Category Archives: In the Collection

Morgan’s Revenge Game – In the Collection

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As a person who grew up around dreidels, I know a thing or two about poorly designed top games to keep kids quiet (I think two is the max though). And that’s exactly what Morgan’s Revenge is, a “game” where one spins a top and sees what happens. Gambling at its most basic and silly.

The package comes in a nice canvas, drawstring bag, with the name printed on. Apparently, they’ve trademarked Captain Morgan’s face though. On the back mine says “Fort Worth Zoo”, I don’t know what the relation is there since I’ve never been. As might be inferred from that I did indeed get this second-hand, and unfortunately, I have no instructions. Fortunately, the game is as simple as can be and if you know what the letters/numbers on the side of the top mean you’ll never forget how to play.

To play each player gets a number of coins (there are 12 included, half of which are silver and say “2” but should probably just be used as singles for the purposes of the game {and you’ll probably want more coins anyway if you’re playing with more than 2 players}) and then everyone places one coin in the middle. Each player then takes a turn spinning the top and doing whatever action it lands on. The six action are: take a coin from the middle, take 2 coins from the middle, take all the coins from the middle (and I think, wonderfully enough, everyone has to put one coin out at this point), put a coin in the middle, put 2 coins in the middle, and everyone puts a coin into the middle. So as you can tell it’s super fun and interesting… for children… for a few minutes. At least the top can be persuaded to spin well enough to be entertaining for a little while.

Actually, the production’s quite nice, and the coins are very realistic (besides having “copy” stamped in them) and weighty, being made out of real metal. And the nice heavy metal top is fun to fondle and spin a bit. It goes together well and fits nicely in the bag, but I suspect that, like me, people are really buying this for the coins, and not for any entertainment factor that may come from randomly taking coins out of and putting them back into a pile in a manner that is very similar to one many Jewish people know but never had any interest in actually doing. It’s a nice little souvenir if you don’t think much about it (like most souvenirs).

Cowboy Fish Finder – In the Collection

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Sometimes it’s the little things in life that are important. Sometimes it’s the simple things that make you laugh. Sometimes you can paint a dowel rod red, stick a black pipe-cleaner in the top, and stamp “Cowboy Fish Finder” on the side and you will be a genius. And whoever came up with this is, and it’s hilarious.

It’s really “Dynamite”

“Woodstock” Harmonica Keychain – In the Collection

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As a man with many harmonicas who has been “playing” them for years (I made a couple hundred doing that once), of course I would jump at the chance to have one on my keychain, which is apparently a possibility I had hitherto not considered.

Well, actually it won’t go with my keys. If I put every novelty keychain I own on my belt I would quickly end up with many times more chain than key, but it’s the thought that counts, really. Indeed, though, if you wanted one on your keys they are available from companies like Hohner, everyone’s favorite blues harp company, and many other, likely Chinese, manufacture’s who will engrave anything you want on to them. Mine says “Woodstock” and other than some nameless company capitalizing on a famous event I have no other explanation of why it says that, nor clue a about who made it.

Fortunately they (at least mine) do play, which slightly justifies their probably-on-the-high-side (but still cheap) cost, actually being made out of brass and steel with a plastic insert and held together by screws. I couldn’t get mine apart because, while I did have a small enough screwdriver, I didn’t have anything to hold the nut on the other end. Out in the wild they seem to last for a while on the keys, and make for a nice conversation starter/intro to your new “folksy” single.

Discovery Planet 10” Human Torso – In the Collection

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If you’re as excited by scientific models of the human body as I am (that sounds weird), there are quite a few options to go for, some even ranging into the thousands of dollars. I don’t have that kind of money to spend (I didn’t even get my model new) so I’m gonna talk about one that’s quite a bit cheaper today.

The 27cm (10”) version of the 8 part human torso by Discovery Planet is the smaller of the two I could find (the larger being simply double the size). There are technically 8 parts to the model, but this includes the base and the main torso frame, into which slot/peg a heart, liver, intestines, stomach, and 2 lungs. Included in the box that unsettlingly says simply “Human Torso” is a small “manual” in full color that describes the basic shape and positioning of all the removable bits as well as some of the other “exposed” organs. Unfortunately missing from mine is a “Bonus Instructional CD”, but I don’t believe that has any effect on operation. The material is a slightly flexible plastic (vinyl?) with a very strange feel. It’ll probably hold up to some abuse from children even though it’s hollow, but then again there’s not much you could really do to it. Probably as a result of this material being hard to paint, the paint application is very minimal, but precise. It certainly doesn’t look real but it’s not all one color. Though, if I were a child I don’t know what I would actually do with it, because it’s more of a classroom “toy” than an actual one.

These kids are far too happy

This is backed up a bit by the company “Discovery Planet”, which is just a brand used by the Hong Kong import company Bowen Hill. Neither the brand nor the importer have a functioning website, but a few branded items can be found around, and there is an abysmal “Bowen Hill” Amazon Store that does sell science class product(s). This model is surprisingly still available in several places (Toys R Us for one but it can be found cheaper elsewhere), I suspect mine is quite a bit older, but there’s no copyright date on anything to indicate that.

My little statue will be going either on the shelf of weird things or the one of random artistic aids. I can see this being a nice, decently accurate model of a torso for a science class or drawing reference, and it was/is fairly cheap to aquire. If nothing else it’ll freak some houseguests out.

Rainbow Peephole – In the Collection

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As a toy, kaleidoscopes were fun for a little bit but they never really amounted to much. Depending on the type, they were fun to look through for a moment, and then they just went back in the drawer for me. So I don’t know if it’s worse or better that the Rainbow Peephole makes things cheaper by just being a plastic lens in a bit of cardboard.

I guess comparing it to a kaleidoscope is a bit much, even. It’s really just a diffraction lens and it doesn’t distort things. It makes weird outlines of rainbow colored light around them. They’re still for sale for about a quarter a piece (which almost seems a bit much) but God knows when mine was made by Rainbow Symphony, a 3D glasses (the old kind) company.

The reason for their existence is mostly of course to illustrate a scientific principal to children (while being cheap), and they do accomplish that goal in their chintzy glory.