Virtual Pokemon Go Disneyland Postcards

I was late to the party, but on July 11, 2024 I started playing Pokemon Go, and have virtually walked 5642 km (3505 miles) since I started playing the game, and caught 82,043 Pokemon. And at some point while playing I made a virtual friend in the game who sends me Disneyland Resort postcards every day! When I received the first one, I was pretty excited as I had never seen a Disneyland (or other Disney park) postcard in the game. I then went looking online and found that every Disney park worldwide has many pokestops with all kinds of great postcards. As a huge Disneyland (and Disney in general) fan and collector, these have become fun new additions to my collection. Each day when another one shows up, its my little bit of Disney pixie dust for the day!

Here are some of the cards I have received.

 

Do you play Pokemon Go and collect Disney postcards in the game?
Do you have Disney postcards to you're willing to share, lets become virtual friends.

Plants Vs Zombies, Disco Zombie Edition

While wasting some time in a local Future Shop, I noticed a boxed copy of Plants Vs Zombies for just $2.99. As I picked it up, one of the retail zombies (I mean staff) came over and told me that they had a version that came with an action figure, and was the same price. Turns out that they were all sold out of this version, but he was nice enough to call around and found another store that had one left and had them put it on hold for me. I made the drive to the second store and purchased my copy of the super cool Plants Vs Zombies Limited 'Disco Zombie' Edition for just $2.99.
Since I only had a digital download version, this was awesome. Not only did I get a hard copy of the game (which was a newer version that I had - it also listed a make your own zombie feature and some desktop pictures), I also also got a super cool box with nice graphics and a cool disco zombie figure. I was a little disappointed that it came with a Disco Zombie though, as I would have preferred a cone head or bucket head zombie. I didn't realize until after I updated my game with this new version that they had now replaced the Micheal Jackson zombie with this new disco zombie. That sucks. The Micheal Jackson zombie was mine and my sons favorite zombie. Turns out that Pop Cap games was forced by the estate of Micheal Jackson to remove his likeness from the game, and so the disco zombie was created to take his place. Sorry to say, but the disco zombie just isn't as good. Not only does it not make as much sense as the MJ zombie, but the animation of this new zombie and his dancers is awful compared to the rest of the characters in the game. You can tell it was a rush job to get these into the game.
I love this new packaged version for my collection, but now I have to figure out how to go back to the older version of the game on my Mac so I can resurrect the MJ zombie.

Parker Brothers Continental Game Risk!

I love board games, and I am always on the look out for fun and interesting new games to add to my collection. I recently found this 1959 edition of Parker Brothers Risk! at a local thrift shop.
I wasn't that interested, as the box was in pretty rough shape, but I kind of giggled when I saw it. It reminded me of a joke Triumph the Insult Dog made at the premiere of Star Wars episode 1, about Star Wars geeks playing risk in their parents basements. While chuckling to myself, I realized I had never actually played Risk! before and decided to have a look at the game.
When I opened it up, I was first, amazed to see that all the parts seemed to be there. And instead of little plastic parts, all the markers etc were made of wood, and were all stored in little clear plastic boxes that were inset into the book for safe keeping when the games was put away. I then opened the game board and realized this was well worth my $2.
The game board is a map of the world, and, although my geography is not great, I was a little confused by Canada. On the map, is Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Northwest Territory. Then it all began to make sense. All these years I have wondered why, every time I watch a TV show where they ask Americans about Canada, they always seem to know Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, but can't seem to name any other Canadian provinces. I now realize it is because they have learned their Canadian geography from the map included in the game Risk!

Thunder Road from Milton Bradley

Thunder Road, The Ram and Wreck Survival Game from Milton Bradley, 1986.
I picked up this very cool board game recently at my local thrift shop. Amazingly, it still has all its parts, which includes; 2 Switch & Link game boards, 12 cars, 4 choppers, 8 wrecks, 3 yellow dice, 2 red dice and 1 black dice, as well as a set of game play instructions.
Drive and survive on the never-ending road!
Its a desert road race played on a unique gameboard that never ends. Drive on the road and try to survive. Outrun opponents and dump the stragglers left behind. Switch & link the gameboard to create a new road every time you need one.
You have three attack cars and one aerial assault chopper. use them to ram and shoot at opponents' cars. Wreck them and ride to victory.
The last surviving car owns the road and its driver becomes the ultimate survivor. Will it be you?
Today, my son and I decided to set it up and have some fun. Once I got it set up, I decided to get some photos so I could share it with you!

Hardy Boys Mystery Casse-Tête

Ok, one of my many guilty pleasures is the 70's TV show the Hardy Boys. In the late 70's as a ten year old, I had two favorite, 'not to be missed' television programs. One was the super cool sci-fi show Battle Star Galactica. What wasn't to like about a show with Cylon robots, flying space ships and a robotic dog! The other show I never missed was the Hardy Boys. I was a huge Shaun Cassidy fan (more about that another time) and thought it was really cool that these two brothers were crime solving detectives.
I was thrilled when they released seasons 1 & 2 of the Hardy Boys TV show on DVD recently. My son and I have been enjoying sitting in front of the TV with our bowl of popcorn, watching the old episodes.
Recently I found this 1978, 121 piece APC Hardy Boys Mystery Casse-Tête (or for those of us English speaking Canadians, Jigsaw Puzzle) on one of my Saturday thrift store outings. I hope that when I solve this mystery, I don't find out there are a few missing pieces!

Lakeside's Demolition Derby

This weekend I found a few new thrift stores and I ended up finding some great stuff! Among my finds were 10 Whitman "Tell-A-Tale Books", 12 Little Golden books, another 15 assorted books including a Walt Disney "Black Hole" novel, 7 Disney records, and a very cool Demolition Derby game from Lakeside games.
From the box: "You do the steering - smash the pop-up cars - race the closing gate"
"On your make! Get set! Open the gate! 12 pop up cars are on the field! Demolition Demon is moving out! He pops one in the air! CRASH! The Demon bounces off the wall! He fishtales across the field! BAM SMASH! Two more pop out, they're flying high! 10 seconds to go. The pit stop is closing up! Get back! Hurry up! 3 more gone! As he slides home safe! What a champ!"
The plastic gameboard, which is about 13" square, has a series of two-dimensional colored plastic target cars set on it which are triggered by rubber bands located beneath the board. A small area of the board is sectioned off (the Pits) behind a gate which serves as the timing mechanism for each person's turn. A small car (the 'Demon') that relies on a ball bearing for mobility is placed behind the gate which is released by an opponent when all the targets are in position.
The instructions describe several variations of the game but all basically involve bumping into as many of the target cars with the Demon as possible and returning to the Pits before the timing gate closes.
As soon as I saw this on the shelve I knew I had to have it! The great artwork on the box first drew my attention, and when I saw it was a demolition derby game, I snapped it up! As soon as I got home I had to try it out and luckily almost everything was still in the box. It is missing two of the plastic target cars and the two handles for moving the board are missing - but it is easy enough to more without the handles. I popped in the target cars and proceeded to move the board up and down to direct the Demon car to fly around the board bumping into the other cars, sending them flying into the air!
Ahh, what fun to be had for a buck!

Board Game Mania

Recently I picked up a book called Celebrating Board Games by Nina Chertoff and Susan Kahn. It was only a couple of buck and had some great photos of some nifty Disney board games I hadn't seen before. The same week, I also picked up an old Trouble board game from my local thrift store. I didn't think much about it, until later that same week I happened to see a short time filler on the Space Network. They have a show called "It Came From the Basement" which they show off peoples collections. It usually comes on after a movie etc to fill space before the next show. On this particular episode they went to a guys home that collected board games. He had a few shelves in his living room with some pretty neat looking old board games. I was surprised when the show host asked him questions about a few games, and he said he had no idea what those games were? Then when asked how many games he had in total, he said, "I must have almost 100 games." First off, I could not believe that someone who collected board games would have some in their collection that they had never opened and looked at - he had no idea what the object of some of them was! And second, I thought, "gee, 100... I don't really consider myself a board game collector, and I have almost 100 of them!". Some of my favorites in my collection are: Tank Battle, I Vant to Bite Your Finger, Battling Tops, Park and Shop, Abominable Snowman, Mad Magazine game, Walt Disney's Tomorrowland, Haunted Mansion game, Inner Circle and Clue. And, just for the record... I have played them all!

Milton Bradley's Park And Shop

Here is another recent purchase. The 1960 Milton Bradley board game Park And Shop, The Nation's Traffic Game Sensation. I was instantly attracted to the artwork on the box, and when I checked out the object of the game, I decided I wanted to own and play this game! The object is to drive your car from your home to the nearest Park & Shop parking lot, park your car, then move your pedestrian marker to all the stops on your shopping list, return to your car, and move your car back to the starting point. Here are a few of my favorite things you can do while playing; "My but you're hungry! Stop at a drug store for lunch.", "You met a 'buddy' who wants to bowl a game. Move directly to a bowling alley. Stay 2 turns before proceeding normal route.", "It's a swell day. Everybody's feeling generous. Take an extra turn." and "You promised to have the car washed before going home. Drive to the car washery."

Sounds like fun doesn't it!

My Race Set Mania

Recently I found a great old photo from December 25th, 1967. It's a photo of my father and myself with a super neato racing set! I was just two months old at the time. I wonder if the race set was for me, or for dad?
Then, if you go back to yesterdays blog and click to enlarge the photo of me with my train set you can see on the left is a smaller table with a racing set on it. So that was race set number two, some time in early to mid 70's.

Then in 1979, I got my third and final racing set, the Ideal TCR Total Control Racing, Lighted Blazers Jam Car Special. This set came with two cars that two players could control, and a third card, a slotless jam car that would drive around by itself and get in your way. The race track did not have slots like the average set, so you could flip a switch on the controller to change lanes to pass your competition. And to make things even more exciting, the cars had working headlights and glowed in the dark! It didn't get much better than that for a 12 year old!

Much like the train set, I am sure that at some point, Kaden and I will drag this out of the basement and set it up for some "Slotless track-real passing" racing action!

Train Scale HO

One of the coolest Christmas presents I ever remember receiving was my first train set. I don't remember the exact year, but I would guess it was some time in the mid 70's. It had a green engine, about 3 box cars, a flat bed with 3 removable tractors, an oil tanker, a caboose, and enough track to make an oval, and of course an electic power pack to make the thing run. I remember going out to a lumber yard somewhere to buy a large piece of plywood to nail the track to and setting it up on a table in my room (see photo below).

I remember a Christmas or two later, I received a second train set. This one was the ultra cool "US Army" edition which was all camo green and came with a flatbed with a removable tank on it, a car with a large cannon, a box car with doors that flipped down to revel two swiveling guns, etc. In 1980 we moved into a townhouse which had a basement, and I decided to set up my train in a large way. By this time I have collected all sorts of engines, cars, lots of track, buildings etc. My friend Lew and I started working on building the layout, including sculpted mountains and a complete town (see the accompanying colour photos of the layout as it was being dismantled). When we moved 3 years ago, I had to tear down my train diorama, as there was no way to move it. I took a few photos of the set up before I began dismantling it. I thought a few of the photos looked kinda cool in black and white.




The entire train set now sits in boxes in the basement of our new house, waiting the day my son Kaden asks about it and we can dig it out once again.

They're at the Post!

Remember when playing games meant getting the family and friends together and sitting down at the kitchen table to play a board game, and not sitting in front of the TV playing yet another repetitive video game.
In keeping with yesterdays Vinyl theme, today I present "They're at the Post". As I said yesterday I love collecting records, and I also enjoy collecting old board games. They're at the Post (1975) is both a record (well actually 4 records to be exact), and a game. Let the front of the box explain further: "The exciting new game that captures all the fun and suspense of a day at the track. 8 complete races on 4 LP records computerized for over 190 different finishes. The records are specially designed so no one can pre-determine the race results."

The game play is just like being at the race track. It includes racing programs, bet chits, banker's records and cash. Any number of players can bet on the various horses for each race. When the betting window is closed the LP is put on and the needle dropped and on comes the racing voice, excitingly giving a entire race breakdown. Each record has more then one spiral on them, so when the needle is placed, no one knows the outcome of the race, as the needle can skip from groove to groove, providing endless outcomes for each of the 8 races.

I have dragged this out at more than a few parties over the past 20 years, and it always gets a great response. You could even make it a little bit more exciting by playing with real money instead of the play money provided.
I guess we won't see an updated version of this game any time soon though, as they would have to find a way to get your mp3 player to skip (on purpose) for the game to work.

PS: Again, referring to yesterdays post, I think I'll take Bert's Wish in the 2nd!

Smash Up Derby

"You can hoot and holler, cause you ain't seen nothing yet!" I remember the commercials I would see during my favorite after school cartoons for the SSP (Super Sonic Power) Smash Up Derby set. They made these things look so amazing, as they would jump the ramps and smash into each other, causing car parts to fly everywhere. What kid wouldn't want to own one of these things? Luckily for me I found one of these in the original box about 10 years ago in a junk store, and finally I was able to live the dream of being a smash up derby driver, just like in those commercials from the 70's. I love dragging these out of the closet for parties. Those old enough to remember them, can't wait to get one of those T-handle power sticks in their hands to drive their car off the ramp and into an oncoming car to enjoy the carnage the ensues. Then put it back together, to do it all over again, and again, and again!