturer of toys and games in over a dozen countries around the world. Their slogan? “Clever Together.” Adi and Margreeth Golad, The Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog salutes you! Now let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY! For a game that’s been around since 2018, I found surprisingly little information on the backstory or origins of this game while researching for this episode. I was unable to find who invented it, what the inspiration was or anything more than simply reviews on how to play it which I avoided looking at because I wanted my initial reactions to this game to indeed be my initial reactions. Pretty much all I know is that this is a TWAG (toy with a game), Granny sits sleeping in a chair with a tray of treats and the players take turns stealing treats until Granny abruptly wakes up and spits her teeth at you which means that not only do you lose the game, but you’re in for a round of butt whipping with a wooden spoon! (At least that’s what my grandmother, Alma used to do to me. And in full disclosure, I deserved it every single time.) Ok, enough lollygagging! Let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY! Here we have our game of Greedy Granny! I’llupt it here on the table and let’s look over the box here… Great graphics on the front. You’ve got Greedy Granny jumping out of her chair. It looks like she’s spitting one of those Grandma cookies, you know the kind without much flavor in them but they’ve got this weird red dot in the middle of them? Yeah, one of those! I’m sure somewhere she’s got a bowl of little hard candies nobody likes but we eat them when we’re at grandma’s house because there’s nothing else to grab (at least until dinnertime.) Oh wait! There’s her dentures right there! Okay, so she’s spitting out her dentures and a cookie and there’s a little hand coming in here grabbing a pretzel And over here you’ve got one of those unfrosted flavorless cookies and a tiny little picture of what the game actually looks like down here in the corner. All well and good. Let’s have a look at the sides. And this says Will You Risk It For The Biscuit? Biscuits are what they call cookies in Europe and Goliath Games being from Deutschland… Well, there you go. And it looks like all the sides have the exact same artwork. So let’s have a look at the back! We’ve got kids playing the game as usually it is with these games. They’re showing the spinner, a close-up of the game, how it sets up and then Granny jumping out of her chair. “Granny loves treats and she wants to keep them all for herself. When Granny falls asleep, it’s time to make your move! On your turn, swipe a treat from her tray, but be careful… one wrong move can wake Granny up and send her chompers soaring!” Contents: One Granny in an armchair which apparently comes in two pieces, one set of Granny’s teeth, One Spinner card with plastic spinner and 12 treats complete with instructions. UBOXING Without further ado… Let’s crack Granny open! Looking in the box looks interesting lots of different colors going on here. Usually I pull one thing out at a time, but in this case, I think I’m just going to dump the box . Here’s the instructions and you know what we do with instructions, right? We toss them! And we try to figure it out without them. We will refer to them if we need to so And we’re going to start with the spinner. The spinner is well protected in its packaging and I like that. It shows that it was actually made by people who care or maybe by people who didn’t want to deal with returns. It’s cardboard, kind of thin, kind of warpy, kind of cheapy, but does it work? Not so much. Oh, okay The the back of it kind of popped out so it did it needs to be sat down on a table so it pops up correctly and then and then you can spin it. You might want to tape it into place. We’ve got frowny faces a no-go 1x 2x 3x on the board with various arrows. And it looks like some of these arrows indicate if you land on them to get a treat. I think the green means lose a turn and the purple means proceed and tells you how many treats you take and how many treats you give back I don’t know. It looks like I’m gonna have to refer to the instructions so that I know what the heck to tell you guys to do. But now let’s have a look at these various parts And uh, I’m starting to get a dark feeling about this game from some of the stuff I see here Here’s Granny’s Dentures! We’ve got three nasty biscuit cookies Got three weird grandma red cookie things Three pretzels (that’s what I’d be going for!) And we got some other types of nasty rectangular biscuits that nobody wants and Ready for this… two severed arms! Apparently she caught one of the kids! Actually the the arms are kind of uh bony and uh… These are old lady arms actually. So obviously these are Granny’s arms and we’re gonna have to build her like a robot. And speaking of which… Hopefully this is mechanical and we don’t need batteries. I do not see a battery compartment… That would be really cool if we didn’t need batteries for this thing and it appears we do not! I like it when it’s made just to work out of the box! We’ve got granny’s chair with her torso has been severed apparently… And there’s her treat tray. And I guess you push the button for how many times you are required to do so. She’s got her legs sticking out. Something tells me I’m gonna like this game! I’m not really sure what to do here but I am very very happy that I don’t see any battery compartment. Let’s break out Granny! Now, for her dentures… And let’s go ahead and put in her arms.You know, we want Granny to have some hands here because she needs to make dinner at some point tonight.and talk to you for an hour on your way to the car! And then you lean her back in her chair and it makes her go to sleep. Night night Granny. I’m going to put a bunch of treats on her tray…and refer to the instructions here to see what we’re supposed to do! INSTRUCTIONS Greedy Granny is a mischievously fun game that is perfect for the whole family Your mission is to swipe a treat from Granny’s tray as carefully and quietly as you can. One wrong move will wake her up and send her teeth flying! Will you risk it for a biscuit? The youngest player goes first. Well, that would be me! If the spinner lands on purple the player must put a treat back if they have one and press the button the number of times indicated on the spinner Okay, I have three x so i’ve got to press this button three times one two three And I lose! And if you land on green, that tells you how many treats you take and how many times you push the button. The aim of the game is to collect one of each treat. If granny wakes up, the player who woke her must place all of their treats back on her tray. Once the player’s treats have returned reset granny and the game continues! And that’s how you play GREEDY GRANNY! FINAL RANKING: On a scale of one to ten false teeth. I’m gonna give her… I don’t know. Let’s say eight and a half dentures! SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE And before we spit our own dentures, I would like to ask that if you have found any value at all in this episode to please supporting production of future episodes by visiting the patronage page at our website https://www.dandyfunhouse.com Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features and Super Supporters gain access to those exact same features PLUS I’ll personally mail you something completely saliva-free from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address! Podcast listeners can support through their listening app of choice if the app supports it (look for a button with a little dollar sign on it) and 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them always get our undying gratitude! I’d love to stay and chew the Freedent with you longer, but now it’s time to get gone! Come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and Author. Aren’t you impressed?  

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! If there’s one thing in this world I am a sucker for it’s snouts, fat bellies and squiggly little tails! It’s great in real life, but it’s even better when it comes in the form of a TWAG! What’s a TWAG you ask? It means Toy With A Game… TWAG! In this episode number 40 of the Dandy Fun House we’re gonna make pigs fly! And we’re not just gonna make ’em fly, we’re gonna make ’em bounce too as I review the TWAG known as PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog where we use our delicate snouts to sniff out the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and before we begin I want to acknowledge a milestone! Since this is just a monthly show (other than the fact that I do post daily snippets online), there are some that have expressed to me that if this show were to reach 40 episodes… then pigs will have flown! Well, not only has the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog Officially reached 40 episodes as of the episode you’re currently consuming, but we’re going to celebrate by making pigs fly or at least bounce because I’m gonna unbox, assemble, play and review an awesome looking game from PlayMonster called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! But first I want to let you know that the brand new DANDY FUN SHOP online merchandise store has officially launched! You can find it on the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and just click on “SHOP.” You may also visit it directly at dandyfunshop.com . As of now you’ll find the all-new awesome looking DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirt with both a front and a back (because we don’t Want you to get cold) which I’m real proud of! I think it came out looking great. You’ll also find some other novelty designs I’ve created not necessarily Connected to the show just some crazy designs I like to make when I’m not cranking out these episodes. I’m hoping that as the shop grows, it will help promote this show and this show will help promote the shop in what we in the Industry refer to as cross promotion. But enough about me! Let’s learn a little bit more about the company behind PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES, PlayMonster! PLAYMONSTER Now I don’t really recall hearing of this company before, but with a game called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES bouncing out at me from the Walmart shelf, how could I not get this game and learn more about this company? So I log on to their website at playmonster.com and before I can even see or do anything I’m instantly disrupted by this horrible pop-up right in my face asking for my name and email address so they can add me to their mailing list before I even don’t anything about them! It’s like an over eager first date and I’m in my nice prom dress. (You know what I’m talking about). I don’t know who at PlayMonster marketing needs to hear this but PlayMonster we need to talk. Come here… (soft music plays) We just met and you’re already asking for all my personal information. It’s just too much too fast I’m not ready for that type of commitment at this place in my life. Let’s get to know each other a little first. We’ll take a walk down the beach maybe to the park. It doesn’t need to be all on you either. I can pack a nice lunch for two and we can just sit and talk and see where things go and if the feel is right… NO PLAYMONSTER! NOT THAT TYPE OF FEEL! Where was I? Oh, yes, if things go well maybe we can hang out at my place and watch the Hallmark Channel together and maybe… MAYBE then I’ll let you hold my hand and well… you’re making me blush PlayMonster! There goes my heart again! PlayMonster are you hearing me? I hope so! I’m just not that kind of toy and game reviewer! I have morals and values and boundaries which need to be respected! Okay… So I click the annoying pop-up away and start checking out their featured image showing their most featured products and I’m having a gander over what they wish to put out front and center for their company which remains on the screen for exactly five seconds. (Yes I timed it) before the image changes to yeah, you guessed it… ANOTHER SOLICITATION TO SIGN UP FOR THEIR EMAIL LIST! PlayMonster! We just talked about this! Didn’t we just talk about this!? At this point, I’m not just annoyed, I’m downright ticked off! I feel violated and cheap! My mascara is running and I think I tore my dress. PlayMonster! Let me out of the car! Just let me out! This company is literally doing everything it can to make me run screaming but I decide that I must persist, put my big-girl pants back on (don’t ask) and proceed forward for the sake of you, my audience. Upon further exploration I see something familiar; the TOTY (Toy Of The Year) award-winning game, Yeti In My Spaghetti which I actually had the pleasure to give a favorable review to just about a year and a half ago! (episode 22 if you’re playing along at home). I’m also reminded that PlayMonster is currently the purveyor of the classic toy brands Spirograph, Playskool, Koosh, Fashion Plates and Colorforms along with a good handful of others I’ll admit I’m not familiar with, but look interesting. So I actually HAVE encountered the “handsy” PlayMonster before! I must have just blocked it out like that creepy balloon twister from my fifth birthday party. Diving in further, I learned from their ABOUT US page (which thankfully does not bludgeon me to sign up for their spam list) that this company began in 1985 by a pair of brothers named Ryan and Bryce Patch under the name PATCH PRODUCTS. They started with kids puzzles before expanding to toys and games and eventually acquiring other brands and growing their offerings henceforth targeting both youth and adult demographics. In the year 2014, Patch Products were themselves acquired and in 2016 changed the name to PlayMonster. They are based right here in the good old US of A in Beloit, Wisconsin and are distributed all over the world. They support the charitable foundation the TOY BANK FOUNDATION distributing joy and happiness to children in need wherever they may be! Well, there you go! Good PlayMonster! Awesome! See… I DID find something nice to say about PlayMonster after all! Okay onto this awesome looking game… PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! THE BOX Here we are! PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES and let’s have a look over the box. I just love the graphics they did on it and it’s got like a soft look to the whole thing. It’s set out in the middle of a green field and you’ve got pigs bouncing on trampolines and landing in the mud puddles and they just they did a bang-up job on this! You’ve got different pigs on different sides of the box which is great because what most companies do is they just mail it in and put the exact same graphic on every side of the box. On the back you’ve got the obligatory kids actually playing the game Which everybody does, but then you need to do that because you have to see what the actual product looks like and not just the marketing graphic. The product looks great on the box. “Yippee jump for joy with Pigs on Trampolines! Use the trampolines to bounce your pigs into the pigpen and try to land in the mud puddle. Every pig you land in the puddle earns you a mud pie! Keep bouncing your pigs until all the mud pies are gone. The muddiest piggy wins! UNBOXING Sounds good to me. Well, let’s open it! Without further ado… (THIS is the part I love!) Whoosh Here we have color instructions! The instructions are awesome-looking. They show you how to put it all together and it appears to be in very plain English and very simple gameplay. I think we get the idea. You try to get them into the middle of the mud puddle and you collect mud pies. we have three trampolines right here and they make great little tom-toms! And The legs are all different different lengths so that the trampoline can sit at an angle to bounce the piggies the proper direction. You’ve got the mud puddle platform trunks(which hold up the mud puddle platform) which just snap together. It’s a durable plastic. I don’t think there’s a great risk of breaking it. Not like that brittle plastic you get in some games. We have the cardboard graphical platform for the mud puddle which fit into slots in the top of the platform. You have the mud puddle itself which is just a brown plastic cup that fits into the middle of the platform and the object is you want to try and launch your pigs into that cup. THE PIGS And last but not least we have our piggies! I’m a little disappointed that PlayMonster didn’t give our piggies names or any sort of fun bio. I think that would have added a real special touch. So I supposed we’ll have to give them our own names! We have: THE MASKED PIG! BALLERINA PIG! BICYCLE PIGGY! SUPER PIGGY! TROLL PIG! and… DAREDEVIL PIG! These are your beloved PIGGY BOUNCERS! GIVE ‘EM A HAND! MUD PIES AND HOW TO PLAY! What you win if you actually get your pig into the middle of the mud puddle are mud pies! They look like little brown plastic splats. And you get seven of them so there is no chance for a tie game. You can also play an easier version for small children where a mud pie is awarded for simply bouncing the pig onto the platform or if an adult is playing with a small child, to make it fair the adult would have to make it into the cup and the child just has to get it onto the platform. The secret which they reveal in the instructions is to bounce the pigs on their tails. I had more than a few frustrating go-rounds before I finally discovered this pointer along with aiming the angle of the trampoline correctly. Out of the six piggies, I landed two in the center cup and won two mud pies! Yay for me! FINAL RANKING! PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! More fun than a bucket of mud! PATHETIC GROVELING FOR MONEY And speaking of buckets… I could really use a bucket of begonias about now to help pay for all this dandiness as well as all the behind the scenes stuff I do and encourage you, dear audience that if you have found any value at all in this program to please support future productions by becoming a DANDY FUN HOUSE SUPPORTER! Just visit the patronage page at dandyfunhouse.com where you can also visit the newly launched Dandy Fun Shop, which I’m currently filling with wacky stuff, t-shirt designs (including the all-new Dandy Fun House t-shirt, which I just know you’ll love!) SUPPORTERS receive access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public and SUPER SUPPORTERS gain access to that exact same stuff plus I’m gonna mail you something awesome from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios if you send me your mailing address! PODCAST LISTENERS can donate via a button which appears on most podcast apps (you’ll see a little dollar sign on it) and sends me cryptocurrency. And FIVE STAR REVIEWS, LIKES and SUBSCRIBES wherever you enjoy this show (including all the major social networks) always receive my undying gratitude! Okay, well it is time for me to bounce like a winged sow! Come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… Fun and Dandy! Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?

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

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