The Disco Artwork Of The Bonkers 1978 Parker Brothers Board Game.

I tried to find the origin of the artwork on this vintage board game. But came up short.

I got this version of the game "Bonkers!" by Parker Brothers from 1978. I remember the game because of the super disco/burst design.

Kinda reminds me of that pinball counting cartoon segment on Sesame Street back in the day where they counted to 12. Which if you remember the song, I always love to point out the people that sing it are The Pointer Sisters.

Ok back to the game. Here is some info I learned about it.

Described as a race-style board game designed by Paul J. Gruen who also came up with the game Pay Day and was considered one of the era's top board game designers. And I'm pretty sure when they say designed it's referring to the concept, not the artwork.

That seems to be the only thing I can find that talks about the design. I would have liked to learn more about who did the artwork or how it was conceived.

The game was released three times. Produced first by Parker Brothers later by Milton Bradley, and briefly reissued by Winning Moves who seemed to have taken over a lot of classic games.

When Milton Bradley revived the game in the early 1990s, the board was made to appear as if the entire track and logo were made out of modeling clay. Weird. The game was also given a fluorescent color scheme, updated fonts, and different styled dice and pawns from the original.

The 2016 Winning Moves reissue returned to the original disco motif.

The object is to be the first player to score 12 points by adding instruction cards to the empty spaces in an attempt to move to several scoring stations. The game's slogan (for all versions) is "It's Never the Same Game Twice!"

- revolvy.com, Bonkers Game

And then there's the ear-worm of a commercial that they had back in the day.

Here are the lyrics in case you were wondering:

Parker Brothers "Bonkers!" with its funny twisted track can send you backward to go forward or forward to go back.

The "Bonkers!" board keeps changing with every single play with bonkers cards and bonkers dice it is not the same game twice.

And you go back and forward faster in a "Bonkers!" kind of fun and you're certain that you're losing when suddenly you've won.

"Bonkers!" is fun,

"Bonkers!" is nice,

"Bonkers!" is never the same game twice!"

Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I've been doing . I'm going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why? Here is what I found out about this game https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949. In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl. Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝ https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott , while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California. It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that

To Do: Multitasking My Business, Music, and Comics

Sometimes balancing my multiple projects can often feel like an overwhelming task. I sit and think out loud about the tasks I need to juggle this week from my vintage reselling business, my band, and my webcomic series. In this video vlog, I begin the week by prioritizing tasks and setting goals. I'm going to mark them as I go along. ✅ = Done ⏲ = Still waiting Vintage reselling business - The Pop Culture Roadshow With a vintage reselling business to run, the first order of business is to pack orders from weekend sales on platforms like eBay and Mercari. As I pack these items I need to record a 'What Sold' video for my Pop Culture roadshow YouTube channel , turning the task into video content. ✅ Pack orders ✅ List new items I got from estate sales (See my latest eBay store listings here ) ⛔ Create a new "What sold" video for my YouTube page (Recorded not edited - Laptop upgrade issues) Band - Lorenzo's Music I've also got a new song out this month so I nee

A quick peek behind-the-scenes of a new webcomic series. Coming soon!

I've recently paused my usual diary comic to dedicate my attention to an exciting new project—a fiction webcomic series featuring two characters that may be familiar to my long-time followers. These characters, Bobert and the Monster have made appearances on my website before , and now they're taking center stage. I'm working diligently with the hope of launching the series shortly. In the meantime, I'd like to share this behind-the-scenes video of the drawing process for one of the upcoming pages. Stay tuned for more updates as I bring this creative vision to life.

New song! Variation witch

Keeping up with my plan to release new music every month. This time around I venture into the punk blues realm. Sort of a mixture of The Black Keys and The Eels . This is a song called "Variation witch" by my band Lorenzo's Music . The cover art is actually an antique top that I have in my collection. What I liked about it was the striped disc kind of like something in a Tim Burton film.

Tom Ray

Search This Blog