Drop it Down the Chimney

I was fascinated to see the old Haunted House board game I loved as a kid being recycled as a later Ghostbusters game! 

Is it a game you had, in any form? 

WHICH WITCH - HAUNTED HOUSE BOARD GAME TV AD 1970: DROP IT DOWN THE CHIMLEY

Haunted House was my fave board game as a kid!

Did you play it?

Hall of Dark Shadows

 Some Autumnal snaps of the local country pile we visited today in Brodsworth. Some spooky takes for the dark season too.

Brrrr.

This final shot of a small columned folly on a hill totally brought back the creepiest book cover art I saw as a kid, Dracula's Guest published by Arrow. Now that's eerie! What do you think? 

PROPHETS AND LOSS: THE WADDINGTONS OUIJA BOARD

Car booting on Sunday I was amazed to see a Waddington's Ouija, a very obscure board game from the Sixties occult craze.

I haven't seen this board game for years.

Showing some interest in the thing propped up against a stall leg I began to wander over but Missus Moonbase said forget it. She wouldn't have it in the house.

I wuz amazed at such a strong reaction to what was simply marketed as a toy.

No wonder Waddingtons ran into trouble from concerned parents back in the day. I understand that the company had to pull their Ouija after just one year of production. It reminds me of the travails of Mars Attacks cards or Aurora's Victim.

I've always liked monster board games and collected them avidly back in the Nineties and Noughties. I had loads and after an evening trip to someone's house who'd advertised in the newspaper small ads - yes before the tinternet - I drove there and bought a Waddingtons Ouija on the doorstep. The Missus may not have been with but we did often take trips to buy classifieds stuff at night, taking our young daughter with us for the drive.

I remember feeling slightly queasy at the time about Ouija in the home. It wasn't like having an innocent game like Haunted House or Creature Castle in the pile. Ouija was something different, something more dangerous perhaps.

I must have sold Ouija at some point. I sold everything.

Looking at it again I recall loving the simple box art. The black background and the grainy blue hooded figure emerging from it like a stone golem or something.

The word OUIJA - a blend of yes in French and German - appears to be conjured by the hand of the blue figure and the only real clues to what the game may be are the words Talking Board Set and The Mystifying Oracle, a registered trade mark no less.

This trademark was the property of William Fuld, who's name also appears on the cover. Waddingtons licenced the game from Fuld, an American who claimed to have invented it and had much success marketing it in the States as well through Parker Brothers. You might say he he profited from the prophets!

Waddingtons closed it doors in the 1990's and its entire archive went to the Museums Service of Leeds, not too far from Moonbase.

I imagine that at least of a couple of Ouija's went there way, nestling together now on some dusty shelf, talking to each other about life in the phantom zone and the pitfalls of selling occult toys to kids.

They didn't see that coming did they!

Did you have a Ouija?

THERE'S A GHOST IN MY HOUSE

I saw the above illuminated Lego hotel online and was blown away. What a masterpiece.

It also reminded me completely of how I lit-up my Polar Lights Addams Family House kit back in the 90's. Alas I no longer have it but I did find an amazing and illuminated original Aurora Addam's house online. 

Built and lit by Randy Neubert ten years ago it still looks wonderful. Check out all the views of his house here https://culttvman.com/main/randy-neuberts-lighted-addams-family-house/

Recently I found one of the house ghosts on a stick and it brought back great memories of putting it together decades ago. You can see the ghost I mean bottom right below in this auction pic of the kit parts. The ghost on a stick recalls something else but I can't put my finger on it. A chocolate lolly?

My older brother had the original Aurora Addams Family House back in the Sixties, along with Godzilla, King Kong et al. Not sure where they all went. Probably the bin! How could they do it!

Do you have any haunted memories of the Addam's Family House kits, original or otherwise?

Any pictures?

THE HAUNTED STAIRCASE

 Seeing this modern TV-related Moon and Me toy, which my Granddaughter watches, took me right back when I saw it.

Its that staircase!

Bam! It's so similar to the fabulous stairs in my beloved Haunted House board game from the 1960's.

You remember! a marble hurtles down the stairs and knocked over your plastic playing person, with a large framed portrait of a smiling witch watching!

Denys Fisher's Haunted House was a key ingredient of my spooky childhood. I adored playing the game with friends and family or just on my own! One of my mates called it 'Drop it down The Chimney' on account of a marble being ... well, dropped down the chimney to get the ball rolling!

Everything about the game feels iconic to me; the box art, the art style, the actual cardboard house and board, the plastic accessories, the wonderful mid-walk plastic playing pieces and maybe top of the cauldron, the playing cards with the names of witches on like Glenda the Good! 

When I started a vintage toy business back in the day I played with designs for business cards using the Haunted House cards as the basis. In the end I opted for something whiter so it could be read easily, but the veneration was there!

Haunted House is a game that went around the world. Cooked up first by Milton Bradley in the States, it became Haunted House in the UK with Denys Fisher and the same with Toltoys in New Zealand. In Germany it was Spukschloss and in Italy, Castello Incanto.

Milton Bradley really did start something when he dropped that first marble down the chimney!

I've written about Haunted House and other creepy board games - like Ghost Castle, Scream Inn, Creature Castle - before, because I used to collect them.

Out of interest I checked Amazon to see if any have survived the ravages of time and lo and behold, the IDEAL clone, Ghost Castle has made it. Brand new and for a fresh generation of spooksters, here's the modern haunted staircase.

As good as it is, alas, it just don't cut the nostalgic mustard for me, so I'll stick to dropping Denys Fisher's vintage marbles down my mental chimney and leave it at that.

Did you play Haunted House?

THE HAUNTED PALACE

Should you ignore the signs and err to enter the haunted palace,

God help your forsaken soul

for you shall never be released by its inhuman denizens.

 

Wentworth Woodhouse House, Wentworth, South Yorkshire