Antique Christmas Board Game

What better way could there be for a Victorian child to while away the days until Christmas than by playing this board game? The Game of Merry Christmas, or, What Will Santa Claus Bring, was produced by the J.H. Singer Company of New York in 1890.

The beautifully lithographed box cover depicts Santa, clad in a fur trimmed suit and with the stump of a clay pipe clenched in his teeth, about to head down a chimney with a sack full of toys.

Inside, the board features an illustration of Santa about to deliver his gifts below the Christmas tree. A rocking horse is already in place.

The game itself is a simple numbered track. Players roll the die and then move along the board. If they land on a space that is labelled with a gift, that's what they'll be getting for Christmas.

There are some wonderful items listed: a Punch and Judy show, a hobby horse, a doll, and a box of tin soldiers are just a few of the options.

But lest we assume materialism is an exclusive feature of our modern Christmas, note that "a pocket full of money" is one of the gift possibilities.

There are also some present pitfalls to be avoided: I can imagine no one wanted to land on "a box of corn salve," or "some good advice."

I hope Santa brings you just what you want, and no corn salve! May you have space number 114 this year and always. Merry Christmas everyone!

Antique Board Games

Not much time to post lately....life is so hectic! Here's a quick pic of some of my antique board games, all waiting patiently for me to find time to play them.

1930s Buck Rogers Board Game

Found at a recent toy show, this game board was one of three in a Buck Rogers multi-game boxed set made by Lutz and Sheinkman in 1934. The illustrations are classic vintage Buck, filled with fantastic spacecraft, dazzling futuristic cities, robots, ray guns, villians and heroines.

This game was titled "The Siege of Gigantica;" the other two boards, now missing, were "Cosmic Rocket Wars" and "Search for the Secrets of Atlantis." Finding any of the boards is difficult today, but finding the complete set is a rare feat. Maybe someday...

Toy Show space toy finds. 

Superhero Stuff

Here are some snaps of a superhero themed display case I installed at my library for the month of May. Each year in May the comics industry sponsors Free Comic Book Day, a promotion run through comic shops that offers free comics to visitors. Public libraries have also begun participating in this event, and many run related events like superhero parties and comic drawing classes.

We had a really fun superhero party, and the display case served as additional advertising for the event. I filled the case with vintage Mego action figures, board games, Halloween costumes, and more. See what you can spot!

Vintage Batman and Batgirl costumes, a super-cool Bat-hat, and the Mego Batmobile.

A fantastic Fly Man costume.

A vintage Batman and Robin board game with spectacular graphics.

An old Captain Atom comic and a Mego Hulk.

Have a Super Day, everyone!

Gnome Bowling Game

Vintage games are some of my favorite toys to collect. This one, circa the 1950s, features a 16 inch wide tin litho playing board with wooden balls. The object is to roll the balls into the corresponding colored cups. (It is much harder than it looks!) Delightful little gnomes point the way to high scores.

The little gnomes are adorable:

1972 Milton Bradley Ice Cube Game

Recently acquired: the holy grail of vintage board games! The now oh-so-rare-and-insanely-pricey Ice Cube was made by Milton Bradley in 1972, and is one of the most sought and most expensive vintage board games in existence. How expensive? Well, a mint example recently sold for as much as a brand-new iPad...so if you spot one at a yard sale, snap it up!

Inside the box.

Here's what happens: basically, players take turns torturing ice cube men (made of real ice) with devices like "The Salt Mine," "Warm Shower," "Hot Head," and "Bucket of Warm Water." The last ice cube man to melt wins the game, although this is a short-lived victory at best.

The game has elaborate prep: first, the tray of specially molded ice men (called "Meltin' Miltons") has to be filled with water and put into the freezer. It takes a couple of hours for the ice men to solidify, and, speaking from experience, you'll be sorry if you try to rush it. If the player's interest hasn't waned by the time the ice men are ready, they are popped out of their tray and...oh, look! They have cute little faces! They're even smiling at us! How adorable! Of course, the cheery, trusting faces of the ice men make their ensuing tortures even more horrible to behold.

Turns out taking a photograph of an ice cube's facial features isn't easy. If you look very closely, you may be able to make out an ear on each side, a big nose, 2 eyes, and a smiling mouth. It's a little clearer in the box illustration:

The newly molded ice men are inserted into little stands, which enable the players to move them around the board. The stands consist of a pair of plastic feet and a dapper little hat with a bow. A spike attached to the feet slides through a hole in the center of each ice man and sticks out the top of the hat, holding the assembly together and providing a handle for each player to grasp.

Each ice man is placed at his starting position on the board, then it's just a matter of spinning the wheel o' tortures to see which fate will befall each one. Will he have to stand under the hot shower? Take a bath in a tub of warm water? Be doused with a sprinkling of salt? Have a bucket of water dumped upon him? Or perhaps the most dreaded fate awaits him: the "Hot Head," in which a heated metal washer is placed atop the ice man! The game instructions cheerily call these possible spin outcomes "mission events."

The wheel o' tortures with icicle spinner.

The Salt Mine sprinkling.

 

 

The Hot Shower.

The infamous Hot Head torture. Poor ice cube man...he's melting fast!

Whichever he spins, the ice man remains there, slowly melting away, until either his next turn or until another player spins that fate. If he's very lucky, he'll spin "enter Deep Freeze," which gives him a brief respite in a chamber of comforting crushed ice. The tortures continue until only one ice man is left standing.

Ice Cube is, as you may imagine, an incredibly messy game. Melted water, crusty salt, and flaky rust from the heated metal washer eventually coat everything if not carefully cleaned off after each game, and, if not dried thoroughly before packing away, the result is stinky mold. Countless spring-cleaning mothers tossed these games out in disgust. Consequently, Ice Cube is hard to find today, especially in good, complete condition, and when found, it commands high prices. Sure, you could buy an iPad for what you'll pay for an Ice Cube game...but would you have as much fun? I don't think so.

Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows Game

The second of two different board games based on the popular television show, Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows Game was released in 1969. Aside from the artwork, the game really has little to do with the character or program; it's basically a variation of Hangman played with plastic skeletons. But it's still super-cool.

Players spin to get the bones they need to complete their skeleton, complete with its own scaffold. The bones are kept in a plastic and cardboard coffin with the name "Barnabas Collins" engraved on the lid. Also in the coffin are a number of wooden stakes. If your spin lands on a stake, it's not good: once you have three stakes, you have to return a bone. First player to finish their skeleton wins, and gets to wear the included (but almost always missing) "Barnabas Collins vampire fangs." (Hopefully they were washed between games.)

The spinner. Watch out for those stakes.

The coffin full of bones (and stakes).

Coffin name plate. 

 A completed skeleton.

And, as if it's not already fabulous enough that Barnabas fangs are the prize, they also glow in the dark! And so do the skeletons. Awesome.

Dark Shadows Game

Dark Shadows, the 1960s supernatural soap opera, spun off a couple of vampire themed board games. This one is by Whitman, and dates from 1968.

 Illustrations of Barnabas Collins and Collinwood mansion 

feature on the box cover.

 The "board" is actually a giant paper mat, and consequently rather fragile. A simple track runs though representations of Collinwood and its grounds.

 Players select a pawn (a gravestone, howling wolf, drippy candle, or grandfather clock about to strike midnight). Cards direct their movement along the track, and the first one to the finish wins.

I'm guessing most kids would have wanted to be the wolf, 

as opposed to being a candle...

The draw and discard piles on the board are an empty coffin and an open grave, respectively.

For all its spooky cool art, one would expect this to be an exciting game to play, but sadly it's rather dull, just a straightforward track. The other Dark Shadows game is anything but boring though, and it's coming up tomorrow.

Milton Bradley Bigfoot Game

Bigfoot, he of the infamous giant footprints, scored his own board game in 1977. A scarce find today, it's one of my favorite monster themed games.

 If this Bigfoot was meant to look friendly, the artist really missed the mark. He is clearly considering eating these children.

 

Players select pawns, which appear to be mountaineers, explorers, or possibly Bigfoot hunters.

The game track takes players through prime Bigfoot habitat, including snowy slopes and dense forests. A mining town, lumber mill, gold mine, and supply store appear to offer shelter.

The pawns are moved according to the roll of the dice, but if they land on a Bigfoot space, a subsequent roll moves the monster, a hefty plastic figure, along the track:

As Bigfoot crosses or lands on a pawn, he dispenses a disk, which may or may not bear a footprint. If the print appears, that pawn is out of the game. Last player left unstepped upon wins!

 This is good.

This is bad.

To learn more about Bigfoot, or possibly to report a sighting of your own, contact the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. (Oh yes: there really is one!)