Over the years, readers of this blog have passed along pictures of their merchandise discoveries. We have another roundup of them today. You can click on each picture to make it bigger. Our focus today is on Huckleberry Hound.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (which Huck played in one of his cartoons) to figure out this 1960s game is from Japan. Whether a North American version exists, I don’t know. Nor can I guess the object of the game, other than to get from the southwest corner to the northeast one. Some of the “Hanna-Barbera” characters look like something from the mid-‘60s. Apparently this was made by Nintendo. (Since putting up this post, I found more about the 珍犬ハックル ゲーム board game on this blog.)
Now you can make Huck look like Groucho or Robert Q. Lewis, thanks to the twist of a dial and a special pencil. This Multiple Products Co. toy was from the late ‘50s when Hanna-Barbera was still “H-B Enterprises.” Evidently no one told the company the proper spelling was “Jinks.”
Kids gloves. I’m not sure of the manufacturer.
This charm bracelet came out during the first season of the Huck show (1958-59). The studio only had a limited number of starring characters, so it would merchandise incidental characters, too, including a well-known cartoon dog (ahem). In this case, Li’l Tom Tom, who appeared in one Yogi Bear cartoon, is included. Perhaps the company didn’t find Yowp so “charm”-ing.
Fruit of the Loom is known for its underwear, but it also made bed sheets. Here is proof. Yakky Doodle shows up for some reason; he never appeared with Huck. Besides Pixie and Dixie, we get the dragon from “Dragon-Slayer Huck,” and the circus lion from “Lion Tamer Huck,” though the version in the cartoon was drawn much better (by Mike Lah).
Does this mean the character’s name is Puckleberry Hound? Okay, I’ll stop.
From Decoware comes this metal garbage can, 12¼ by 10¼ and 9 inches thick. The presence of Hokey Wolf puts it after 1960. Snagglepuss is orange instead of pink. Iggy and Ziggy, the crows who heckled Huck in two cartoons, fly around. And Li’l Tom Tom shows up yet again. Several different types of these H-B waste paper baskets were made.
Here’s a late addition to the post. Reader Mike Rossi sent me pictures of a German card game from 1967.
You’ve got to love those on-model drawings. Is Yakky wearing a dress?
A kid around 1960 didn’t have to “tune up your TV set for Huckleberry Hound.” He or she could have Huck all over the place in their very own home, thanks to licensed products.
That trash can is a beauty-- especially with Tom Tom about to skewer Yakky's noggin.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Nintendo actually made board games with Hanna-Barbera characters back in the 60's. This was obviously long before Hanna-Barbera video games were a thing.
ReplyDeleteThe board games appears to be a Huck-themed version of Snakes (Chutes) and Ladders. Spin, move ahead the number of spaces spun, and take up or down shortcuts if you happen to land on certain spaces. First player to get to the northeast corner wins.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, Mike. (I've never heard it called "Chutes" and Ladders. We had a Snakes and Ladders game when I was young).
DeleteMy exprience is with Milton Bradley's Chutes and Ladders (and since the game itself is public-domain, it currently be acquired under both names, depending on the manufacturer), but in either case, it seems like it should have been called Slides and Ladders, which more directly reflects what the drawings portray. American kids play on slides, not chutes or snakes.
DeleteMilton Bradley, of course, made all of the early H-B games, including at least two starring Huck: the Huckleberry Hound Western Game and the Huckleberry Hound "Bumps" Game (I had the latter). I also had/have the Quick Draw McGraw Private Eye Game (there was a later western themed one too), and had the Yogi Bear Go Fly A Kite Game (there were two later games, one set in Jellystone, and another revolving around picnic baskets), plus there were a Jetsons Space Pad Game, and at least two latterday Flintstones (probably post-primetime) games. More contemperaneously, Transogram did a Ruff and Reddy Thrills and Spills of the Circus Game, a Flintstones Stone Age Game (which I had), a Snagglepuss Fun at the Picnic Game, a Touche Turtle Game, a Wally Gator Game, a Lippy The Lion Flips Game, a Pebbles Game, a Bamm-Bamm Game, a Dino the Dinosaur Game, The Jetsons Out Of This world Game, a Rosey the Robot with Astro Game, and a Jonny Quest Game. (There were apparently no Top Cat board games done at the time.) By the time of MAGILLA and PETER, of course, show sponsor Ideal did all the merchandise: Magilla, Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-A-Long, Mushmouse & Punkin Puss and Peter Potamus all got their own board games. Transogram returned with the Atom Ant Saves the Day Game and that appears to have been their final H-B board game. Hasbro took over by the time of the Banana Splits, and after that there's a mixture of M-B and Hasbro products based on later series.
Yakky Doodle, of course, became part of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW in one of its later seasons when it swapped segments with YOGI BEAR, with Pixie & Dixie going over to YOGI (in a situation paralleled on MAGILLA GORILLA and PETER POTAMUS with Ricochet Rabbit and Breezly Bruin). There's a version of the non-Kellogg's closing credits of HUCK with Yakky hitting his head on the exit in place of Tony Jr. (and Huck catching him) as the car they're riding in goes through it. That might explain Yakky's presence on the bedsheet design. Or they could have simply colored Iddy Biddy Buddy wrong.
The only piece of Huck merchandise that I remember having back in the '60s was a Marx Toys Yogi & Huck walking toy. I acquired a replacement for it around a quarter of a century ago. Cute little thing.
ReplyDeleteThe most amazing thing is that the BED SHEET is made up of cover images from the Dell and Gold Key HUCKLEBERRY HOUND comic books!
ReplyDeleteLog Rolling
Unicycle
Stilts
Skates
Lion Taming
Note that some of the images are flipped, for some unknown reason!