Wednesday 21 May 2014

Play With Huck

You remember “Concentration,” where contestants would match items hidden behind numbers to reveal parts of a puzzle. Well, Huckleberry Hound had his own version of “Concentration,” though it was a little less elaborate than Hugh Downs’ game show. It’s one of several Huck items from his heyday we’ll look at.



You’ll have to click on the photo above to read the rules. These Ed-U-Cards were produced in 1961. Huck eating carrots?! Don’t tell the folks at Kellogg’s.

Here’s the Huckle-Chuck game from Transogram (with three factories in the eastern U.S.) from 1961. It’s three games in one, though imaginative kids could have combined them if they wanted (and read the instructions). For reasons I don’t understand, the instructions keep referring to the character as Huckle-Chuck instead of Huckleberry Hound. The head moved, which made it more difficult for kids/adults/teenagers to throw a ring onto the corner of Huck’s hat. There’s a bean bag toss into Huck’s mouth and the self-explanatory target. If I recall, we’ve posted pictures of a similar Yogi game here. It’s not terribly sophisticated, but neither were kids in 1961. There’s an innocence to these games I really like.



And below is a 1959 Milton Bradley game (produced in Canada by Somerville of London, Ontario). You can enlarge the photos to read the game instructions. Milton Bradley had a bunch of Hanna-Barbera board games. Quick Draw, Super Snooper and Yogi Bear all had games. Milton-Bradley came up with a different Huck board game years later, based on the cartoon “A Bully Dog.” The doggie desperado, as far as I know, wasn’t in any cartoons but I can somehow hear Don Messick’s growly voice coming out of him.



It seems like there was an endless amount of stuff made in the wake of the success of Huck and Quick Draw. And the studio’s merchandising exploded even more when the Flintstones went on the air.

5 comments:

  1. Wow, I never knew Hanna-Barbera joined with Milton Bradley to create a board game. First time I have seen this gem. What a find! I have to agree. I also miss the innocense of these games. It never ceases to amaze me at the number of games, toys, cut-outs, cereal box promotions, local store promotions, etc, that H-B was into during this era.

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  2. When I was growing up, I always wanted a Huckle-Chuck and after I settled into my profession and was able to dedicate a room in my house to collectibles, I got not only Huckle-Chuck but also a Yogi Ball Toss. As I have expanded my collection I notice that Transogram probably made the best Hanna-Barbera based toys of any company.

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  3. This is incredibly off-topic, but did you know that Little Quacker is returning on the new ''Tom and Jerry Show''.

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  4. It was probably called Huckle-Chuck because:

    chuck:
    throw (something) carelessly or casually.
    "someone chucked a brick through the window"
    synonyms: throw, toss, fling, hurl, pitch, cast, lob More

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  5. I had this toy as a very small child. It's been driving me nuts, trying to remember the name, at first, because I remembered he wore a hat and the rings had to catch on to the side brims, I thought it was QuickDraw McGraw. When my parents gave this away, it was in Mint condition, even the box was in good shape! I was never rough with any of my toys, unfortunately my family weren't living in a house at the time, but an average sized Brooklyn apartment, as I got older, to make room for new toys, my toys were given to my younger cousins. While she was in college, an aunt worked part time at May's department store, they had a great toy department. She got amazing discounts, subsequently my mom bought me a lot of toys and this was one of them. I have to check the rest of your blog to see what else I used to have. I did manage to locate the Tudor metal Disney Mickey xylophone, another of my fave toys which I gave away as a teen. My understanding is that the Tudor Donald Duck xylophone is difficult to locate.

    It was great to see this Huckle-Chuck toy again! Yes, it sure was a simpler time when this toy was introduced! Kids today would probably roll their eyes at such a toy...!!!

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