First though - the newbie; Goosebumps, not that old (1995/6 - Parachute Press/Hasbro) and looking
familiar, so probably carried by Argos
or the Toysaurus for a while?
Although I may be confusing the availability of the game, with a brand
familiarity (through the distinctive logo) brought about by the commoner (?)
sightings of the books?
There are eight figural playing pieces of
teenager-types; two each, of each of four colours, each pair being a 'team' of one
boy and one girl. They are 45mm, so can be used with 54mm adults and there was
a sort of pop-up/novelty ghost arrangement I haven't shot, along with the
plastic skull and two game-specific die, although the 2-2-3-3-4-5 mean/average
(?) dice could prove useful with other gaming?
I think these are too late for Stadden-senior's
work, but I wonder if an apprentice of his might have had a hand in them, as
it's faintly his style, and they probably came from the Havent plant of what
had been Minimodels.
It's a complicated set-up with lots of
slot-together construction and interactive components; apart from the above
bits (and the ghost) it's all in landfill, or recycling now!
I picked-up the Waddington's box for the recent 'from storage' 40mm figure set along with a duplicate set of (Parker/Hasbro) figures, and only because of
the - also 1996 - box art. The figures looking different from the ones we
looked at the other day, but from the 'duplicate' above, you'll have guessed
they weren't.
But that artwork still leaves us with
enough stuff of curiosity to help this post! Top left shows pre-production
prototypes which look similar to the final figures but are actually slightly
different - the reverend isn't gripping his lapel, the cook's final small
handled mixing-bowl is seen here as almost a frying pan. They may still exist
somewhere!
However, they are balanced (no sign of
glue?) on what would become the final tile-landscaped 'slotta' bases, although
here with the slots either un-cut or filled-in. Also on the front of the box, a
game in play shows the same prototype figures being used with chamfered-edge
flat, smooth, almost puddled bases, with a rim around the lip (two lower images).
Another game in play on the back of the box
shows the eventual production figures, in the paler gray plastic but with a
third base type which, frankly - and despite the poor resolution -appear to be
upturned, repainted, Smartie-tube
lids?
