Ghosts of Green Mean Halloween!

Hello and welcome to the Halloween edition of The Attic! The past few posts have been leading up to what I consider to be the most Halloweenish (it's a word...really!) game of all- Green Ghost by Transogram!

It's really weird how many people have great memories of this game. I'm one of them! I guess it was a combination of Monster Mania being in full swing in 1965, and really fun looking TV ads showing kids playing it in the dark. It didn't hurt that the box was fairly huge and had fun graphics! But for whatever reason, that blobbish green spinning guy found a place in many kids' hearts!

Now, before we dive in, let me tell you how I came by my adult replacement for my childhood game. You see, in 1997, Marx bought out Transogram and re-released Green Ghost. When I bought it, I found out that it wasn't really the game I remembered. The board was black plastic with a large glow in the dark sticker for the playing field. The pieces were hard plastic instead of the softer almost rubbery plastic of the original, and although most of the box art was the same, it wasn't exact. A swing and a miss in my book. 

Soon after, I found a reasonably priced game on eBay. The catch was that it was a mail-order version (probably from Sears or JC Penny) so the box had no graphics other than the name of the game. I decided to get it and "redress" my Marx box to be a (sort of) Transogram box. So, I have genuine 1965 insides and a "faked" outside! Let's take a look, shall we?

Here's that box I was talking about. The main art is the same, but the details are different. It's close enough until I can get an original box...

And here's the side...

Now, for the "real" stuff inside...

Looking straight down on the glow in the dark board. 

The "Sunken Ship" section of the board...With the "Pet Bat" token.

The "Haunted House" section...With the "Pet Rat" token.

The "Gnarley Tree" section....With the "Pet Black Cat and "Pet Vulture" tokens!

I like how the board has these defined areas for no real reason at all other than they set the mood well!

Here we have the detail on the square key door...

...the triangle key door...

...and the circle key door. 

See this key? You don't want this key. It opens exactly nothing...

Now what's behind those doors in the pits? Let's see!

First, we have Bat Feathers!!! Ok, I know and you know that bats are mammals and don't have feathers and blah, blah, blah- but just go with it, ok?

And we have Snakes!!!! Ok, these are prettt pathetic snakes, but again, just roll with it for the sake of the game, ok?

And we have Bones!!! Or sticks. Or little plastic bits that don't look like sticks or bones. 

None of these make any difference, however, because you are really just looking for the ghost kids. You see ol' GG has lost his kid, Kelly, and Mrs. GG is gonna be really mad when she finds out so he sent his pets (that's you) out to round up Kelly. The only problem is that all kid ghosts look exactly alike and only ol' GG can tell who Kelly is. So, you have to abduct every ghost kid in the neighborhood and let GG pick who Kelly is. 

Here are the directions in case you're still confused...

By the way, I made a copy of the original instructions because they were pretty yellowed and brittle. 

Anyway, the weirdest thing about the game, in my opinion, is that it isn't a race game, but rather a game where you try to increase the odds of a final spin selecting your piece as "Kelly." The more ghost kids you collect, the better your chances. A pretty unusual game, really. And you can literally collect all but one kid and still lose due to bad luck!

The Green Ghost says ghost kid #4 is Kelly...

So, is it fun? Well, as an adult it isn't as fun as I remember it being as a kid. Also, as it turns out, it doesn't glow very long. Remember those TV ads? Blacklight.

Still, the parts are pretty cool to look at and the overall design is nice, so it's still a winner in my book. 

By the way, 1965 saw another Green Ghost come into my life- totally unrelated to the game...

A good book, though! 

Until next time keep searching for treasure! (even in creepy pits with kid ghosts!)