DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

watch the video below   listen to the podcast below Have you ever wanted to mooove through time and space? Well, you’re in the right place because in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to unbox, assemble and play and review the game… COWS IN SPACE! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and this is the place for your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. And today we’re doing toys and games. Toys and games, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you call it? a toy with a game, a TWAG! That’s what they say in the industry, baby! But first, I want to show you our Dandy Fun house t-shirts! They are woven from 100% heifer fur, and they’re guaranteed to keep you warm on cold nights, or at least lukewarm nights. So yeah, buy one or be square. We cut four holes in them, one to crawl your body into, two to put your arms through, and one to stick your pokey little neck out of. What do you want from me? I’ll tell you what you want from me! You want some of the new designs at the Dandy Fun Shop, that’s right. Like LED ROBSTER, BODY BY DONUTS, and of course, SODIUM SUBSTITUTE LIFE! Just get over to the Dandy Fun Shop today! Okay, COWS IN SPACE! Let’s take a look at it. Groovy box, baby. I’m liking this. All right, you got a couple of kids. They don’t look too young. They look kind of like preteens with grandpa over here. Grandpa looks kind of like me. What the? What’s going on with that? I’m not sure I like that, but anyway, the front, cartoony, colorful. It’s just popping real nice. Yeah, you see the game there. It shows it, and these guys are wearing headbands with flying saucers on it, and it looks like they’re picking up cows, I assume magnetically. And the sides are all the same. They didn’t really go hog wild on that. Nothing on the bottom. Let’s check out the back. Okay, we’ve got slimer aliens here, and they’re showing the game. “Use your magnetic UFO headband to quickly pick up cows from the spinning base.” Oh, the base spins! “It’s the best game in the universe, and out of it! The out of this world head to head race to capture as many cows as possible.” Now, what is it with aliens and cows and crop circles? I don’t get it. Motorized spinning base, we already know that, ages six plus… Two players… Ten plus minutes. How many rules could there possibly be to this thing? Oh, and What Do You Meme Family? So this game, even though it doesn’t really say the manufacturer… oh, it DOES say the manufacturer! I was looking all over for it, and I just now found it, and now it’s too late for me to research the company. Usually, I like to do something about the company that makes it, and apparently the company is, it says “RELATABLE” at the bottom for the brand. Very understatable, but somehow they’re affiliated with What Do You Meme apparently, but What Do You Meme is more of an adult-oriented game, but I think there’s a family version of it as well, to the best of my knowledge. Well, okay, we’ve had a look at the box. Let’s unbox it! UNBOXING I did PRE-slit the tape on it, just so I wouldn’t have to fumble with it. And… okay, there’s not much to see from the top there. Let’s just go ahead and do a big slide out. Oh, and you can see pretty much everything! You slide it out and there’s nothing left in the box, so we’ll just go ahead and lose the box. And this is what we’ve got. We’ve got the game itself, and you got the parts of the magnetic headband. You got the UFOs here. This looks like it’s going to be real simple. This might be a short review today. A “Cows in Space” instruction booklet. How many instructions could there possibly be? We’ll look at these if we have to. I’m thinking we don’t have to. I think this thing’s pretty self-explanatory. You got a bunch of cows in these little bags here, spotted on the top, pink on the bottom. Looks like you got seven in each bag, three bags, that’s 21 cows. And then we have a barn in a bag which apparently clicks right into the middle of the game field. Now I’ll probably never get the box closed again. Thank you very much. Oh, and the headbands! That means I’m going to have to take off my cool cow hat. It does look like the headbands are adjustable. And I guess I really only need one headband. There’s a little notch here, and you just kind of put your flying saucer link in there and kind of shove it down there. And then you adjust your headband and strap it on. It’s a plastic headband. It’s not stretchy or spongy, but that’s good because if it were stretchy, it’d be made out of fabric. And then you’d have everyone’

watch the video below:   listen to the podcast below: It’s time to close out yet another year of the Dandy Fun House. While all those “other shows” are slacking off and giving you retrospectives of everything they’ve already done in the past year, it is instead our tradition here at the Dandy Fun House to leave the past exactly there… in the past and instead look ahead to the brand spankin’ new year coming at us like Frehley’s Comet and take a glimpse at the coolest stuff we’ve been able to find that’s waiting for us in 2026! We’re going to look at theme parks, movies, pinball and of course the TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2026 Toy of the Year Awards! Are you ready to get your kicks in 26? Then LET’S step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2025 year-end extravaganza where we wear the hats and blow our hooters about the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode we’re going to look ahead at WHAT’S HOT ON THE HORIZON FOR 2026 in the worlds of theme parks, movies, pinball and my personal picks for the 2026 TOTY AWARDS (Toy of the Year). BUT FIRST! I have to show you these amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts before time runs out! Perfect for swaddling the baby new year, They have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com before the Dandy Ball Drops! Alrighty, hold on tighty and let’s get right into what’s hot on the horizon for 2026 starting with… THEME PARKS! And up first is going to be UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD (which isn’t actually in Hollywood, it’s in Studio City kind of like the LA Angels baseball team is actually in Anaheim and how they call the Embassy Suites here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee “Nashville South” which we absolutely are not. But anyway that’s a rabbit hole rant for another day.) Anyway, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS in the greater Los Angeles, California area is breaking ground on a new roller coaster where each individual car experiences its very own 360 degrees of rotation. The coaster is called FAST AND FURIOUS HOLLYWOOD DRIFT themed after the Fast and Furious movies obviously. This one is expected to peel out in 2026! And Legoland California is busy building the Lego Galaxy space-themed land including an indoor roller coaster. Over at Kings Island in Ohio they’re opening what they are calling a new “dark ride” in 2026 called “PHANTOM THEATER: Opening Nightmare.” It’s in the location that has most recently held an attraction called Boo Blasters but is apparently the site of a previous attraction also called PHANTOM THEATER and this is apparently the return of that attraction with some various upgrades. I went to the Kings Island website to get more information and there’s just a teaser video showing two girls walking into Boo Blasters and ending up in the Phantom Theater which appears to be a very loose sendup on the Phantom of the Opera. The cartoon phantom character they show in the teaser graphic is obviously based on the classic Lon Chaney silent film character, and visitors ride inside cars that resemble opera boxes. So… yeah. Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (my neck of the woods kinda sorta) will be undertaking a $50 million expansion and also opening the world’s first ever hybrid indoor family coaster and whitewater river raft ride called the “Night Flight Expedition.” Then under at Sea World, Orlando Florida they’re diving into a new dark ride called SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep. If you don’t know what a dark ride is, it basically means it’s indoors and you get moved from scene to scene. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually dark. Anyway, this new dark ride at Sea World Orlando will be what they are calling a suspended dark ride. The only information about this ride currently is that the rider will “discover dazzling ecosystems, legendary sea life, and breathtaking stories of resilience and wonder.” NEW MOBILITY DEVICE POLICY AT SEA WORLD! And speaking of Sea World, they have a controversial new policy which has been making the news lately that has just rolled out regarding mobility devices for the disabled. It appears that rollator walkers with seats are no longer permitted. The official updated policy from the Sea World website is as follows: “For the safety of our guests and employees, rollator walkers with seats on them are not permitted at SeaWorld Orlando. Alternative personal transportation options, including standard wheelchairs and Electric Convenience Vehicles (ECVs), are available. Walkers without a seat are permitted.” I’m guessing that more than a few guests were using their rollators like wheelchairs and it was causing some sort of safety concern in the parks. As someone who transports disabled people as my profession and

watch video below!   listen to the podcast below! It’s scary season once again which means it’s time for the Dandy Spook Shack Halloween Special! This year we’re haunting the Spirit Store to see what’s new. We’ll also have a look at the new MUPPETIZED Monster Cereals with one very conspicuous absence and I will share my favorite fright flicks of 2025 along with what’s hot on the horizon! It’s alive! Halloween 2025! Let’s step into the SPOOK SHACK! Hello and welcome to the DANDY SPOOK SHACK annual Halloween special! 2025! I’m your ghost, Necro Neil Dandy and in this season’s spooktacular, we’ll be visiting the Spirit Store to see what’s new this ghoul year. We’ll also talk about the most notable scary movies of 2025 thus far and the ones to watch out for on the creepy horizon. And last but not least, we’ll feast!… Our eyes upon the new box designs for the classic Monster Cereals by Jim Henson Studios with one very notable character that has apparently been given the deathly cold shoulder! BUT FIRST! I’d like you to drink in these frighteningly fashionable DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirts! Woven from the threads of my dungeon spiders, you’re going to look drop dead fabulous. They come with fronts AND backs because nobody should be backless walking through the chill of a nighttime graveyard alone don’t you agree? Want to abscond with one for yourself? Simply visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the official Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and orders yours this evening. And if you’re watching closely watching on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there as well! Absurdity is Amplified at the Dandy Fun Shop! Ok, let us begin with a visit to the Spirit Halloween store to see what’s freshly alive for 2025! SPIRIT STORE 2025 We visited the Spirit Store in Nashville’s Opry Mills where the legendary theme park Opryland used to stand… but that’s a story for another time. We wanted to see what was new for Halloween 2025 and we were not disappointed. As we entered, we noticed the centerpiece for this year was haunted subway system. Very original. Of course it was monster rat infested which was quite a shock to the conductor. Once we escaped the train we took in a little animatronic target practice on a decapitated clown. Mama’s not gonna like this! Scary clowns seem to be a thing this year. Moving on from the animatronics, we find an assortment of un-welcome mats for the front door including the Bates Motel complete with bloody footprints, Mars Attacks, with Killer Klowns and Pennywise keeping the clown theme alive. M3gan seems to still be holding her own with the young ladies (you know it’s the dance)! And for the little ones we have the cutesy line of dolls known as Tiny Terrors with adorable baby versions of Chucky, Frankenstein’s little monster and Little Mikey Meyers. Moving on to more costumes we find many food items like pizza and ramen which is about all you’ll be able to afford after blowing your paycheck in this place, hard tea and you can also make yourself a few fries short of a happy meal dress as a pack of french fries. For the couples you can be chips and salsa, plug and socket, peanut butter and jelly or milk and cookie Awww! There’s also a great assortment of inflatable costumes like the inflatable banana, penguin, alien abduction, blow up chicken, big rubber chicken so you can throw yourself at Svengoolie, chicken abduction and giant balloon animal! Also I didn’t realize that Spongebob was still so popular but there’s an entire wall with every sort of Spongebob Squarepants character you can imagine and you can even buy your own supersized spatula perfect for flipping your crabby pattys and also for scraping your carcass out the door and back into the mall once your cash has all run dry in the Spirit Store 2025! Ya know, every year I always wonder just how the Spirit Store is going to top itself from the previous year and they always do. The animatronics get better, the products overall get better and there’s always something new like for example, I don’t recall seeing the Terror Tots before this year and I just thought making those iconic movie monsters into cute dolls was just a really neat idea. And speaking of movie monsters, I think it’s time we have a look over…   THE MOST NOTABLE SCARY MOVIES OF 2025! Ok, now why am I calling this the most NOTABLE scary movies of 2025 instead of my favorites? Quite honestly it’s because, while I have seen my fair share of them, I haven’t seen them all. There’s just too many and when it comes to certain types of scary movies like vampires, zombies and themes that have really been beaten into the ground, it’s tough to motivate me to go see a show about a type of monster I have already seen a thousand times before. Therefore I’m going to do a rundown of the notable one

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! Hula Hoop. Slip n Slide. Frisbee. Super Ball. What do these names mean to you? To many, these are just the names of some fun toys from years gone by. But to others, these names all culminate into just one… WHAM-O! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to tell their story, have a deeper look into some of their most iconic products and discover what’s on the horizon for this epic company! Bam-O Slam-O let’s dig into WHAM-O! And let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! This is where we slam right into the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode, we’re going head first into the world of Wham-O!   But first! I want to stick your head into one of these slammin’ Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Woven from the leftover strands of recycled superballs, you’re gonna look like a million bouncin’ bucks or no money back! They’ve got a front and a back because winter’s on the way and we very thoughtfully cut four very strategically – placed holes in em! That’s right! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! How much would you pay for luxury like this? It really doesn’t matter because we’re not changing our price! Just head over to our Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and see for yourself! And if you enjoy this show on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there too! That’s the Dandy Fun Shop where we have Absurdity Amplified! OKAY! WHAM-O! Where do I even begin with an enigma like this? Wham-O is THE toy and sports product company responsible for such instantly-recognizable products such as Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Hula Hoop, Hacky Sack, Super Ball, Boogie Board, Trac-Ball, Silly String and many, many more! You might think of Wham-O as a classic novelty company from the 70s and 80s but their history actually goes back farther than that. MUCH FARTHER!!!!! The year is 1948 and two eager upstarts freshly graduated from the University of Southern California named Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin who were friends found themselves frustrated with their post-grad occupations and decided to team up and start of all things a business making extra-powerful slingshots out of Richard’s garage. Why slingshots you ask? Both being falconry enthusiasts, they would use slingshots to shoot food up into the air for their birds. They called their line of slingshots the WHAM-O Slingshot and it was made from ash wood. They promoted and sold the Wham-O Slingshot by visiting various sports clubs and holding demonstrations. Both men were very skilled slingshot marksmen and their product quickly popular amongst these clubs for competitive target shooting and small game hunting. DANDY FUN FACT! The name Wham-O was derived from the sound of a slingshot hitting its target! Knerr and Melin quickly outgrew the garage and rented their first proper business location on S. Marengo Avenue in Alhambra, California where they remained until 1955 when they once again found themselves in need of a location that could handle and even greater capacity of manufacturing. So they relocated to the neighboring town of San Gabriel, California where they would remain for the next 3+ decades. With a greater capacity for manufacturing in place, they began looking to expand beyond the business of slingshot-making and came across the idea of re-branding the Australian bamboo exercise hoop, producing them from a type of plastic called Marlex and trademarking the name these hoops had been loosely called by since the 18th century “Hula Hoop.” And the rest is history. Within 4 months of releasing the Hula Hoop onto the world it became literally the largest toy fad in history, catapulting Wham-O to 25 million units sold. Within 2 years, sales of the Hula Hoop would exceed 100 million units. Hula Hoop mania continued to rage through the end of 1959 and by the time the world stopped spinning, the 1950’s came to a conclusion with Wham-O netting a staggering $45 million (which would be around $500 million today). These two college friends who just a few years earlier were making slingshots out of a garage found themselves riding into the 60’s on a gravy train with biscuit freaking wheels! Not ones to rest on their laurels, as the Hula Hoop fad was beginning to wane, Wham-O was looking for their next big thing and they found it in 1957 when they purchased the design of a plastic flying disc called the Pluto Platter from an inventor named Fred Morrison, quickly changed the name to Frisbee And once again, Wham-O had another hit on its hands! ANOTHER DANDY FUN FACT! The name Frisbee was adopted by Wham-O after learning that this was the name students were using for the Pluto Platter

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! Death, Taxes and new Jurassic Park movies. 3 things that apparently are certain to continue forever. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’ll be giving my thoughts after seeing the new Jurassic World Rebirth movie starring Scarlett Johansen while I simultaneously unbox, assemble and review the Jurassic World version of Hungry Hungry Hippos where the hippos are replaced with Velociraptors entitled RAVENOUS RAPTORS! That’s right! It’s all things Jurassic today! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House where we get all archeological on retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and today we’re doing something special: It’s a movie review intertwined with a game unboxing, assembly and review! And there will be some Dandy Fun Facts along the way… BUT FIRST! How about we DIG on these Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Woven from 100 percent fake dinosaur hair, you’ll not only feel extra toothy but JURASSIC gonna look great! And you’ll help put my kid through community college. Want one? Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll find the Dandy Fun Shop with tons of other absurd designs because the Dandy Fun Shop has ABSURDITY AMPLIFIED! Oh and FYI – there’s also a mini Dandy Fun Shop on our YouTube channel if that’s where you like to enjoy the show. That works too! OK, let’s start with the new movie (at the time of producing this episode) JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH! Starring Scarlett Johanssen whom I must say is still in absolutely incredible shape. Not only that but she’s also a great actress which is important when your profession is acting I suppose. Unfortunately she is THE ONLY big name actor listed. I won’t give any spoilers about whether there are or are not any special cameos that one might expect but Scarlett is indeed the only A-list actor being promoted. But honestly, when you have Scarlett Johansen, do you really need anyone else? Let me know your thoughts. I will give away the very first line of the entire movie however and this will be the only real spoiler I’ll share so cover your eyes and ears unless you’re driving. The very first line of dialogue in the entire movie is someone saying and I quote: “How many times are we going to keep doing this?” Which I thought was hilarious seeing how this is what the 5th or 6th sequel of the franchise??? It was like they uncovered the wooly mammoth in the middle of the room right off the bat and I respect them for that! We’ll dive into the movie some more as we go along but let’s go ahead and start having a look at this game of RAVENOUS RAPTORS. I usually like to a littly blurb about whomever produces the games I review on this show but in this case, there is no toy or game company listed, just the JURASSIC WORLD branding. So I guess we’re skipping our history of the manufacturer for this one. Looking over the box, the front has cartoon velociraptors from the movie looking sort of Saturday morning breakfast cereal looking. They’re sort of smiling which raptors never do. But whatever. Looking at the little picture of the game on the front, it’s obviously a version of the classic HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS game but honestly in the picture, the raptors look more like alligators to me. It’s like they made an alligator farm version of the game, scrapped the idea and repurposed the molds for this. It also shows the Jurassic World logo in the center of the game field which is nice touch as well as some metallic fencing reminiscent of the habitats from the movie. On the back, there’s a picture of a couple of older kids playing it and very oddly they are both sitting on the exact same side of the table. I mean there’s not much more to say here since it’s really just a retooled version of HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS, but there is a QR code on the box that takes you to a video on how to build and play the game. I find that also very thoughtful. Now upon clicking the QR code it takes you to a 1:08 YouTube video on the ToyMonster channel, (so now we know who makes it) which very concisely explains how to do exactly what it says. It shows you how to unpackage, prepare the pieces, how to set it all up (which appears much simpler than when I reviewed Hungry Hungry Hippos) and even the added bonus of how to properly pack the game up when you’re all through. That last one is something I NEVER see a game manufacturer pay any attention to. It’s so frustrating to set up and play a game and then you can never get it back in the box. THAT is amazingly helpful. THANK YOU TOY MONSTER! JURASSIC FUN FACT! in Jurassic Park, the Lost World, the Japanese tourists running from T-Rex in San Diego are saying in Japanese, “I left Japan to get away from this!” An obvious hat t

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! America the beautiful! Home of the brave! Home of the free! And most certainly Home of the weird! With summer on the way (at least at the time of this production), gas prices going down and Summer break on the horizon, we can expect road trippers to be loading up the ol Winnebago and rolling across the country in record numbers! And they’re gonna have to make at least a few stops along the way! Some of these stops will be mundane. Others, not so much. And others yet… downright weird! Therefore, we find it prudent to dedicate THIS episode of the Dandy Fun House to counting down the Top Ten Weirdest Roadside Attractions in America! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we seek the strangest retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can whack yourself out on! In this episode, we’ll be counting down the Top Ten WEIRDEST ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS IN AMERICA! But first! Bend your bean brain around these abnormal DANDY FUN HOUSE T SHIRTS! Specially woven from beard trimmings, we promise you’ll look amazing! But that’s not all! We’ve even cut 4 “special holes” in them for added entertainment. 1 to crawl your body into, 1 to poke your head out of and two to stick your arms through! Want one? Just head over to www.dandyfunhouse.com to get yours or if you’re watching on YouTube, we have a mini fun shop set up there too! 10: WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE, Cawker City, Kansas This one grabbed my attention because I’ve always loved the song by Weird Al Yankovic, Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota. So naturally I assumed that the world’s largest ball of twine would indeed be in Minnesota, but… no. Apparently it’s just the biggest ball of twine in the STATE of Minnesota because the actual World’s Largest Ball of Twine resides in Cawker City, Kansas! The full and proper name would be the World Largest Ball of Sisal Twine which was started by a man named Frank Stoeber in 1953. After dedicating 4 years of his life to enlarging this twine ball, he got it up to 5000 lbs and a height of 8 ft! Once a year in August the residents of Cawker City get together and have a Twine-A-Thon where everybody adds more to the ball. So it gets bigger every year! The World’s Largest Ball of Twine currently weighs in at over 27,000 lbs! 9: BIG IDAHO POTATO HOTEL, Boise, Idaho This is exactly what it sounds like. A giant potato in Boise, Idaho that you can book as a hotel room. What!? Why? How!? I have so many questions! It’s 6 tons of steel, plaster and concrete placed in the middle of 400 acres of farmland with a custom-built queen-sized bed and a small seating area inside and air conditioning! The restroom and shower are in a nearby converted grain silo however. But why? Well… in 2012 the Idaho Potato Commission COMMISSIONED it’s construction as it’s main attraction for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Idaho Potato Commision. It then traveled the country on the back of a large truck for 7 years spreading the gospel of the Idaho Potato for all of America to hear and see! Upon the end of it’s 7 year journey, Potato Commission employee and tiny home builder Kristie Wolfe took charge of the large spud and put it to good use in the middle of some prime Idaho farmland, transforming it into a destination accommodation that spud lovers from near and far come to drift away to starchy dreamland in. 8: WORLD’S LARGEST CEDAR BUCKET, Murfreesboro, Tennessee Ok, this one is in MY hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Home of the Dandy Fun House Studios! The World’s Largest Cedar Bucket lives in a quaint recreation of a pioneer town known as Cannonsburgh Village. The one currently on display is actually a replica of the original which was built in 1887 by the Tennessee Red Cedar Woodworks Company which was the only company in America making cedar buckets at the time. It was created over the course of an entire year as a promotional attraction for the company who took it on tour to fairs around the country winning a blue ribbon at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair as well as the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair who filled it with beer as one might expect in St. Louis. 1,566 gallons of it in fact. In 1950, a man named Charles White purchased the bucket at an auction and later donated it to Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1976. The bucket was partially destroyed in 2005 due to a fire but was lovingly crafted back to life by the Rutherford County Blacksmith Association and rededicated back to Cannonsburgh Village in 2011. DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that Murfreesboro, Tennessee is the exact geographical center of the state!? We have an obelisk that says so! (an obelisk is basically a tall, pointy pile of rocks erected to signify something of perceived importance) 7: FUTURE BIRTHPLACE OF CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK, Riverside, Iowa T

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! The Game of Pickleball! It seems like a fairly recent phenomenon the way it’s been sweeping the land by storm doesn’t it? It seems every community is building Pickleball courts at breakneck speeds but still can’t keep up with the demand! If you’re having trouble fighting the rabid crowds of pickleheads just to get on the courts and wish there was a way to enjoy the game at your own home, at your own kitchen table where you can wear your favorite pickle costume without being ridiculed, I just might have the answer you’ve been looking for! It’s the tabletop game of PICKLEBALL BLAST by Moose Games! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to unbox this sweetly sour barrel of fun, show you how to assemble and play it, give my honest thoughts and also share the history of the game of pickleball! Time to pucker up and step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we scrape the bottom of the pickle barrel to bring you the juiciest retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can dill with! Today I’ll be doing a full-on unboxing, assembly and review of the game PICKLEBALL BLAST while also bringing you the history of the game of pickleball. BUT FIRST! I wanna marinate your cucumbers in a jar of these puckerrific DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They might not come in a jar but they ARE crunchtastic and WILL make all your friends GREEN with envy! Manufactured by the briniest of sourpuss garment printers on the planet, everyone will instantly know that your taste is pure bread and butter. And I’m not just gherkin you around when I tell you that we also cut four specially designed holes in each tee for your comfort and practicality! One to climb your torso into, one to squeeze your head out of and two to poke your green little pimply arms through! Want one? Just head over to the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com to spin the lid off one of your own! And while you’re there, check out our other amazing designs including our COFFEE BADGER tees, mugs and bags of harshly ground french roast! If you like to badge in, caffeinate and badge out, then the coffee badger is your roast! Once again, head over to www.dandyfunhouse.com and get cranked up today! Ok! THE GAME OF PICKLEBALL! Maybe you’re like me and you’re wondering what all this recent hubub is about surrounding this game with the weird name, Pickleball! I just started hearing about this a few years ago. Everyone buzzing about playing it, every community installing courts in every recreational facility and absolutely nobody would explain it to me. It’s like everyone else knew what this was and I had to figure it out on my own. So I went down to my local park and saw these weird little miniature tennis courts with people holding giant ping pong paddles whacking whiffle balls back and forth. And I said to myself… This is pickleball? Where’s the pickle? Why is it called pickleball? When did all this happen and why am I the only person they didn’t tell? This prompted a bit of research on my part and I was very surprised to learn that while the current pickleball craze is a fairly new phenomenon, the actual game itself was invented in the 1960s! 1965 to be exact, on Bainbridge Island, Washington by a man named Joel Pritchard (who would one day go on to become a US Congressman as well as Washington’s Lietenant Governor) and his two friends Barney McCallum and Bill Bell. Together they devised the game and established the rules. The name Pickleball is inspired by the pickle boat crew where the oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. Whereas the game of pickleball is sort of an amalgamation of the court from badminton, the paddles from paddleball, a whiffle ball and the net height of tennis. They decide to establish Pickle Ball Inc. to market the game, bring it to the masses and of course, sell the necessary equipment. By the mid-70s, pickleball tournaments began springing up around the country and by the early 90’s became a feature of the Senior Olympics. The Pickleball Hall of Fame opened in 2017 and two different professional tournaments became established in 2019. In 2022 Pickleball became the official sport of the state of Washington, signed into law on the very court the sport was first devised. DANDY FUN FACT! Did you know that the game of Pickleball even has it’s own tv channel? That’s right! PickleballTV is co-owned by the Tennis Channel and the United Pickleball Association. You can find it at pickleballtv.com as well as on a variety of streaming services. Ok, I don’t really want to get into all the rules of Pickleball because that’s not really what we’re here for! What we ARE here for is to dig into this game of PICKLEBALL BLAST

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! Once upon a time there was a man who perfected the art of the pie in the face. This man hosted a 1950s and 60s children’s show where one day he got a wild hair encouraging the kids to steal money from their parents and send it to him in the mail promising a post card from Puerto Rico in return. This ill-advised stunt got the man in lots of trouble as you might imagine but also made him notoriously next-level famous almost overnight. So, in true show business fashion, he was allowed to keep his job. Throughout the decades to follow, he went on to appear in countless television, movie and music productions keeping his unique brand of silly humor and slapstick alive all the way into the 2000’s earning his rightful place in the pantheon of comedic legends. In this, the BIG 50th episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to tell his tale and learn some amazing Dandy Fun Facts along the way about someone you might think you know. Oh, his name! Milton Supman. But you might remember him better as… SOUPY SALES! Let’s go behind the slapstick and let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! THIS is where we slurp a mega-smoothie of retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this BIG episode number 50 we’re going to take you Behind the Slapstick and into the story of SOUPY SALES! THIS is a show I have been wanting to do for a very long time! But not as long as the longing you’ll feel once you check out these soup-a-riffic Dandy Fun House t shirts! Designed by yours truly and expertly modeled by stock image personalities, you’re going to love the way you look, I guarantee it! We even cut 4 holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and 2 to poke your arms through! Act now and get zero percent off! This deal WILL last long so hurry! As long as we’re shirt-talking, we might as well get jacked up on some COFFEE BADGER harshly ground french roast coffee! As well as our Coffee Badger t-shirts and mugs! Badge in! Caffeinate! Badge Out! Find all our amazing stuff in the Dandy Fun Shop located within the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com . We also have a mini Dandy Fun Shop at our YouTube channel. Just search for Dandy Fun House and that’ll getcha there! Alright! SOUPY SALES! If you’re really old, you’ll probably remember this comedian from his 1950s and 60s children’s show LUNCH WITH SOUPY SALES where he pulled an infamous stunt that almost ended his career but ultimately brought him additional fame and notoriety. If you’re just a little bit old, you’ll likely remember Soupy Sales from his countless appearances as a panelist or celebrity participant in multiple game shows in the late 60’s through the mid 70’s. Then in the late 70’s through early 80’s as a full cast member of the hit tv show, SHA NA NA. And all the way into the 2000s as a radio show host, recording artist and author. With roots firmly in vaudeville and slapstick the tale of Soupy Sales goes back farther than you might think… MUCH FARTHER! CHILDHOOD The year, 1926. The town, Franklinton, North Carolina. A little boy named Milton Supman was born to Hungarian immigrants Irving and Sadie Supman. His father a dry goods merchant. He had a couple of older brothers named Leonard and Jack who had some wacky nick names like Ham Bone and Chicken Bone. Milton was dubbed Soup Bone and later shortened to just Soupy. Catching the performing bug early in life, he found himself auditioning for and acting in a variety of elementary school plays. Moving on to high school Soupy attended Huntington High in Huntington, West Virginia where his performing continued, his popularity grew and he was even voted Most Popular Boy In School. MILITARY SERVICE Upon graduating from high school in 1944, Milton Supman enlisted in the US Navy serving honorably aboard the USS Randall during the latter part of World War II and becoming known amongst his shipmates for commandeering the PA system with comedy routines hoping to keep up morale while at war. During the Battle of Okinawa the ship was under constant kamikaze attack. His time in the service instilled a fear of flying stemming from his being assigned to “clean up duty” following a fatal plane crash at the San Diego Naval Base. SOUPY STARTS HIS POST-MILITARY CAREER After exiting the Military, Milton Supman completed his college education at Marshall University earning a Masters Degree in Journalism. While there, he further honed his performing skills in nightclubs as a comedian, singer and dancer. Upon graduation, Milton managed to land a job as a script writer and disc jockey with WHTN Huntington, West Virginia, choosing the stage name Soupy Hines, in part to disguise his Jewish heritage which is someth

watch the video!   listen to the podcast! Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures that didn’t cost an arm and a leg? Have you ever wanted your very own tabletop pinball machine that you could reconfigure on the fly in order to create new challenges and adventures that didn’t cost an arm and a leg AND you could eat the ball when you’re done playing!!?? Well have I got a TREAT for you!? In this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to learn about the educational toy making powerhouse of the company THAMES AND KOSMOS who are currently nominated in several categories for a coveted 2025 TOTY (Toy of the year) AWARD AND we’re going to unbox, assemble, play and review their 2025 TOTY AWARD NOMINATED STEM experiment kit: PINBALL MACHINE MAKER – GUMBALL RALLY! Are you ready to rally my pinball-loving friends? Let’s step into the Fun House!   Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House, video show, podcast and blog! This is where flop our flippers and flappers for the most frivolitizing retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can chew with your mouth open! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is our first episode of the year of our Lord and Savior and I’m kicking things off with a full-on review of PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY by Thames and Kosmos! If you’re watching the video version of this show you might notice my background isn’t quite as snazzy as it usually is and that’s because instead of having colorful draping or a graphical animated background, I just have what’s actually behind the Dandy curtain which is my production and tinkering room that’s currently being overhauled for increased efficiency, productivity and capability. But for today it just kind of looks like a mess. If you wanna make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs, folks. OK we’re going to get into this review of the PINBALL MACHINE MAKER GUMBALL RALLY… BUT FIRST! I want to rally your attention over to these sweet Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Let them know you’ve arrived ready for 2025 looking oh-so Dandy! As you might have guessed, for your wearing convenience we’ve included a front and a back so you don’t get cold! But wait! There’s more! Not only do you get a front and a back, but we’ve also custom-cut 4 special penetration-points perfect for poking your arms, head and torso through! Now how much would you pay? Prices are subject to change so I can’t really tell you here, otherwise a hundred years from now I’d have to sell them to you at 2025 prices, but head over to the Dandy Fun Shop at dandyfunhouse.com or if you are watching on YouTube, we also have a Dandy Fun Shop there as well! While you’re there, you can check out our bags of harshly-ground French Roast Coffee as well as mugs and t-shirts for our coffee brand: COFFEE BADGER! If you work from home, but your jerk boss makes you come to the office for no other reason than to validate the overhead expense of the space. YOU my friend are a Coffee Badger! You badge in, Caffeinate, badge out and go home to actually get stuff done or just hang out with your dog and pretend you’re getting stuff done! Either way, Coffee Badgers of the world… the DANDY FUN SHOP salutes you! Once again, get over to dandyfunhouse.com and see all that we have for you in the Dandy Fun Shop where you will find ABSURDITY AMPLIFIED! Alright! PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY by Thames and Kosmos! I first heard about this company Thames and Kosmos while I was putting together the year-end episode for 2024. I had never heard of these guys but they were nominated in several categories for TOTY Awards. (Toty stands for toy of the year). I was looking over all the different toys and picking the ones I found most interesting in each category and Thames and Kosmos not only kept coming up over and over, but I kept picking their products as the ones I found most interesting. And I was so intrigued by one of their products in particularly, the PINBALL MACHINE MAKER: GUMBALL RALLY where you assemble your own actual working tabletop pinball machine that you can reconfigure at will and you shoot a gumball that you can actually eat when you’re done. Of course how are you going to play after you’ve eaten all the gum balls? That will be another issue for another time. But anyway, for the longest time, I have been wanting to incorporate pinball into this show. I would really like to have an expert in the industry send me segments on exciting new machines and retrospectives on pinball classics and make it a regular occurrence here on the Dandy Fun House. If that’s you, please reach out. I want to make this happen. Anyhoo, this seemed like a grea

watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! In this edition of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to close out 2024 by looking ahead to 2025 and seeing what’s on the horizon for theme parks, movies, pinball and my favorite TOTY AWARD NOMINATION picks for the upcoming 2025 Toy of the Year Awards! All this ahead! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House 2024 year-end extravaganza where we celebrate retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and while most shows are just mailing it in this time of year and giving their audience a “best of” mishmash of what they’ve already done over the past year, this show is instead going to take the opportunity to look ahead into the New Year of 2025 and explore the most exciting things on the horizon. But first! I have to show you these futuristic DANDY FUN HOUSE T-Shirts! They do have a front and a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them with the rattiest pair of scissors we could find! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! All because we care! Find them in the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com While you’re there, be sure to load up on all the gogo juice you’ll need for the new year with our Coffee Badger t-shirts, mugs and bags of harshly-ground dark French Roast coffee! You don’t have to love France to love their harshly-ground coffee, but it helps! Just get your oui-oui over to dandyfunhouse.com and get busy! Alright, let’s get into this new year we’re starting down the barrel of. There’s a lot of amazing stuff on the horizon and we’re going to explore that right now starting with… THEME PARKS! And I’m going to start with the big thing everyone is talking about because it really is the attraction that is sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now as far as theme park chit chat goes and that is… UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, Orlando Florida – EPIC UNIVERSE. This is a brand new theme park located adjacent to Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure and it’s going to include 5 different specially-themed areas: Celestial Park, Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the REALLY interesting part of this new theme park and the only part that makes me want to visit: DARK UNIVERSE! This is a special land within Epic Universe that is dedicated exclusively to the classic Universal Monsters, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man! Sorry, no live for the Mummy or the Creature From the Black Lagoon. I mean someone has to recreate the movie theater attack from THE BLOB at some point don’t they? Anyway, First off we’ve got an incredible looking ride called MONSTERS UNCHAINED: The Frankenstein Experiment. This one takes place inside Frankenstein’s Castle! Dr. Victoria Frankenstein continues the work of her ancestors deep below the family estate. A demonstration of her experiments to control monsters goes awry when Dracula leads a revolt of enraged monsters including The Wolf Man, The Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and more! Then we have CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF! This appears to be a roller coaster where you ride in gypsy wagons to escape a pack of hungry werewolves. One thing that stood out to me in the renderings was a picture showing people sitting sideways, forwards and backwards on this ride. The information doesn’t divulge whether or not the cars spin or if you merely have different choices on the type of seating, but further investigation into the animated tour of the overall land of Dark Universe actually does show the cars spinning freely from side to side. It has a top speed of only 37 miles per hour so as long as you can handle the werewolves, I think pops can probably handle this one with you! THE BURNING BLADE TAVERN: Upon first viewing from the outside looking in, this appears to be fashioned after the climactic final scene from Frankenstein where he (supposedly) meets his end in a burning windmill tower. It is indeed an eatery where you can enjoy burgers, wings, bratwurst and pretzels. But just the fact that they have the burning windmill from the movie Frankenstein with the windmill ACTUALLY ON FIRE is just blowing my frankin’ mind! Another eatery in this portion of the park is DAS STAKEHOUSE: (notice how STAKE is spelled). This is apparently the more upscale dining option in the area and is a Vampire-Themed dungeon filled with vampire artwork and artifacts. DARKMOOR MONSTER MAKEUP EXPERIENCE: This appears to be a laboratory where you, the visitors can yourself become on of Doctor Pretorius’ mad experiments and be transformed into werewolves, vampires, mummies and more! So, basically, two rides, two

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! In this very special Thanksgiving episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to count down my TOP TEN FAMILY FUN FAVORITE GAME IDEAS FOR TURKEY DAY! And we’re gonna get to gobblin’ down on ’em… right now! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we always go for extra helpings of your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! Today I’m going to count down the very best family fun game and activity ideas I’ve been able to find and I hope YOU’LL find them absolutely Dandy as well. But before we go any further, I do want to extend a very big thank you to the legendary Count Drahoon for batflapping into the Dandy Fun House Studios here in beautiful Murfreesboro, Tennessee to co-host our annual Halloween episode last month. I have to say he’s the only guest this show has ever had that literally appeared from a cloud of smoke. And speaking of smoke shows… I think it’s time to check out these smokin’ hot Dandy Fun House t-shirts. They’re super absorbent and perfect for soaking up all that giblet gravy dribbling down your chin at the dinner table this month. And not only are they super-stylish, but they also come with 4 holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your turkey neck out of and two to poke your wings through! Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours before the big bird thaws! And while you’re there, you might as well pick up one of our infamous Coffee Badger t-shirts and / or coffee mugs and/or bags of dark french roast coffee! I’ll let you figure out what a coffee badger is for yourself. I’m tired of explaining it. Once again, head over to dandyfunhouse.com to visit the Dandy Fun Shop and see all the frivolities we have waiting for you! Okay, without any further delay, I believe it is time to kick off our Turkey Day Top Ten Countdown of our favorite family fun game and activity ideas sure to make your Thanksgiving and absolute hoot! Ready? Let’s do it! #10: Corn Shucking Race: This is obviously a competition best suited for the early birds helping with the meal prep. As the name implies, everyone competes to see who can shuck corn on the cob the fastest. I personally shuck corn on a weekly basis and I’m still terrible at it. I’m always digging out those corn silk strings with a fork. But I will tell you my secret to super quick corn on the cob! Leave the husk on, cut off the ends with a serrated knife so that not only is the husk completely unattached, but also so that you can stick your cob-holders in. Then microwave your corn cob with the holders stuck in and the husk still on for 2 minutes. When it’s done, simply hold it by one of the holders upright on a plate and use a fork to pull away the husk and silk threads. Voila! Two minute corn on the cob! I make it every week! #9: Roll A Turkey Dice Game – This is a fun one. It involves game dice with arts and crafts. First you need to print out the game sheets with a turkey body on it along with the various parts of a turkey corresponding to the numbers on the dice. Secondly you need to print out sheets with all the turkey parts on them. Thirdly, you give everyone a pair of child-safe scissors so they can cut their various turkey parts out. Basically, everyone takes turns rolling the die. If you roll a one, you’ll put eyes on the turky, two you’ll put the beak on your turkey, three the feet and so on and so forth. Of course if you roll something you already have, you do nothing and the next person gets their turn. Whomever succeeds at completley building their turkey first is THE WINNER, WINNER TURKEY DINNER! You can find the game sheets ready to print at www.playpartyplan.com/roll-a-turkey/ I’ll leave a link in the episode posting for this show at dandyfunhouse.com if that’s too much to remember in your tryptophan fog! #8: Thanksgiving Charades – If you’ve had enough of Thanksgiving parades, maybe it’s time to try THANKSGIVING CHARADES! TheSavvySparrow.com website calls this an easy, low-prep game that’s simple to understand and play. I like it already! Just like traditional charades except players act out Thanksgiving-themed words and phrases for others to guess. All you need are the cards with the words and phrases which you can print out at www.thesavvysparrow.com/thanksgiving-charades (or you can just make your own, but these look amazing and they’re already done for you!). A one-minute timer (there’s one on your phone), a box or basket to jumble the cards in for blind-picking and cheap dollar store prizes to throw to or at the winners! #7: Pumpkin Sweep – This is a great yard game and a great use of your decorative gourds! To play Pumpkin Swee

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below!   In this extra creepy Halloween 2024 edition of the Dandy Spook Shack, we’re gonna try the all-new Monster Cereal, Carmella Creeper. Also, we’re going to unbox, figure out how to play, and do a full review on the brand new extra creepy board game, Finders Creepers! Let’s step into the Spook Shack! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Spook Shack! I’m your ghost with the most, your ghoul of cool, Neil Dandy. And welcome to my haunted studio! Today, we’re going to dig into some Carmella Creeper cereal as well as review the board game Finders Creepers… BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about the brand new extra creepy Dandy Fun House t-shirts! They come with a front and a back so you don’t get cold and also four holes in them. One to crawl your body into, one to poke your hopefully not decapitated head out of, two to poke your arms through! How’s that? I couldn’t have done better with a pair of scissors! Go to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours today! Oh and while you’re over at dandyfunhouse.com, check out the all new gear for the all new line of products, Coffee Badger. Why Coffee Badger? Well, a Coffee Badger is somebody who works remotely, but has to go into the office once in a while to make an appearance for absolutely no apparent reason, because their boss doesn’t want to feel like they wasted all that money buying the office space. So if you’re a coffee badger, you go in, you make your presence known, grab a cup of coffee, throw it down the old pipe, and then you badge out, wave adios and go back home to get all your real work done! Back to your own little haunted mansion, dungeon, whatever you’re doing. Maybe you live in a tree and hang outside down with all the bats. I don’t really know what you do. Hey, speaking of bats…   CARMELLA CREEPER MONSTER CEREAL Before we dig into this box of Carmella Creeper, it might be a real good idea to call upon someone who knows their bats! Who knows bats better than…Count Dracula!? Hey, do you think if we try real hard, we can summon Count Dracula? Let’s try it. Calling Count Dracula! Calling Count Dracula! (Smoke fills room and Neil starts coughing while a vampire who is not Count Dracula appears…) Neil: Uhhh… You’re not Count Dracula… Count Drahoon: No, no, I’m Count Drahoon. Sorry, Dracula couldn’t make it tonight. He’s actually on vacation right now, so they sent me. Neil: Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t you the vampire that took over my show a couple of Halloween’s ago and reviewed all the monster cereals? Count Drahoon: I sure am! Neil: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Count Drahoon! (Audience goes wild with applause) Neil: The powers that be must have seen that we were introducing the new monster cereal, Carmella creeper and thought that you might be the better fit. Count Drahoon: Well, I don’t know. It’s been a while since I’ve actually ingested human food, but I’ll be happy to give it a try. Neil: Well, that sounds great. I’ll try it with you. I’ve actually got two blood red bowls! Count Drahoon: Oh, beautiful. No milk, though. We’re eating this depression era style. Neil: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Of course. I found this box of Carmella Creeper in the grocery store just last week. I was checking out the monster cereals. I was like, I have not seen this monster cereal before. Is it brand new? I don’t know. So I took it off the shelf and I learned a little bit about Carmella here. She’s a zombie. Count Drahoon: Okay… Oh, so she is. Neil: She’s Frankenberry’s long lost cousin and she’s a DJ and she likes to spin at parties at the haunted mansion. And apparently her flavor is caramel apple. Count Drahoon: Okay. It sounds good on paper, but… Neil: yeah… that’s pretty much what I was thinking there myself. All right. Are we ready? Count Drahoon: I’m ready if you are. Neil: Hey, you guys want to open this box of Carmella creeper??? Count Drahoon: Let’s do it. Let’s dive right into it! Neil: Wait. We didn’t really look at the box too closely. Count Drahoon: Let’s examine.So we have the Carmella Creeper. She looks pretty hip, I’d say. Yeah. Yeah. This is what the kids are into. Neil: Yeah. She’s got kind of a Latina vibe going on. Count Drahoon: Yeah, I could see that. Especially with the name like Carmella. Maybe we’re saying it wrong. Maybe it’s not Carmella creeper. It’s kind of a creepe. But that’s like if you’re eating crepes. Maybe she can have like a French alter ego when they do like a crepe flavored cereal. Neil: Looks like she’s holding a swirly bat. Count Drahoon: Yeah. It’s really green though. And I’m a little concerned about that because sometimes this color

see the video below! listen to the podcast below! Riddle me this funheusers! What is squeaky clean, Mormon to the max, has big teeth, more legs than you can count, has sold over 77 million records worldwide yet you’ll almost NEVER hear on the radio? … Give up? IT’S THE OSMONDS! And in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m going to give you all the Osmonds you can eat! Let’s step into the fun house! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog. This is where we meticulously polish all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff you can handle until it’s sparkly! I’m your host Neil Dandy and I hope you’re in for a wild ride on some Crazy Horses today because this episode is all about The OSMONDS! But first, I need to tell you about these funky fresh DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! With cloth harvested from the ancient fabric mines of darkest Peru and hand-woven by enchanted pygmies, you’re going to look and feel amazing. It comes with a front AND a back so you don’t get cold and we cut 4 holes in ’em for practicality’s sake. One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through. I mean who wants a shirt they can’t stick their head out of? Well you won’t have that problem here! Just get over to dandyfunhouse.com and get yours today! Oh yeah! And if you have one of those remote jobs but your boss still makes you come to the office here and there for no apparent reason… so you badge in, grab a coffee, make your presence known then badge out and go home to get your real work done… then YOU are a Coffee Badger and here at the Dandy Fun House, we salute and honor you! We also feel your pain and frustration so we made a commemorative t-shirt just for you to be relentlessly passive agressive in! It’s the unlimited edition COFFEE BADGER t-shirt! Badge in. Caffeinate. Badge Out! and if that weren’t snarky enough, we even made a special Coffee Badger coffee mug to drive the point home to your jerk boss before you badge out, wave a few inappropriate hand gestures and drive home… Or to the coffee shop… You really overdo it with the coffee don’t you? Anyway, go get your quiet-quitting self over to dandyfunhouse.com and get your Coffee Badger gear before we run out! Alright… THE OSMONDS! Wow, where do you even start with a subject like this. It’s like trying to package up the Jacksons albeit without the psychic hot line and creepy home amusement park. (Lollipops! Lollipops!) But I guess we’ll start here! It’s the story of a humble farm family from Ogden, Utah who served their church as worship musicians, eventually finding themselves becoming household names worldwide. George Osmond Sr. and Olive Osmond had 9 kids: Jimmy, Jay, Alan, Merrill, Wayne, Donny, Marie, Virl and Tom. Virl and Tom Osmond Those last two were both born with hearing disabilities so in 1958 brothers Merrill, Wayne, Alan and Jay began singing around town to raise money for hearing aids and also church missions. Their ages at this time were ranging from only 3 to 9 years old. The Dapper Dans After a few years of performing locally, their father George entered the boys into a barbershop singing contest in sunny Southern California. During this trip, they went to Disneyland just for a family fun day and were being entertained by a vocal group in the park known as the Dapper Dans. Tommy Walker, Disneyland Director of Entertainment The boys started singing along and managed to catch the attention of Disneyland’s Director of Entertainment, Tommy Walker.Mr. Walker pulled the family aside and made an offer to hire the boys to perform in the park starting the following Summer. They accepted and the following year began performing in the park as The Osmond Brothers which presented the added benefit of new opportunities such as appearances in the Kurt Russell tv series, THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS. The Osmond Brothers were also included in a 1962 episode of DISNEYLAND AFTER DARK. During the Osmond Brothers‘ appearance on Disneyland After Dark, a man named Jay Williams took notice of the group and called his son Andy and insisted that he book them on none other than THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW. The brothers became an instant hit and were invited back repeatedly throughout the remainder of the show’s run which continued until 1967. Donny Osmond Marie Osmond Jimmy Osmond George Osmond Sr. The Osmond Brothers didn’t take this newfound acclaim for granted and dedicated themselves to relentless rehearsal in a quest to be the best and “One-Take Osmonds” became their new nickname amongst the Andy Williams staff because they always showed up polished and ready to hit the mark. This discipline was largely attributed to their father George’s military background and strictness which was instilled into all the kid

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 Sho

watch the video! listen to the podcast! Akron, Ohio. 1973. Before new wave. Before punk rock. Two Kent State graduates, Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis found their destinies when they met up with a keyboardist from a band called Flossy Bobbitt. His name? Mark Mothersbaugh. Together they formed something entirely different. Releasing their mongoloid creation upon an unsuspecting wiggly world with spudniks designed to whip it at every turn. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we venture to ask the eternal burning question… Are We Not Men? For THIS is the story of DEVO! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog. This is where we whip up the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and in this episode, we’re going to carry out our Duty Now For The Future by bringing you the story of DEVO! BUT FIRST! I must tell you about these awesome Dandy Fun House t-shirts! You can show your support for this show while spreading the word oh so stylishly and the design actually doesn’t look stupid! Just buy the front of the shirt and we’ll throw the back in free! But wait! There’s more! Order now and not only do you get two holes to crawl your body into and poke your neck out of but we’ll also include two more holes to stick your arms through! Now how much would you pay? Just visit the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com and click on SHOP to order yours today! And while you’re there, be sure to check out our brand new NO ROBOTS! T-shirt! Tell Cyberdyne where to stick it! That website once again is www.dandyfunhouse.com . Order today! Alright! DEVO! If you’re older like me, you probably remember this weird, punky, electronic band going as far back as their appearances on the original Saturday Night Live in the 70’s back when it was funny. If you’re a bit younger, you might be familiar with their 80’s hit WHIP IT. Well… not only is DEVO still a creative force today, but they have quite the storied past that goes back farther than you might think!… MUCH FARTHER! It’s the late 60’s and two Kent State University art students named Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis make an art project together reflecting the theory that mankind is not only NOT evolving, but actually DE-EVOLVING! Both of them were budding modern artists and also musicians. Casale was performing with a band called The Numbers Band. Around 1970, this band began fraternizing with another local band known as Flossy Bobbitt which featured a crazy but talented keyboardist; a one Mr. Mark Mothersbaugh. The musicians began jamming around with each other and creating a more cutting-edge feel than what was around at that time during the height of hippie culture. They also discovered that they shared a love for satire. One day, Mark Mothersbaugh was sharing a pamphlet to the other musicians called “Jocko Homo Heavenbound” which featured the character of a winged devil named D-EVOLUTION. This pamphlet would later inspire the classic song “Jocko Homo” as well as the band name but we’re not quite there just yet. Then May 4th, 1970 the infamous massacre at Kent State took place and the theory of De-Evolution became all too real and far too close to home for the guys. Gerald Casale was a witness to the event and personally saw two of his friends gunned down. His life changed in an instant. He stopped being a hippie and became angry. Very angry. Bob Casale Bob MothersbaughAlan Lewis Funneling his anger into artistic expression, this historical event would ultimately become the inspiration for the official coming together of this group of musicians to form a band with the underlying theme highlighting the regression of mankind. In 1973, they made it official with Gerald Casale recruiting his brother Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh with HIS brother Bob while also adding in Alan Myers, Rod Reisman and Fred Weber to round out the group. Thus SEXTET DEVO (as they were originally called) was born. Exactly when the name was shortened to simply “DEVO” is up for debate but from all the information I’ve been able to gather, it happened rather quickly during the formative years of the band. This newly-formed ensemble threw conventionality out the window experimenting with electronic sounds mixed with sensibilities of the burgeoning roots of what would soon become punk rock. DEVO performed around the university over the next few years with various players coming and going. Sometimes as a 4-piece, other times as a larger unit and under the creative direction of Gerald Casale whom experimented heavily with the format of music videos. Devo created their first videos for the songs “Secret Agent Man” as well as their classic “Jocko Homo”. In 1975 they eventually settled in with a solid lineup of five members that wou

watch video below!   listen to the podcast below!   Do you have a fat, stingy grandma? Have you ever wanted one? Well today’s your lucky day because on this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re going to unbox, assemble and play none other than the game of GREEDY GRANNY! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog! This is where we hoard all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff we can find! I’m your host, Neil Dandy and today we’re going to get into a game that’s been around since about 2018 and started off as a Toys R Us exclusive. Obviously Toys R Us isn’t around anymore but now this game can be found just about everywhere and the fact that it’s had the staying power to endure on the toy and game aisle shelves for this long is a testament to it’s appeal. I’m talking about the game of GREEDY GRANNY by Goliath Games (try saying THAT ten times fast!) from Deutschland.   But first I want to show you these awesome DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They come with a front AND a back so you don’t get cold and we even cut 4 holes in them! One to crawl your body into, one to stick your head out of and two to poke your arms through! Find them at our website https://www.dandyfunhouse.com ! And while you’re there, check out our brand new NO ROBOTS! T-Shirt and tell Cyberdyne where to stick it! HISTORY OF GOLIATH GAMES The history of Goliath Games is actually a love story about two people named Adi and Margreeth Golad who fell head over heels for each other over a game of Rummikub while visiting the Israeli desert. We don’t know if it was the moon or the Manischevitz but in addition to their passion for one-another, they also found a burning passion for the game of Rummikub. Margreeth soon returned home to the Netherlands where she shared this game with her family who also became consumed with an unquenchable passion for the game of Rummikub. Margreeth and Adi soon connected back up and decided to not only join together to pursue a business desire to bring Rummikub to the world but also join together in holy matrimony and in 1980 founded GOLIATH GAMES. Adi left his mechanical engineering career and traded in his car for 500 games of Rummikub which he sold on the streets of the Netherlands, obviously not out of the trunk of his car. I guess he set them out on a blanket and probably started a lot of conversations with “Psst buddy!” There were challenges along the way, but when they were hungry, Rummikub kept them alive (Hey, I think that’s and Eagles song!). Nonetheless, Adi and Margreeth persisted on their all-out Rummikub rampage and proceeded to build the game into the iconic, multi-generational classic that it is today. In fact, the game eventually became so popular that it set the world record as the most number of games played per capita in a single year. Goliath Games and Rummikub still hold this record to this day! Together, Adi and Margreeth built the foundation of Goliath Games and nurtured it into a leading global manufacturer of toys and games in over a dozen countries around the world. Their slogan? “Clever Together.” Adi and Margreeth Golad, The Dandy Fun House video show, podcast and blog salutes you! Now let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY! For a game that’s been around since 2018, I found surprisingly little information on the backstory or origins of this game while researching for this episode. I was unable to find who invented it, what the inspiration was or anything more than simply reviews on how to play it which I avoided looking at because I wanted my initial reactions to this game to indeed be my initial reactions. Pretty much all I know is that this is a TWAG (toy with a game), Granny sits sleeping in a chair with a tray of treats and the players take turns stealing treats until Granny abruptly wakes up and spits her teeth at you which means that not only do you lose the game, but you’re in for a round of butt whipping with a wooden spoon! (At least that’s what my grandmother, Alma used to do to me. And in full disclosure, I deserved it every single time.) Ok, enough lollygagging! Let’s get into this game of GREEDY GRANNY! Here we have our game of Greedy Granny! I’llupt it here on the table and let’s look over the box here… Great graphics on the front. You’ve got Greedy Granny jumping out of her chair. It looks like she’s spitting one of those Grandma cookies, you know the kind without much flavor in them but they’ve got this weird red dot in the middle of them? Yeah, one of those! I’m sure somewhere she’s got a bowl of little hard candies nobody likes but we eat them when we’re at grandma’s house because there’s nothing else to grab (at least until dinnertime.) Oh wait! There’s her dentures right th

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 O

watch the video below!   listen to the podcast below! If there’s one thing in this world I am a sucker for it’s snouts, fat bellies and squiggly little tails! It’s great in real life, but it’s even better when it comes in the form of a TWAG! What’s a TWAG you ask? It means Toy With A Game… TWAG! In this episode number 40 of the Dandy Fun House we’re gonna make pigs fly! And we’re not just gonna make ’em fly, we’re gonna make ’em bounce too as I review the TWAG known as PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog where we use our delicate snouts to sniff out the very best in retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and before we begin I want to acknowledge a milestone! Since this is just a monthly show (other than the fact that I do post daily snippets online), there are some that have expressed to me that if this show were to reach 40 episodes… then pigs will have flown! Well, not only has the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog Officially reached 40 episodes as of the episode you’re currently consuming, but we’re going to celebrate by making pigs fly or at least bounce because I’m gonna unbox, assemble, play and review an awesome looking game from PlayMonster called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES! But first I want to let you know that the brand new DANDY FUN SHOP online merchandise store has officially launched! You can find it on the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and just click on “SHOP.” You may also visit it directly at dandyfunshop.com . As of now you’ll find the all-new awesome looking DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirt with both a front and a back (because we don’t Want you to get cold) which I’m real proud of! I think it came out looking great. You’ll also find some other novelty designs I’ve created not necessarily Connected to the show just some crazy designs I like to make when I’m not cranking out these episodes. I’m hoping that as the shop grows, it will help promote this show and this show will help promote the shop in what we in the Industry refer to as cross promotion. But enough about me! Let’s learn a little bit more about the company behind PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES, PlayMonster! PLAYMONSTER Now I don’t really recall hearing of this company before, but with a game called PIGS ON TRAMPOLINES bouncing out at me from the Walmart shelf, how could I not get this game and learn more about this company? So I log on to their website at playmonster.com and before I can even see or do anything I’m instantly disrupted by this horrible pop-up right in my face asking for my name and email address so they can add me to their mailing list before I even don’t anything about them! It’s like an over eager first date and I’m in my nice prom dress. (You know what I’m talking about). I don’t know who at PlayMonster marketing needs to hear this but PlayMonster we need to talk. Come here… (soft music plays) We just met and you’re already asking for all my personal information. It’s just too much too fast I’m not ready for that type of commitment at this place in my life. Let’s get to know each other a little first. We’ll take a walk down the beach maybe to the park. It doesn’t need to be all on you either. I can pack a nice lunch for two and we can just sit and talk and see where things go and if the feel is right… NO PLAYMONSTER! NOT THAT TYPE OF FEEL! Where was I? Oh, yes, if things go well maybe we can hang out at my place and watch the Hallmark Channel together and maybe… MAYBE then I’ll let you hold my hand and well… you’re making me blush PlayMonster! There goes my heart again! PlayMonster are you hearing me? I hope so! I’m just not that kind of toy and game reviewer! I have morals and values and boundaries which need to be respected! Okay… So I click the annoying pop-up away and start checking out their featured image showing their most featured products and I’m having a gander over what they wish to put out front and center for their company which remains on the screen for exactly five seconds. (Yes I timed it) before the image changes to yeah, you guessed it… ANOTHER SOLICITATION TO SIGN UP FOR THEIR EMAIL LIST! PlayMonster! We just talked about this! Didn’t we just talk about this!? At this point, I’m not just annoyed, I’m downright ticked off! I feel violated and cheap! My mascara is running and I think I tore my dress. PlayMonster! Let me out of the car! Just let me out! This company is literally doing everything it can to make me run screaming but I decide that I must persist, put my big-girl pants back on (don’t ask) and proceed forward for the sake of you, my a

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