R.L. Stine Joke Book, Block Puzzle, Raccoon Mario & Wooden Pig Tom Ray's Pop-Culture Roadshow 200904
This time on the show I learn the story behind these vintage/retro items. A Hermann Eichhorn block puzzle, Raccoon Mario figure, and R.L. Stine used to write joke books under the name Jovial Bob Stine! Plus, a wooden pig.
Check out all the retro pop-culture items in my eBay Store - https://ebay.to/2vMYStC
This is another episode of my Tom Ray's Pop-Culture Roadshow, where I look at toys that I've collected and try to find out a little history or interesting facts about them.
In the video:
Hermann Eichhorn block puzzle
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| Hermann Eichhorn Block Puzzle |
This is a vintage Hermann Eichhorn block puzzle. They started making them around 1949 I believe? Block puzzles originally were wooden blocks that they would make where they were just different colors and you would shift the puzzles around.
Then printing became available for the blocks and at first, it wasn't very good and then Hermann Eichhorn decided to do full-colored printing onto these wooden blocks. They had six sides so you could do six different puzzles.
Take them out mess up the blocks and then put them in order. The puzzles would come with a guide that would show you what each side of the puzzles would be.
A lot of them they said were more adult-themed, adult theme meaning that kids would find them boring not like they were sexual. Kids were kind of bored with what some of the puzzles were so they started making fairy tale themes.
Later Hermann Eichhorn made more types of wood-based toys like train sets with tracks that interlocked like a jigsaw puzzle and they still make them to this day and that's what they're known for.
This is a figure that I have from 1989 and it is Raccoon Mario. This Mario has ears he has a raccoon tail. In Super Mario Brothers 3, he turns into after acquiring the super leaf and acquiring the super leaf. Because of the tail, he can slowly fall down when he falls off of something and attack enemies with his tail by spinning.
There's another version of Mario that is full-on wearing like what looks like a raccoon costume instead of just having ears and a tail and that one is actually called Tanooki Mario. Now what I found out about that other Mario he's got the ears and tail everything else just his face is sticking out and it was attained by donning the Tanooki suit and gave the abilities of raccoon Mario.
Tanooki an animal in japan often depicted in folklore. When they first put the Tanooki Mario in the game the person who made it basically said that they knew that it would confuse people outside of japan because nobody would know what it was but he was excited to do a Tanooki version in the game. So he kept it in and kind of said, I don't care if it confuses people because I think that it's awesome.
This one was a fun discovery. I sell a lot of R.L. Stine books and I was looking up information on this Ghosts of fear street book. Now I'm familiar with the Goosebumps books and he has a lot of different book series he wrote.
Ghosts of fear street is a series that he only wrote for like two years, technically.
He first wrote a series that was called just called Fear street, which happened to be stories that happened on a street that was called fear street to a set of people that lived there things like that. It was meant for more mid-teen aged people.
Then what he wanted to do was create a series for younger kids like Goosebumps which is supposed to be more for like 10 to 13 year old kids. So he did Ghosts of fear street for them. I love that is this version being for the younger kids it's kind of like saying it's the baby version of fear street. You know, like Fear street kids.
The funny thing is is he actually didn't write any of these Ghosts of fear street books, they were ghost written (Ha!) by other people.
Then while I was looking it up I saw that he did other types of books. He wrote teen drama stuff early on. One of the books was called "Phone calls" It was stuff like teens calling each other on the phone and talking about homecoming. And another series called "Cheerleaders" that was also more of a teens going through teen stuff.
They also had a jokes section with drawings and jokes and R.L. Stine started out working for the "Bananas" magazine and he would write for the joke section. He wrote using the name Jovial Bob Stine.
Which I never put that together because I collect these old joke books from the 70s and 80s and the name that's always been on them is Jovial Bob Stine! R.L., Robert L. Stine!
I'm like holy crap!? I've been collecting these books and it never occurred to me that r.l Stine wrote these! I just found that really funny that he wrote horrible jokes and that's how he started out.
I have nothing I found about this. I have no new information about it. I just have this it's a wooden pig sculpture with dangly limbs. I just wanted to let you know that. Because it's fascinating to me. Just a wooden clump made to look like a pig.
That's all I got for today! I was pretty psyched about what I learned and I hope you enjoyed it too!
Then printing became available for the blocks and at first, it wasn't very good and then Hermann Eichhorn decided to do full-colored printing onto these wooden blocks. They had six sides so you could do six different puzzles.
Take them out mess up the blocks and then put them in order. The puzzles would come with a guide that would show you what each side of the puzzles would be.
A lot of them they said were more adult-themed, adult theme meaning that kids would find them boring not like they were sexual. Kids were kind of bored with what some of the puzzles were so they started making fairy tale themes.
Later Hermann Eichhorn made more types of wood-based toys like train sets with tracks that interlocked like a jigsaw puzzle and they still make them to this day and that's what they're known for.
Raccoon Mario Figure
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| Raccoon Mario Figure 1989 |
There's another version of Mario that is full-on wearing like what looks like a raccoon costume instead of just having ears and a tail and that one is actually called Tanooki Mario. Now what I found out about that other Mario he's got the ears and tail everything else just his face is sticking out and it was attained by donning the Tanooki suit and gave the abilities of raccoon Mario.
Tanooki an animal in japan often depicted in folklore. When they first put the Tanooki Mario in the game the person who made it basically said that they knew that it would confuse people outside of japan because nobody would know what it was but he was excited to do a Tanooki version in the game. So he kept it in and kind of said, I don't care if it confuses people because I think that it's awesome.
R.L. Stine Joke Book and Ghosts of Fear Street Book
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| R.L. Stine Joke Book and Ghosts of Fear Street Book |
Ghosts of fear street is a series that he only wrote for like two years, technically.
He first wrote a series that was called just called Fear street, which happened to be stories that happened on a street that was called fear street to a set of people that lived there things like that. It was meant for more mid-teen aged people.
Then what he wanted to do was create a series for younger kids like Goosebumps which is supposed to be more for like 10 to 13 year old kids. So he did Ghosts of fear street for them. I love that is this version being for the younger kids it's kind of like saying it's the baby version of fear street. You know, like Fear street kids.
The funny thing is is he actually didn't write any of these Ghosts of fear street books, they were ghost written (Ha!) by other people.
Then while I was looking it up I saw that he did other types of books. He wrote teen drama stuff early on. One of the books was called "Phone calls" It was stuff like teens calling each other on the phone and talking about homecoming. And another series called "Cheerleaders" that was also more of a teens going through teen stuff.
I wanted to know how did R.L. Stine start out?
There used to be these magazines that scholastic would put out when i was a kid, one was called "Dynamite" and another was called "Bananas". They were magazines with stories for kids and had activities in them. They also had interviews with popular television personalities at from the time.They also had a jokes section with drawings and jokes and R.L. Stine started out working for the "Bananas" magazine and he would write for the joke section. He wrote using the name Jovial Bob Stine.
Which I never put that together because I collect these old joke books from the 70s and 80s and the name that's always been on them is Jovial Bob Stine! R.L., Robert L. Stine!
I'm like holy crap!? I've been collecting these books and it never occurred to me that r.l Stine wrote these! I just found that really funny that he wrote horrible jokes and that's how he started out.
Wooden Pig
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| Wooden Pig |
That's all I got for today! I was pretty psyched about what I learned and I hope you enjoyed it too!
Check out all the retro pop-culture items in my eBay Store - https://ebay.to/2vMYStC