October 29, 2007

WEEBLES HAUNTED HOUSE (LA MAISON HANTÉE DES WEEBLES)

The Weebles Haunted House. "Where Weebles wobble... and go bump in the night!" A most unexpected and harrowing twist on the classic Weeble slogan, though perfectly befitting to this crucial playset— a set that challenges our very notion of Weebles. You're just in time for a tour of this mysterious abode. Kindly step this way. There's no turning back now.
(Note: All photos enlarge to promote the continued study of paraweeble phenomenon.)

The Box...
How I miss the toy packaging of the 70s and early 80s where shiny-haired kids wore sweaters and turtlenecks and played cheerfully in a monochromatic void. I honestly think the children on the Weebles box are wearing wigs.

The Cast of Weebles...
The Witch. Her inverted bat insignia openly mocks all manner of flying mammals and caped crusaders alike. She has this pointy hat that she sort of places downwise on the top of the, um.. the hat kind of rests on the crown of her... Aw, geez, how can I put this. Oh, I know...


The Ghost. Highly Casper-esque

The scared kids. They wear overalls.

The exterior...
They did a fine job echoing the weeblistic shape.

The Interior...The glory is almost too much to bear.

The First Floor...
The front door creeks and the ghost makes an appearance in the mirror. That's the extent of the points of interest in this room. There is nothing unusual about the bookshelf.

Fooled you! I failed to mention a little thing called "THE SECRET OF THE LIBRARY!" To quote the box... "A secret hiding place for Weebles, plus a mysterious mirror that makes the Weebles look funny (hee hee)."

Meanwhile in the parlor, the witch admires an artwork that harkens back to a simpler time when her craft was practiced among friends under a moonlit sky— a time when owning her own dilapidated Folk Victorian seemed impossible.

The Second Floor...

It's 2:05 AM and scared boy attempts to sleep in a candlelit bedroom under the portrait of what we will assume is a horrible, horrible old man.

The sitting room seems normal. But what if I told you that the fireplace is a secret passage! It wouldn't seem so normal anymore, that's what.

The Attic...

After the ghost does his nightly evil, the secret fireplace passage grants him easy access to his attic hideaway. Additionally, a second passageway up through the cupola permits terrorizing in surrounding neighborhoods.

Across the way, two bats guard an extremely dusty treasure chest.

The Artist's Rendering...

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to store my Halloween candy inside my Weebles Haunted House. I loved that thing!

Anonymous said...

Amazing.

I love your site. It makes me so happy.

Damian

Sparkle Plenty said...

Dear Santa,

May I please have a Weebles Haunted House with the "pleasingly plump/big-boned" Hansel and Gretel Weebles? I will do good works from now until--what's that? This is a Halloween-themed blog? And, huh? Th-th-there is no S-s-santa? WAAAAAAAAAH!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Sparkle

Dave said...

sparkle plenty,

There's always the Great Pumpkin...lol.

Dave

Anonymous said...

Oh my god! That is so cool.

John Rozum said...

I used to have this as well. I've looked for it at my parents house several times, but think it's long gone, sadly enough as this really was a cool toy.

John Coulter said...

I had this too. I swear the ghost had a different face. I can visualize it.

Kirk D. said...

anonymous- ha! What a great way to put it to use.

Thanks so much Damian. Comments like yours make my day.

sparkle- Actually I think they did make a Santa weeble so I imagine he will make all of your weeble dreams come true.

belle dee- glad you like it!

rozum- that is just depressing. You have way too many lost toy stories. :)

John- draw it!
I just googled it and apparently there is more than one version of the ghost weeble. Now I'm curious as to what the other one looked like. (P.S. your profile is not viewable for some reason John)

Mr. Karswell said...

Still got mine but it's missing a few Weebles... it's actually not mine but my sister's, my parents took it away from her and gave it to me because she wouldn't stop putting the Weebles in her mouth. Goofy kid...

AllHallowSteve said...

Wow. I want to sincerely thank you because this is a toy that I had that I had completely forgotten about until reading this.
Wow. Man, I loved that thing. The secret bookcase... the bats in the treasure chest--FREAKING BATS IN THE TREASURE CHEST-- and the glow in the dark ghost.
My ghost's face had almost rubbed off so that it became a glowing egg... which was weird.

Kirk D. said...

Ha. Way to rescue it karswell.

allhallowsteve, you're very welcome.
I've seen a lot of glowing egg ghosts on ebay by the way. I loved it too although I never actually owned one as a kid. One of the classrooms in my school had it among their toys, and on the rare occasions I got to go in, someone was already playing with it. It was always painfully elusive. The slides and the bookcase made it seem as if it were brimming with secrets to be found.

Anonymous said...

What a amazing site Kirk!

Such great memories brought back soooo vividly with the excellent photos

I bought this in box for my girlfriend back in the late 90's to add to the toy collection...the glow in the dark ghost was my fav!

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

Nick

Kirk D. said...

Thanks so much Nick! Glad it has brought back a few memories for you. Someday we'll all be reminiscing about rebuying this stuff on ebay.

beck-beck said...

AWESOME BLOG! me and my mom were just tickled and tickled by this! MARVELOUS! i love the little names you gave the characters and the photography and lay out is beautiful.

GREAT JOB

p.s. we just ordered teh Weebles House/Masion du Terror off eBay for our four year old grandchild/nephew/friend and BOY WAS HE THRILLED

but they left out the ghost! oh well, maybe we'll paint a scared kid white and try to get away with it..
:-)

thanks!

liz/b-b

beck-beck said...

seriously--the story is a delight--we read it out loud and "play along" with your script-narrative while we play with our weebles house!

Kirk D. said...

beck-beck- Thanks so much! That little boy is one lucky kid. I'd keep my eyes on ebay for another ghost. I've seen them turn up by themselves quite often.
heh, I never thought of this as a story per se but I'm glad it's contributing to your Weeble fun.

In case you didn't see the commercial for it, here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UypyeUuL6vI

Don said...

I came across this site as I was following up on a question. Believe it or not, I am the one who came up with the idea for this toy and still have the original sketches that I did. Bob Corrigan was the Weeble Design expert (I was the new kid), so he worked the majority of the spooky details.

It makes me feel great to read the comments about how much people enjoyed it! Thanks!

Kirk D. said...

Don- That's amazing! Please post your sketches somewhere and share them with the world! Boy would I enjoy seeing those.

Would you be willing to do an interview for my site? I (and many others) would love to know more about the origin of this toy along with any others you could shed light on.

Thanks so much for chiming in.

Kirk

AllHallowSteve said...

Don! Holy cow I'd love to see those sketches and hear more about how the toy came about!

Kirk! Please interview Don!

Don! Please be interviewed by Kirk!

Exclamation point!

AllHallowSteve
HalloweenAddict.com

Don said...

How could I say no to such fervent pleas? Of course I'll share some secrets and just plain old day-to-day stuff that went on in the crazy minds of all the designers at Hasbro way back then.

I'll have to find and dust off the sketches and they would have to be posted here first, if you want.

Since I am an online community manager at www.3dvia.com, I may not be able to respond as quickly as you would like, but I'll do my best.

It just makes me so happy that people still use and enjoy that toy. When you see the sketches you'll, realize that the genius of Bob Corrigan is what really brought the idea to life.

Don

Kirk D. said...

Oh, wow, that would be incredible!

I'd love to hear your story, and yes I'd love to have the sketches debut here!

Could you please email me at kirkd@centurytel.net or could you tell me some other way to contact you so that I can float you some questions?

I'm looking forward to it! That toy is one of my all time favorites and remains one of my prize possessions.

klim said...

i love your site! came across it while doing some research
(working on some related stuff actually)
would LOVE to hear some behind the scenes toy stories
as a mater of fact someone should document some of these before all the old guys move on
there was some insane stuff back in the day of Marvin Glass, Old Remco, and other comapnies

K

Kim said...

This is great. I have the haunted house, the two scared kids, and the witch. I do not have the furniture or the ghost. If anyone is interested, let me know...I loved this as a kid. So much fun.
kimriddle@suddenlink.net

Unknown said...

I had one of these. Everything is as I remember it! I feel old now. The ghost weeble rocked. It glowed (glew?) in the dark.

Anonymous said...

i still have a Webbles Haunted House, all pieces still there, still in the box. And I'm 42. Now what do you think about that? now tell me what its worth!

Kirk D. said...

klim- I totally agree! I'm still hoping to hear the story behind this one sometime.

lividmonkey- To fight that 'old' feeling I recommend playing with some weebles.

anonymous- I think that's super duper. The value depends on how many pieces are there, condition, etc. Look at the completed ebay listings for an idea. They can go anywhere from 50-300 bucks depending.

Northernlitez said...

It's been over 9 years since the last post.....In 2019 I remember these and i would love to buy one on ebay. Weebles Haunted House is a great place to be....as the commercial says.