DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

Virl and Tom Osmond

The Dapper Dans

Tommy Walker, Disneyland Director of Entertainment

Donny Osmond

Marie Osmond

Jimmy Osmond

George Osmond Sr.

Mike Curb

Rick Hall

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

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!

Bob Casale

Bob MothersbaughAlan Lewis

Funneling his anger into artistic expression, this historical event would ultimately become the inspiration for the official coming together of this group of musicians to form a band with the underlying theme highlighting the regression of mankind. In 1973, they made it official with Gerald Casale recruiting his brother Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh with HIS brother Bob while also adding in Alan Myers, Rod Reisman and Fred Weber to round out the group. Thus SEXTET DEVO (as they were originally called) was born. Exactly when the name was shortened to simply “DEVO” is up for debate but from all the information I’ve been able to gather, it happened rather quickly during the formative years of the band.

Director, Chuck Statler

Alan Meyers

David Kendrick

Bob Casale

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

watch the video below!

listen to the podcast below!

Hey there! It’s me, your old pal Obnoxio the Clown. I know it’s been a while but I couldn’t help but crawl out of my clown hole once I heard what the Dandy Fun House had planned for this episode of their show! Not only that, but they also made the incredibly bad decision to ask ME, your old pal Obnoxio to host!They would have asked the Nebbish, but he doesn’t really talk so much. Ok, by now I have to imagine about two of you are really excited but most of you are really confused, so let me bring you up to speed. I used to be the mascot for CRAZY Magazine and I’m here to tell you the story of this wacky little rag that had a pretty good run back in the 70’s and 80’s! So without further ado, Let’s step into the Fart House! What? Oh the Fun House! Yeah that’s it!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Flop House, Fun House or whatever they call it! Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your old long-lost pal, Obnoxio the Clown and I’m here to tell you the story of an obnoxious humor magazine that existed from 1973 to 1983 which yours truly was honored to be the mascot for during it’s final few years.

But first, let me show you these crazy new t-shirts from the Dandy Fun House (did I say it right this time?) now available in the Dandy Fun SHOP! It’s got a front AND a back so you don’t get too cold and comes with 4 holes in it. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke yer arms through! You can find it at the Dandy Fun House website at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com or go directly to the store at http://www.dandyfunshop.com . Now back to this glorious freaking episode!

Ok, CRAZY MAGAZINE! We were published by Marvel Comics believe it or not and were sort of in the vein of Mad Magazine, Cracked, Sick Magazine and National Lampoon.

In the beginning back in 1953, Marvel Comics was actually called Atlas Comics and they decided to try their hand at competing with the behemoth of all novelty mags, MAD Magazine. So they published 7 issues of a comic book called CRAZY! Which skewered pop culture and included gags galore. It was a nice trial balloon, but didn’t exactly take the world by storm so they shelved the idea of publishing a satire for the next TWENTY YEARS until 1973 when it was revived for the purpose of republishing some of Marvel’s more wacky bits from their late-60’s comic called “Not Brand Echh.” What the heck kind of a name is “NOT BRAND ECHH!?”

STAN LEE

MARV WOLFMAN

For some reason they decided to give the old CRAZY Magazine another crack at success and kept things rolling under the guiding hand of the Marvel man, myth and legend himself… Stan Lee along with Co-Editor Marv Wolfman. Lee wanted to go for a straight up Mad Magazine and Cracked Magazine vibe while Wolfman wanted something more along the lines of National Lampoon. They came to an agreement somewhere in the middle and this gave CRAZY its own unique flavor. Kind of like sardine ala mode!

It was decided that CRAZY needed a mascot, and so kicked around ideas until they came up with a small, buggy looking guy in a floppy hat and some sort of black cape-looking trench coat thing and they called this guy “The Nebbish.” Later they gave him the more proper name of “Irving Nebbish.” This Nebbish guy served as the mascot for CRAZY Magazine for seven solid years and he did a fine job I must say. I mean, I eventually STOLE his job but no hard feelings Nebby! That’s show biz!

STEVE GERBER

Wolfman wasn’t the only editor Crazy Magazine had. A man named Steve Gerber took over editing for issues #11-14 with a desire to set the magazine apart from its competition and try to convince the readers that the creators themselves were crazy. Gerber’s run as editor came to an abrupt end however when he published a very dark feature called “… And the Birds Hummed Dirges” which featured high schoolers engaged in a suicide pact. I think Mr. Gerber went back to making baby food after that!

LARRY HAMA

AL MILGROM

ALAN KUPPERBERG

CRAZY Mag did alright for a while. At least good enough to keep getting published but by 1979, sales were slumping so they brought on a new editor named Larry Hama who tried something really obnoxious and created me, Obnoxio the Clown to be CRAZY Magazine’s new mascot starting with issue #63 in June 1980! Larry wanted a mascot for the mag that would be more proactive and in your face than the other humor rags, so there I was! They modeled my face after some schmuck named Al Milgrom and I was mostly drawn by artist Alan Kupperberg. Back then I had hair. Today not so much. Too many Nair pies to the head’ll do that to ya! And let me tell you, we had the best features during my run as mascot and those days were a blast!

Some of my personal favorite features were:

The Kinetic Kids where you would flip two pages back and forth to give the illusion of animation and bring gross and violent pictures to life

Howard The Duck!

The Nebbish! My old pal! No hard feelings Nebby!

The Obnoxio The Clown Fun Pages where I would bring you stupid puzzles and parodies! It’s what I do!

Page-O-Stuff – This is where they stuck all their random ideas that didn’t work anywhere else!

Comic Book Parodies – Sendups of famous comics like Kaspar the Dead Baby, Ritchie Retch and stuff like that!

Believe it Or Else!

The Eleventh Hour Special with Behemoth Jack – Where we would parody song lyrics long before Weird Al was a thing! My favorite was our sendup of Paul McFartney and the Things!

Fantasy vs. Reality, Aunty Nuke, Gross Encounters and so much more! Ahh! Those were the days baby!

A couple decades later we even made it into an episode of the Simpsons! (ok, it was a glancing mention, but still!). Come to think of it, that Crusty the Clown’s act seems awful familiar! Get my lawyer on the phone!

I had a great time corrupting the world’s youth, but like the bright burning star that I am, I got white hot and burned fast. That’s right, even your old pal Obnoxio couldn’t save the publication from all the modern distractions the world was offering. People just didn’t have time for good old fashioned gross humor anymore.  CRAZY Magazine closed its covers and printed its final issue in April 1983 and I had to go back to twisting balloon animals in the old folks homes. We did have a reunion in 2019 for a one-off issue featuring new material and bringing back some of the best blasts from the past but that pretty much stuck a fork in us!

And now you know pretty much all there is to know about the brief but disgusting run of CRAZY MAGAZINE! We had a good run I suppose! Whaddaya want from me!? I come out of retirement to do a guest-host spot on this no-name production and I can’t even get a bottle of seltzer water in my trailer! I used to be a star! I used to be in command of million-dollar machines! I come back home and I can’t even get a job as a dishwasher! Say what? Oh yeah, you’re right. Sorry I Rambo sometimes.

Hey! You! Yeah I’m talking to you! If you have found any sort of redeeming value to this production at all, the producers of the Dandy Fun House would like to encourage you to show your support and help them afford seltzer water for the guest host trailer by visiting the Patronage Page at the Dandy Fun House Website www.dandyfunhouse.com

Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features not available to the general public. I might even show off a few highly worn-out issues of Crazy Magazine.

And…

Super Supporters get access to the exact same bonus features as the cheapskates get PLUS we’ll mail you something special from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address!Maybe a Nair Pie! Ohhhh! Nair Pie!

Podcast Listeners can donate directly from the podcast app of choice IF the app supports it (look for a button with a dollar sign on it usually)

And 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them get my undying gratitude!

THERE! Have I shilled enough for you leeches!? Give me my 20 bucks and let me go home now!

Thanks for hanging out and come back soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!

Is it just me or does the Nebbish bear a striking resemblance to the Hamburglar?

 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)

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

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!

watch the video below!

listen to the podcast below!

The humble toaster pastry. It’s been our molten, tongue burning sweet little friend since the 60s. It’s a quick little pick me up when we need a tasty treat. Sometimes it’s breakfast on the run and in all the world, one little toaster named Milton reigns supreme with his empire of handheld, sugary rectangles known as Pop-Tarts. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to give three off-brand toaster pastry underdogs a chance to dethrone the mighty Milton and claim the title TOASTER PASTRY CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! For this is the Strawberry Toaster Pastry Showdown! Let’s step into the Fun House!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! This is where we cook up the very tastiest in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and by pop-tartular demand, this episode is going to cook!

And yes, I’m coming to you straight from the Dandy Fun House Studios Kitchens, where today we’re going to have the showdown of the century! I have here before me the four most popular toaster pastries in America… Alright, they’re the only four different types of toaster pastries I could find after visiting four different grocery stores, but you get the idea, right? OK, here we go!

Upon conducting my search, scouring grocery store shelves for toaster pastries to pit against one another, I discovered that strawberry is apparently the most common flavor amongst all toaster pastries. So that’s the flavor we’re going to test today.

Here we have Millville Toaster Tarts, which is the Aldi brand. We have Toaster Treats, which is the Kroger brand. We have Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries by Great Value, which is the Walmart brand. And last but certainly not least, we have the reigning toaster pastry champion of the world, Pop Tarts.

I want to be really careful to not rip off Matt Mitchell’s Bless Your Rank, which I absolutely love. So instead of lining up these four contenders to the strawberry toaster pastry throne, I’m instead going to conduct this contest like a boxing match with an undercard and a main event, after which I will pit the winner of the undercard against the winner of the main event to give the underdog a shot at the title!

I will be judging on packaging, the look of the pastry and of course how they taste both untoasted and toasted.

I will not actually be swallowing any of these toxic treats. I’ll instead be taking a bite from the best corner of the pastry, chewing it, allowing it to roll around my palate for a moment, and then spitting it out while swishing my mouth with water between bites. I feel this is the most fair method of conducting this contest, and you deserve no less than the best!

I think we can all agree that Pop Tarts is the 900 pound gorilla in the room as far as worldwide popularity, followed most likely by Great Value, the Walmart brand. And that’s going to leave Millville Toaster Tarts and Kroger’s Frosted Toaster Treats as our undercard.

You guys ready? Come on, LET’S GET READY TO CRUMBLE!

Okay, here before me, we have our undercard match. We have Millville Toaster Tarts from Aldi, and we have Frosted Toaster Treats from Kroger.

Looking at the packaging… they both have pretty good packaging, I must say. I’m not crazy about the Millville logo. It doesn’t sound very appetizing, but then again, neither does Kroger to me. So I’m going to give it a tie on the packaging. Let’s crack ‘em open and see what we’ve got!

Here’s Millville Toaster Tarts. Foil, very basic foil.

And the frosting, you can see there’s a lot of edge exposed, but you might have to have that edge exposed. It seems to be rather thick, so that’s a good sign. The other pastry in the package has even less frosting on it, so I’m going to take the best one here and take an uncooked bite!

Not bad, not exactly bursting with flavor. The look of the coloring, it’s not bright red like I would expect. I’m going to go ahead and put this other whole pastry in my toaster here.

(Spit out and swish)

Now let’s look at Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats. Wait a minute… The foil design is absolutely identical! Is the toaster pastry going to be identical as well? I’m starting to get suspicious here.

They look almost exactly identical, except the Kroger brand has some blue greenish sprinkles on it, which the Millville Aldi brand does not.

I taste absolutely no difference between the two, but while I swish my mouth around, let’s go ahead and toast these babies. I’ve got my toaster set at about almost up to three, which is like the 10 o’clock position, which is normally where I like my toaster pastries. Let’s go ahead and get it cranking here.

Time for a little history about the brave little toaster! The first electric toaster was introduced in 1893 and was called the Eclipse. It was made by Crompton and Company out of Chelmsford Essex. It had iron bare wires toasting the bread. But the Eclipse had a serious problem. The technology wasn’t really there to have the wires last, at least not any length of time. And the wires would burn up really fast and the toaster would be junk in a very short amount of time.

The problem of the heating elements was solved in 1905 by a man named Albert Marsh who was an engineer and came up with an alloy of nickel and chromium or… “nichrome.”

The first automatic pop-up toaster was patented in 1921 by a man named Charles Streit. The Waters-Genter Company refined the design and proceeded to release the model 1A1 Toastmaster, the first automatic pop-up household toaster that could toast bread on both sides simultaneously, set itself on a timer and eject when finished.

(toaster ejects pastries)

And here we go!

Now I tasted Millville first and Kroger second so let’s be fair here and try the Kroger toasted first. I’ll grab it with some foil so I don’t burn myself. Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo! Hot! Hot! Hot!

(Neil takes a bite)…

Yummy! Once again, not exactly bursting with flavor but when it’s toasted it’s nice. It’s real nice.

Alright Millville Toaster Tarts. Let’s see if I can do this without any foil on my hand since it’s had a second to cool. Bite the side with the most frosting…

I gotta tell you, this is really really close… They are identical on their inner packaging. I’d be willing to bet that they’re made by the exact same company but the Kroger brand has an extra color of sprinkles on it and I kinda think that I got a little more flavor off the Kroger brand. So even though it’s very very close folks, I’m gonna have to give the undercard match to Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats!

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR MAIN EVENT! 

POP TARTS vs. GREAT VALUE TOASTER PASTRIES!

The champion! The reigning supreme heavyweight in all the world without a question, without a doubt… Pop Tarts!

And the competitor who wants Pop Tarts Crown is Great Value Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries!

First let’s look at the packaging. I mean,(…) come on guys. They put almost no thought and no design whatsoever into the Great Value brand. There’s no question that Pop Tarts has the better branding and better packaging. Advantage Pop Tarts.

Let’s look at the inner foil: Pop Tarts has some design, the Pop Tarts logo on there and it’s blue.

Whereas the inner foil for the Great Value brand has the exact same foil design as both competitors from our undercard.

So generic is as generic does. I wouldn’t be surprised if this tasted absolutely no different than any of our undercard competitors, but we’re gonna give it a shot.

So I’m going to start here with the untoasted test with Great Value. And opening up the foil, I’m seeing some weird brown stuff in the grooves and I’m a little disturbed by that. It looks like it got burnt a little bit on the assembly line.

The front looks exactly the same as the Kroger brand. Same sprinkles, same everything, but it’s kinda mushed up. It looks like something happened to it. Yeah, same here with the 2nd pastry in the package. Something weird happened to the frosting here. But let’s give it a taste.

It looks and tastes absolutely no different than any of our undercard competitors.

Now, what about Pop-Tarts? Can Pop-Tarts live up to its legend?

Well… the Pop-Tarts brand looks exactly the same as the generic undercards. Maybe a little difference. The Pop-Tarts brand seems to have more holes. It’s not as thick on the edges, but it’s got the exact same kind of sprinkles and it seems to be frosted really terribly. There’s like almost no quality control on that frosting. It’s all the way to the edge on one part and definitely over the edge on another part. I mean, come on, come on Kellogg’s!

I’ll say the inside filling is red.The others were kind of like a dingy red. This is more a bright red, but honestly, that’s probably from some kind of weird chemical that you really shouldn’t be ingesting. You really shouldn’t be ingesting any of this and I’m not. I’m swishing my mouth between bites and spitting all of this out

I seem to be tasting a slight, very slight bit more sweetness from the Pop-Tart and it’s very slight, almost indistinguishable. So for the untoasted, I got to give it to Pop-Tarts.

Let’s try toasting them!

HISTORY OF POP TARTS!

I can’t really give you a lot of history on the Great Value brand because it’s a generic brand. So all I can really talk about here is Pop-Tarts. In the early 1960s, Post-cereals invented a process for dehydrating food and enclosing it in foil. The process was originally designed for packaging dog food, but they adapted it to produce the first toaster pastry in the world. It was called Country Squares. Post’s biggest competitor, Kellogg’s wasted no time jumping on this toaster pastry bandwagon and introduced their own called Fruit Scones that very same year. The name was soon changed to Pop-Tarts as a nod to the Pop-Art craze of the time. Pop-Tarts became so popular that the initial run sold out in just two weeks and Kellogg’s had to run apologetic advertising for the empty store shelves and this only increased the Pop-Tart fever across the nation. Of course Post cereals was left with their jaws on the floor and warehouses full of Country Squares wondering what the heck just happened!

“Frosted” Pop-Tarts didn’t debut until 1967.

Milton the Toaster, the brand’s mascot, debuted in 1971 and was voiced by an actor named William Shallert who was best known as the Dad on the Patty Duke show. Milton the Toaster was one of the few cartoon jobs that Shallert had. His main talent was the ability to time his voice overs perfectly and work quickly to save time and money in the production room.

As of 2024, there are over 20 Pop-Tart flavors including Hot Fudge, Sundae, S’mores, Raspberry, and Grape.

DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that if you leave a strawberry Pop-Tart in your toaster for too long, it can burst into flames and it can go up to a foot and a half high? That’s right… fire! Fire!

This very situation happened in 1992 when Kellogg’s was sued for damages after a guy’s Pop-Tart got stuck in the toaster and caught on fire. Since then Pop-Tarts carry a warning on every box. It’s in tiny type on the back and barely noticeable. But it’s there. And it reads: If pastry is overheated, frosting filling can become extremely hot and could cause burns.(…) Due to possible risk of fire, never leave appliance unattended when in use.

Oh look, four ways to try Pop Tarts! Right from the foil, which we have tried. Toasted, which we’re about to try. Stacked, which means I guess you put two of them together. And frozen! I have never eaten a frozen toaster pastry before. If you have, please let me know!

(toaster ejects)

And here we go!

I think we should give the Great Value Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastry first shot since it is the least known of the two!

Hmm… Not exactly bursting with flavor…I’d have to say that’s even less flavorful than either of our undercard competitors.

Let’s try the Pop-Tart… It kind of toasted up all funky. Really weird, it’s got, it’s all burned up on the side. I’m not impressed, Pop-Tarts, not impressed. Like that filling oozing out of the holes, it seems kind of thin. Seems to have a tiny bit more flavor than the Great Value brand.

And the look of the pastry… the Pop-Tart looks like a train wreck happened to it. Like someone ran over it with a something. I’d say the Great Value looks a little better, but that’s about all it’s got going on.

Hardly any difference in taste. The packaging for Pop-Tarts is much better. I’ve got to give the nod to Pop-Tarts. OUR MAIN EVENT WINNER IS POP TARTS!

FINAL SHOWDOWN!

And that brings us to our final showdown, which is going to be Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats against the mighty Pop-Tarts for Toaster Pastry Champion of the World!

Okay, back to basics. Packaging: Both of them are pretty darn good on the front. The back of the Kroger is pretty much the same as the front, almost. The back of Pop-Tarts, they put a little more effort into it. Gave you some fun stuff to look at, some fun things to ponder.

Pop-Tarts has the better packaging. There’s no doubt about that.

This Kroger Toaster Treat looks like it got ran over. The taste is still the same as before.

Okay, let’s try Pop-Tarts. Better inside packaging. We’ve already determined that. So advantage on the packaging overall goes to Pop-Tarts.

Do these look any better than before? No, it doesn’t look good. It just doesn’t. These Pop Tarts look worked over! They look like somebody’s already chewed these things up and spit them out and I didn’t really mention it before but they’re noticeably thinner than the generic brands! Awful! Just awful! They really look like somebody ran over these things with a truck!

Time to try it. Not nearly as much filling as the Kroger brand and really not much taste. I’m going to give advantage of Kroger brand on the amount of filling, the quality of the appearance and the thickness of the product in the cold stage. So right now, we’re kind of one-to-one.

Now let’s toast them up!

Who will it be? This is for all the toast! Will it be the world champion Pop-Tarts or the scrappy underdog Kroger Frosted Toaster Treats? It can only be one, folks!

(toaster ejects) Oh, a little smoke came up there!

All right. Two toasted toaster pastries. They both want to be world champion, but it can only be one. Ow! Ow! I’ve had my fingers burned by both. Let’s give it a second here. Okay.

I’ll taste the Pop-Tart…

Now the Kroger Frosted Toaster Treat…

The filling on the Kroger brand is bright red and very attractive, actually. Hmm. I guess it can vary from package to package.

The Kroger Frosted Toaster Treat, it’s good. It’s not exactly bursting with flavor, though.

Time to try the Pop Tart! This filling looks exactly the same color on the inside. Nicely toasted but overall It looks horrible. It doesn’t look appetizing, but I’m going to try it anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner…

And it’s not Pop-Tarts.

Our winner of the Toaster Pastry Championship of the World is none other than KROGER FROSTED TOASTER TREATS!

GROVEL FOR MONEY:

And if you would like to help me afford to pay for the cleanup of all this, go check out http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and visit the Patronage page.

Supporters will get access to exclusive bonus features!

and…

SUPER SUPPORTERS will get access to those exact same bonus features plus, I’ll mail you something amazing from right here at the Dandy Fun House, and it won’t be a glass full of spit-up Toaster Pastries, I promise. It’ll be better than that.

And five-star reviews, anywhere you can leave them, get my undying gratitude.

If you’re a podcast listener and your podcast app supports it, usually there’s a little button on there with a little dollar sign. Click that and make a little donation. Every little bit helps, and it’s always appreciated.

But that’s not why I’m here. That’s not why I’m doing this. I’m doing this because I love doing the show!

Also! I put out short videos on the various social media platforms throughout the month which you can enjoy on the platform of your choice. You know all the big ones. You can find me. I’m not that hard to hunt down, everybody.

Anyway, I’m going to get on out of here. You guys, thanks for coming to the Dandy Fun House and hanging out with me right here, where everything is always… Fun and Dandy!

 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!

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!

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!

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!

 see video below!

listen to the podcast below!

In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to self-indulge just a bit and pay a bit of homage to the town I live in and love: MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE! And I’m going to do it in the only way that I can actually make it relevant to this show and that’s with a game review! Now for those of you who don’t live in Murfreesboro and couldn’t possibly care less about my town, I know you’re asking yourself right now why you would ever care about a game review involving the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Here’s why: because the company that makes the game I’m about to review also makes this exact same game customized special for individual cities and towns all over the world, most likely including yours and this episode will hopefully give you a sneak peek at what you might expect if you were to purchase this particular game for where YOU LIVE! NOW do I have your attention? I hope so because I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy this game for a long time now for THIS is the game of… MURFREESBORO*OPOLY! Let’s step into the Fun House!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House! This is where we unwrap the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this year-end extravaganza I’m going to unbox, set up and show you how to play the Monopoly spinoff game – MURFREESBORO*OPOLY! And at the end of the show, I’m going to do a quick rundown of some of the best movies I enjoyed from the year 2023 and ones I’m looking forward to in 2024! Let’s get to it!

This game appears to be made by a company out of Cincinnati, Ohio called Late For The Sky. That’s a pretty odd name for a toy and game manufacturer. But let’s see what we can find out about them.

Looking over their website it appears their entire business model is solely making specialized versions of the game Monopoly and boy do they have a lot of them! They have versions for different colleges, alcoholic beverages, Shark*Opoly, Zombie*Opoly. Educational versions like America*Opoly, Dino*Opoly, Space*Opoly, Bible*Opoly, Boooo*Opoly, Christmas*Opoly, Farm, Fishing, Hunting, Rodeo, Cat, Horse, Ocean, Penguin, and 18 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF DOGS OPOLY! Sheesh!

There was only ONE GAME on their entire website that was not a version of Monopoly that I found and that game was and is THE MAN GAME! Which includes: flick football (you know like that triangular folded piece of paper you would try to flick between your friends’ finger goal posts while you were goofing off in school?), a ball for cup pong, a tape measure to see which guy has the biggest uhhh… bicep! Yes bicep! Rope for sailor knots and a regulation deck of playing cards along with poker chips. No wagering please!

Apparently their business concept started with MIAMI*OPOLY because their founder and president whom they don’t give the name of was a graduate of Miami University. They grew their college line of games to over 80 different titles and just kept going from there. No mention of any licensing deal with the makers of Monopoly although I’m sure there must be one. Just ask the makers of Ghetto*Opoly who got unceremoniously shut down after just a few months on the market. Hey! I just happen to have Ghetto*Opoly right here! I can’t review it on this show because we’re strctly family-friendly but in recent years, I have noticed it for sale again in various places. I don’t believe Late For The Sky has anything to do with the re-release of Ghetto*Opoly however so moving right along….

Apparently, you can hire them to customize a game for you as well. This seems to be more of a corporate offering where companies can have a game created highlighting special details of their business which can be a great marketing tool if used correctly!

Digging in just a little deeper, it appears that Late For The Sky is really big on the environment which is great and I’m not noticing any nutty climate change wackiness or anything like that. Just reasonable and responsible stewardship of the environment which I can get behind. Things like using recycled paper, soy-based inks rather than alcohol although I’m not really sure what the significance of that might be, corn-based shrink-wrap (I’ve never heard of that before!) recycled glass and 100 percent Made in the USA in their very own Cincinnati, Ohio facility! And all parts are manufactured within 50 miles from their operation. NOW THAT’S REALLY COOL!

If you’d like to check out all their awesome stuff, just head on over to http://www.lateforthesky.com and see it all for yourself!

Alright, enough about LATE FOR THE SKY, let’s get into this game of MURFREESBORO*OPOLY here!

Right here we got it Murfreesboroopoly a fun game celebrating the BORO and on the front they give props to MTSU, Main Street Murfreesboro, Cannonsburg Village. Nice nice nice. Good packaging they didn’t completely rip off Monopoly on the front they just kind of paid homage to it. (I mean I guess they did.)

The sides have pretty basic branding, nothing too spectacular. On the back you can see the entire the entire playing field and they got a lot of stuff right here and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t want to do reading for the blind I’ll just get the bullet points here. How do you make a game about the great city of Murfreesboro Tennessee? While it’s impossible to ridicule everything we jammed all the Murfreesboro we could into this box.

Here’s a quick idea of how to play. They’ve got the full version of Monopoly where you sit there and play for hours until everybody gets frustrated and quits because the game is never gonna freaking end! And there’s a one hour condensed version as well. Let’s unwrap this rascal!

UNBOXING !

Get my corn based shrink wrap off the box here. Is this really corn based?

(sniff)

Doesn’t smell like corn. Here we have it and let’s go ahead and lift the lid.

And it’s a box with nothing special showing right away. We’ve got the the game board right here. I’m going to save that for just a moment and we’re going to look over the pieces.

Oh looks like we got some of that soy based paper there. Um how do I unwrap this? I have no fingernails I’m a guitar player. So let’s very odd. A couple odd things. A couple loose pieces that kind of seem to have popped out of their bags. Hmm but let’s see if I can open this with my teeth…

This is all the money and they are a little bit different than the game of Monopoly. Same denominations but they did apparently go for their own designs. I don’t know how much licensing they needed to purchase from the makers of Monopoly or if they needed to purchase it all. Did it just become did it just become part of the public domain? I do not have a clue.

And then you get a 500 dollar bill there. All the denominations that you would normally have in a game of Monopoly is included in Murfreesboroopoly and I do not expect them to make a different design for every town they do.

Here are all the uh the cards. They don’t have question marks on them, they have exclamation points and thumbs up on them. And then we have the properties and the properties are all just what’s on the board.

THE GAME BOARD! Let’s see how good they did for the town of Murfreesboro!

Besides forgetting about Premiere Six Theater. (Maybe they asked who wanted to be on here and maybe Premiere 6 just said we’re too cool.) By the way I’m wearing my Premier Six Theater shirt today in homage because I knew they weren’t on here. Oh and there was one other drastic oversight that they left out of the game… City Cafe. It’s been here over a hundred years and it’s right off the square. How could they leave that out of Murfreesboro-opoly?

Okay you got Batey Farms right there. That’s the place where you go and pick your own strawberries in the springtime.

The world’s largest cedar bucket in Cannonsburg Village which is an old timey village which they were talking about ripping out and replacing with a AAA baseball park and got a bunch of people up in arms about this year.

Mercury Boulevard which has been renamed Martin Luther King. So that’s actually outdated now.

Boro Beach. The most crowded swimming hole ever.

Lanes Trains and Automobiles. That’s a cool one. That’s a bowling alley and arcade with great food and fun. We love them.

Discovery Center. That’s sort of like an adventure science center kind of thing.

Traffic Jam. Yeah we’re getting more of those with the way Nashville’s been blowing up. (Murfreesboro is 30 minutes outside of Nashville).

Slick Pig Barbecue. Home of the famous Smoked Wings.

MTSU Student Film Festival. They they appear to be very enamored with MTSU here. I mean it’s a big part of our community. We love them. I like to take in a baseball game over at MTSU especially on two dollar Tuesdays because I’m cheap like that, but there’s much more to Murfreesboro than just MTSU.

Main Street Saturday Market. Where you go around the square and visit all the farmers.

Mayday Brewery. A crown jewel of the city!

Memorial Boulevard... Barfield Crescent Park. That’s a wonderful park we have with trail heads and and a nature center that you can go learn about turtles and stuff.

Cannonsburg Village like we talked about earlier.

Stones River Greenway.

Here’s MTSU, Johnnie Red Floyd Stadium which is in MTSU. Murphy Center also in MTSU. Come on guys enough with the MTSU.

Northwest Broad Street.

Oaklands Mansion which is a Civil War era mansion that we have here and they’ll give you guided tours and ghost tours too!

Bradley Academy Museum.

Main Street Jazz Fest. That’s the big event every year out on the square.

Museum of Natural History. That’s a good one and that’s kind of on a little side street that we have here. You kind of kind of go looking for that one but it’s a very cool place.

Stone’s River National Battlefield. We had a very large Civil War battle here in Murfreesboro and you can go get into the history of that right there on the battlefield. It’s an amazing day trip!

Center for the Arts.

The Square where you got the jazz fest and the neighborhood market.

And finally… Main Street.

And the big main graphic for the game is actually the dome of the courthouse in the middle of the downtown square, Pre-Civil War era.

Center of Tennessee. Yes we have an obelisk. Murfreesboro is the geographical center of the state of Tennessee and we have a pile of pointy rocks to prove it. Actually it used to be the capital of Tennessee at one point.

Parking ticket pay $75. Well… our parking tickets downtown, it’s kind of cute. They’re more like $3.

And… I’m back to start.

Okay there is the board! You put your money. Someone’s got to be the banker. Contingency and big fun. I’m going to assume that the exclamation points are the contingency cards and the thumbs up are the big fun.

GAME PIECES

I’m going to assume that the game pieces are going to be the same for any town. They’re not molding special pieces for your town. You got a couple of die here.As far as the player pieces go you’ve got the big smile, a heart. These are all metal! Oh that’s quality. It’s not plastic junk. You actually have real metal pieces here. A pretzel, a hand for slapping someone who gets silly with you, the boot and the little doggy. So they kept some of the old. You don’t have the car, thimble, iron or anything like that.

PROPERTIES

Boy you can’t even call these houses. Instead of houses and hotels you have little gray boxes which unfortunately is pretty much all they’re building for housing these days. And you have golden keys because you have to pretty much be made of gold in order to afford one of these little gray boxes they build in these subdivisions which is all the new construction around here. That’s the only thing bad I’ve got to say about Murfreesboro. It’s getting overdeveloped because Nashville has gone crazy and with a huge boom over the last 10 years and all the surrounding areas outside of Nashville have been going up with it and the housing prices have been going through the roof. The people who can’t afford to live to Nashville all come here and drive up our cost of living.

I’m glad we bought our house before it got too crazy! And here we are here at the Dandy Fun House Studios as a result and very happy to be here by the way.

All right well that’s the layout! I’m not really going to show you how to play the game of Monopoly which this basically is because I don’t want to insult your intelligence. Everybody knows how to play Monopoly and if you don’t I’m sure somewhere around your house you probably have a game of Monopoly sitting around.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND RANKING

Murfreesboro*Opoly! What can I say? It’s just really cool. I’ve wanted to get this thing for the past three years and finally got my hands on it and I’m glad I did. It’s just really cool to have a board game about your own hometown and a really good gift that you can share with your friends and family who might not live in your town to help them learn more about it.

This hits the mark in a lot of ways. They didn’t really go too deep into our local culture here but they got the major high points and I’ll give them props for that. Late for the sky I think you did a great job on this and I’m just I’m loving this and I can’t wait to play it with my family!

My rating for Murfreesboro*Opoly… I will give it an eight out of ten and I almost never give anyone a ten so that’s a pretty darn good rating!

MOVIES!

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2023!

GODZILLA MINUS ONE!

I will say hands down my favorite movie of 2023 is without a doubt GODZILLA MINUS ONE! If you haven’t seen it, go! Just go! Why did I love this movie? For me, it felt exactly like a classic Godzilla movie from back in the days when they took time to build a good story and characters you actually care about rather than what most movies do these days which is write a flimsy story and just get to the action. A movie is just so much more impactful when you actually care about what’s going on and what happens to the people in it.

The story is about a Japanese kamikaze pilot at the end of World War II who gets cold feet and aborts his mission under the guise of a plane malfunction and lands on an island where the Japanese military had a repair facility. While on the island, they get attacked by a smaller Godzilla before he grew to full size and power. The kamikaze pilot is presented with an opportunity to kill this smaller version of Godzilla (which was still pretty large and fearsome) but once again gets cold feet.

The monster proceeds to kill everyone on the island except for the pilot with cold feet and one mechanic who holds the pilot responsible. For the rest of the movie, the kamikaze pilot struggles with his guilt and shame throughout various attacks on Japan as the creature gets larger and larger until he finally figures out a way to supposedly kill Godzilla and summons up the courage to place his own life on the line to carry out the plan.

The entire movie is in Japanese and has English subtitles, but for me that only made everything even more authentic, unique and enjoyable.

WONKA

I’ll admit I was very skeptical going into this one. In fact, the only reason I went was because my family was going so I tagged along. How in the world can you even try to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was the original? Good thing they didn’t try. Instead they cleverly imagined and quite successfully captured what a young Willy Wonka might be like just starting out on his chocolate career. I’m not a guy who’s big into musicals, but in my opinion, this was good. Real good and the people who made this movie just did an excellent job. Great film for the whole family, I highly recommend it!

MOVIES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2024!

DUNE 2

I remember last year around this time I was talking about how much I’m looking forward to DUNE 2 coming out. Did this thing ever come out? Did I miss it? Nope, it’s scheduled for theatrical release March 1st. This time with twice as much Zendaya! Which will mean about TEN minutes…

GHOSTBUSTERS FROZEN EMPIRE

Man they brought this franchise back with a bang didn’t they? The last one was so good and recaptured the spirit (no pun intended) of what Ghostbusters is all about. I can’t wait to see Frozen Empire! Who you gonna call? It’d better be me if you’re headed to the theater to see Ghostbusters Frozen Empire! Slated to hit theatres March 29th!

KUNG FU PANDA 4

Umm… Sure why not!

GODZILLA X KONG

Ok, what’s the X all about? Is it Godzilla VERSUS Kong or Godzilla AND Kong as in teaming up and fighting a giant space worm or something? I have no idea but we’ve already had a recent Godzilla and Kong movie and it was pretty decent. Not nearly as good as Godzilla Minus One, but pretty good. Is there anything new to do with these guys together or are we just milking the money cow here? Will I go see it? Yes I will! There’s your answer I suppose!

DEADPOOL 3

I guess Ryan Reynolds got some free time away from Mint Mobile to rehash another Deadpool movie. Always entertaining, always fun, never for the kids. Parents be advised.

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

YES! YES! YES! YES! I’m sorta looking forward to this one…

THE GARFIELD MOVIE

Ok, I guess this is going to be sort of an origins story of how Garfield and Jon connected because it’s labeled as a reboot. I hope it does well, but I’m not sure kids these days even know who Garfield is anymore. It’ll be interesting to see how this does.

BAD BOYS 4

Ok you can stop it with this one already.

DESPICABLE ME 4

Something to take the kids to I guess

MUFASA: THE LION KING

This one is going to be a prequel and I think it’s a great idea. Mufasa definitely has an interesting story to dig into and since he was killed off very early in The Lion King, I think giving this character his own feature is a great move by a cheese-eating empire (which I do not mention on this program) that has made nothing but stupid, family-unfriendly moves over the past decade. I’ll support this one and hope they don’t ruin it which they hopefully won’t but probably will.

VENOM 3

Venom 1 was great. Venom 2 not so much. Hopefully they get this train back on track here because when Venom is good, Venom is real good! Don’t let me down guys!

CAPTAIN AMERICA – BRAVE NEW WORLD

Ok, I love me some Captain America! The superhero movies have been a bit overbaked and it seems the entire world has superhero fatigue. But if there is one out there who can reignite the flame, I’ll put my money down on the Captain America horse every time!

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

This one is going to be awesome for the little ones! How can you go wrong!?

BEETLEJUICE 2

Alright! Strap yourselves in! First Michael Keaton reprises his role in Batman and now Beetlejuice!? I’m pretty sure Wynona Rider is signed on for this. Not sure if they managed to get Gina Davis and Alec Baldwin. Might want to pat down Alec before he comes on the set though.

TRANSFORMERS ONE

I liked the last Transformers movie. I’ll admit I never really got into the whole Transformers thing but the flicks are enjoyable. I’ll check this one out!

SAW XI

Been there. Saw that. What are we doing here guys?

JOKER: Folie à DEUX

The talent is certainly there with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga teaming up. I’m just really happy to not be seeing Margot Robbie doing Harley Quinn anymore and she’s probably happy not to be doing Harley Quinn anymore. It’s the voice. I can’t take the voice. Make it stop! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

SMILE 2

Why in the world are they making another one of this?

WOLF MAN

Ok, I can get behind this! A classic Universal Monster that hasn’t had a refresh in decades. Long overdue in my opinion. Starring Liz Cheney Jr.!

GLADIATOR 2

Wait… Didn’t he die at the end of the first one. Went to Valhalla after defeating the emporer in the colosseum and was reunited with his family? What are they going to do? Drag him to the Roman doctor and revive him?

LORD OF THE RINGS: WAR OF ROHIRRIM

For you rabid LOTR fans who just can’t get enough, I can’t count myself amongst you but… respect! Here you go! A new bone! Chew my doggies! Chew!

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3

Does Jim Carrey really need the work this badly?

Ad that pretty much Christmas wraps it for 2023! I’ve been very blessed by God that the following for this show has seen healthy growth over the past year and I think that can be attributed to a clearer vision for the type of content I produce, freshening up the branding to make it better-reflect that and also the production of a series of under-one-minute short videos for each episode which appears to be supercharging the reach of the show.

A big thank you to all of you who take the time to hang out with me here when you can.

SUPPORT THE DANDY FUN HOUSE!

Please don’t forget that if you would like to support what The Dandy Fun House does, you can visit the patronage page at http://www.dandyfunhouse.com and donate to the production of future episodes which helps me purchase the things I review along with props that make the show more interesting, website hosting, podcast hosting and keeping the lights on in general. It all has a cost.

Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features!

and…

Super Supporters also gain access to those same features plus I’ll mail you a special surprise from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios IF you provide your mailing address!

Podcast listeners can also contribute via the donation button on the podcast app of your choice.

And 5 star reviews wherever you can leave them always get my undying gratitude!

Are you ready for 2024??? I know I am! Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon and I’m going to be bringing it to you right here at the Dandy Fun House! So come on back soon where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!

 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…