Developers' Dream!

 Monopoly is the granddaddy of all modern board games. It has been played (and sometimes even finished!) by millions of people all over the world. Surely there is no way to top it, right? 

Wrong!

In 1974 Milton Bradley came out with Prize Property! The goal of the game is much the same as Monopoly (build as big of a real estate empire as possible) but in this game you're building a resort. And you don't actually crush your opponents. The one that completes all of their buildings first wins. Note that there is no track or pawns to move. Everything is done through business deals.

This is a fairly large game in a fairly large box (companies typically made games big to dominate shelf space in the game aisle). Let't take a look, shall we?

As you can see, there is a lot of stuff in the box. Stuff in boxes is good, of course, and as kids the more stuff and the more gimmicky stuff the better! This box contains whole buildings! And that gavel is very important (and clever). But more on that later...

This is the board opened up. As you can see, it has shaped where the building are to be built. But you don't start here...

You start here! You see, you have to develop the land first. Each player's section has three parts that must be cleared and prepped before building can occur. 

At the end of the game, if everyone built everything (which is impossible) the board would look like this. 

Now, let's look at the rules!

And all those cards and the gavel  that decides court cases that they were talking about? Here they are! You know you're playing a high stakes game when the lowest amount on any bill is a cool million!

So, is this game fun? Absolutely! You can even pretend you're building a Disney resort if you want! (Disney really should bring out their own version). I picked this game up at a thrift store many years ago and my daughter and I played it quite a bit. Always good times! 

So, there you have it. An improved Monopoly game! I'm glad I could help!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

How to Make a Free Car Cost Twenty Bucks

 I was at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago looking for Redline Hot Wheels, and I found one! Well, it wasn't exactly the best find ever, but you take what you can get. Here it is!

Beautiful, huh? Here are other views...

This is a 1969 (the only year it was produced) Chaparral 2G! In mint condition, these go for 35- 45 bucks. In this condition? Well, as the lady at the sale said, "How does free sound?" It sounded fine, because you never turn down a Redline, but this thing has obvious issues. 

First, the paint is terrible. It's chipped and worn. Then some kid decided to paint it green. Then he decided to clean the green off...mostly... Next, the wheels are almost worn away. This thing did about a million miles, and it shows! 

Third, there is supposed to be a large plastic wing on the back. It's obviously gone.

Finally, the stickers are rough. Real rough.

So what do you do with a tired, beat up old car? You restore it, of course! A quick trip to the old interwebs and I ordered new wheels, stickers, and wing! Total cost, a little under twenty bucks! When the stuff came in, I got to work!

First, I lightly sanded the car and then masked it for painting. The wheels pop off very easily, so I pulled them off and discarded them. I then hit it with four coats of gloss white spray paint, popped the new wheels on, carefully stuck on the new stickers and then installed the new wing. Here are the results!

And there you have it! One of the easiest restorations I've ever done! Now for twenty bucks I have a car that's worth....I don't know, maybe 25-30? But the book value doesn't matter. I did this to give new life to a tired old car. And I think she turned out pretty nice!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

A Classic in the Sky...Sort Of

 One of the most coveted Hot Wheels sets is the Sky Show set from 1969. It's difficult to find the cars and really difficult to find the planes! In my years of collecting, I've found one car and a box. That's it. So, in 1995, when Playing Mantis came out with their own version of the Sky Show set, a lot of people scooped them up, me included.

Let's take a look, shall we?

This is the Johnny Lightning Sky Show! It comes with an El Camino launch car, three planes, and track. 

Here is what's inside the box. When I opened this up, I realized that I've never actually opened it before. Not because I was afraid to reduce the value, but because I just stuck it on a shelf and let it sit. Let's unpack a bit more, shall we?

I didn't take the car out, but you can see it well enough. The planes are the most interesting thing to me. They are extremely thin blow molded plastic and have a hook to latch onto the rubber band launcher. I didn't try to throw them, but I may later.

These are the instructions. Pretty simple idea, really. 

This is what it looks like set up. 

Maybe I'll set it up and give it a try sometime. I really should. You see, there's not really much value here. Collectors snapped all of these up and did exactly what I did. What that means is that you can pick up a mint in box set for about 15 to 25 bucks. Heck, if I set mine up, it might actually be worth MORE! Well, probably not. But I might at well have some fun with it!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

An Armored Mystery

 Last week I shared the Tom Daniel model, "Fast Buck." Hot Wheels had several cars that Tom designed. He never designed Hot Wheels directly, however. He designed all of his cars for Monogram Models. So how do we have Tom Daniel Hot Wheels?

As it turns out, Mattel owned Monogram Models. Monogram was more than happy to share popular model designs with the little metal cars. These designs included The Red Baron, The S'Cool Bus, The Paddy Wagon, and...this?

Is this the Hot Wheels version of the Fast Buck, or the Jinx Express? 

Nope. This is the Funny Money truck! It was designed by Larry Wood, not Tom Daniel. It was released in 1972. The Tom Daniel Jinx Express was released before it. Very curious. Let's look closer, shall we?

The "Funny Money" sticker is only on one side. This is the side seen when it was in the blister pack.

The back sure looks familiar. 

Here's the stickerless side. Some people restore these and put stickers on both sides. We all now know that this is wrong.

And the "Funny Money" name on the base.

So what gives? Did Tom refuse to let Hot Wheels clone this one? Was there some big falling out between them? 

Apparently not. There were more Tom Daniel releases later. 

And there are differences, of course. The Fast Buck is a hot rod, the Funny Money is a dragster. The Funny Money's body raises to show a driver roll cage and two, not one, engines. The body style in front is much more realistic. The top has no turret or huge wing, but rather a rectangular driver escape hatch. 

So, here is my take. Two designers came up with the idea independently. It happens. There were all kinds of vehicles being converted into hot rods and dragsters. Maybe it was just time to do an armored car. 

Or maybe Larry walked by the Monogram department and happened to see a Jinx Express and just went with it. It's not exactly plagiarism, especially since they're really the same company. Or maybe he didn't even remember seeing it. It's possible. 

The long and short of it is that, apparently, the two cars are not directly related. The exact reason for the similarity may never be known.

But it's a really cool Hot Wheel...

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!