old siege game from comic book
Andy Skinner
that I believe I ordered from a comic book.
It had a plastic mat that you dampened and spread out on a table,
showing a castle and some ground outside of it, all divided into
squares.
There were some plastic knight figures that guarded the castle, gates
(and a drawbridge?) for the doors. There were two attacking armies,
with plastic figures that were sorta Greek in style--javelins,
archers, swords. Mine were red and yellow plastic. There were little
catapults (you fired them by pushing the catapult forward) and
battering rams.
The game was about two armies attacking the castle--you had to be the
first to take over all the spots with knights in them.
I painted some of the figures with model paint at the time. I really
wish that when visiting my parents I could open up a box and find this
game, but I'm sure it is long gone.
Does anyone remember this? What was it called?
thanks
andy
Mark Montreuil
am wondering about is the other games that were advertised around the
same time. There was a naval war game, an infantry game with an
exploding bridge, and maybe even a Napoleonic style game.
I have never actually found one of these around. I am curious how
good they were as games, and if the rules have survived anywhere.
Mark M.
Andy Skinner
Since I posted the first time, a friend of mine mentioned Helen of
Toy, the company that made the game I had. I did some searches, and
maybe it was Gold Crown. (Not sure, but I think there was a crown in
it.) There were some pictures on a site about Giant toy soldiers, but
I'd have to go looking for the site again. I think you'd find it on
google with "Helen of Toy".
andy
Paul Sauberer
"Mark Montreuil" <mark_mo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:147d313e.02072...@posting.google.com...
These games were made by Helen of Toy.
I picked up the naval one a couple of years ago on eBay. I have never played
it, as it didn't look too great, either in components or rules.
Paul Sauberer
Cubicle Morlock
You are correct, sir. For better or worse they are long out of
business. Back in January I did some major google searching for
information on them, and finally found what looked like an "official"
intent to cancel a registered trademark for one of their games. As
odds would have it, I have the file list, excerpted here:
----
Service by Publication
A petition to cancel the registrations identified below having been
filed, and the notice of such proceeding sent by certified mail to
registrant at the last known address having been returned by the Postal
Service as undeliverable, notice is hereby given that unless the
registrant listed herein, their assigns or legal representatives, shall
enter an appearance within thirty days of this publication, the
cancellation will proceed as in the case of default.
[snip]
Charles Fogarty, d.b.a. Helen of Toy, Brooklyn, N.Y., Reg. No. 676,260,
for the mark "TASK FORCE" and design, Canc. No. 22,094.
[snip]
----
I don't know if its the same "Helen of Toy", but as I owned "Task
Force" once, it looks like a match. As luck would *not* have it, I do
not have a date associated with this, I suspect it dates back several
years.
Helen of Toy was mostly known for grand ads in comics that gave the
impression you'd receive a bunch of high quality plastic figures, and
you'd end up recieving two dimensional plastic sillouettes. In the
late 70's & early 80's (or earlier ?) they upped their product quality,
with fully 3 dimensional figures. The detail wasn't great, but the
price was still dirt cheap, I remember picking up the game "Task Force"
(which ended up being a Battle Ship rip off with land units) for a
couple bucks and getting over a hundred plastic ships, tanks, planes,
etc. Which, of course, I quickly put to use as parts for other games.
For plastic pieces they couldn't be beat for kids on a tight budget
(assuming you didn't mind waiting 2-3 months for delivery).
I sometimes check to see if any of these pop up on Ebay, I've yet to
see any complete game be posted. Prices for loose parts have varied
from dirt cheap to "must be a collectible", I have no idea what the
value of a complete game would be today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Board Warrior
Rock. I had the WW2 one called "Woods Edge" where a green army
(Americans) attacks a town defended by a gray army (Germans). That
one had little exploding tanks with the two halves held together by a
rubber band. It had "roll the dice and move" type rules and I think
all these games were like that.
The one with the exploding bridges was a civil war game based on the
battle of Chickamauga, and the armies were blue and gray. One army
had to cross a river (hence the exploding bridges) and take a fort
held by the other army.
The naval one was a WW2 pacific war game involving ship-to-ship
battles, air strikes, and invading islands. The other one was a
medieval castle siege game. I don't think there was a Napoleonic one.
I can't recall the titles off the top of my head, but deep in the
bowels of my old comic collection I know I still have some issues with
those ads in them. If I get some time I'll go dig them out of
storage.
~ Board Warrior ~
~ ~ ~ ~
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=========================================
mark_mo...@yahoo.com (Mark Montreuil) wrote in message news:<147d313e.02072...@posting.google.com>...
Paul Sauberer
"Andy Skinner" <aski...@avs.com> wrote in message
news:94a228ae.02072...@posting.google.com...
I went and dug the game I have out and have some more info for you.
Inside the naval game (called "Fighting Ships") was a black and white copy
of the ad we remember from the old comic books. My guess is that the game I
have was produced towards the end of Helen of Toy's run. One of the lines of
copy says "Now! All Full Scale Battle Games Processed in 48 Hours & Shipped
in Handsome Simulated Book Form- Only!" I guess that they were trying to
reverse their reputation for taking forever to ship (at least according to
one of the comments in this thread.)
The game you are thinking of was indeed called "Gold Crown." Oddly enough,
the order form says that it was not available.
There were several others available:
Supreme Command- Combined Land, Sea and Air Forces
Tank Trap
Blast Off- Space Exploration
Task Force- An invasion game
Cannonball- the Civil War game
Woods Edge- WWII infantry
Looking over the rules to Fighting Ships, it looks kind of like a Stratego
game, where you move your ships on a grid, eliminating opposing ships by
moving into their squares with a higher powered ship. The object is to move
your cargo ships across the board. I sincerely doubt if I will ever play.
Paul Sauberer
P. Allen
the pieces, mostly ships and planes, in a small bottle that I can put my
hands on within minutes. It was really a Battleship corruption but as
others have said, it was a quick and cheap way to get figures. The figures
I have are about the same quality of theoriginal Axis and Allies figures.
It does bring back memories of the days when I thought of my self as a great
game designer. What a delusion.
Paul Allen
"Cubicle Morlock" <k...@rawbw.com> wrote in message
news:uk1a38p...@corp.supernews.com...
g...@rawbw.com -
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhik Davis
The knight game is Gold Crown. (thats the one I had)
The WW2's are Supreme Command, Woods Edge, Task Force, and Tank Trap.
The Civil War was Cannonball.
I believe the Giant Toy company molds were used. I've seen parts and pieces
on Ebay going for over fifty bucks....I suppose a full game would go for
twice that or more!!
If anyone wants a scan of these ads, let me know.
rhik
"Paul Sauberer" <spamgr...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:sS409.3573$1s4.2...@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
Board Warrior
"Paul Sauberer" <spamgr...@aol.com> wrote in message news:<sS409.3573$1s4.2...@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>...
> There were several others available:
BBradf3021
Supreme Command, Tank Trap, Woods Edge, Fighting Ships, and Task Force.
To give some idea of what they are worth here is what I got for them:
Task Force - $102.50
Fighting Ships - $203.59
Strategic Command - $142.50
Tank Trap - $104.50
Woods Edge - $112.60
Gold Crown - $188.50
The other two games were Blast Off (space game) and Cannon Ball (ACW). I never
saw a copy of Blast Off and saw and bid on CB on ebay a few years ago. I was
trying to complete my collection but got sniped. Final bid on that was $88.
The games were not that fun to play, being more like chess with miniature toys
than a board wargame. Most were spinoffs of Stratego (ie.Fighting Ships) and
Battleship (ie.Task Force). Gold crown allowed you to "flick" catapults and
where they fell was a breach in the wall, other than that it was a 'land on man
and capture him' type of game.
Brian
Paul Sauberer
"BBradf3021" <bbrad...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020730191413...@mb-fs.aol.com...
Holy @$#@%!!!!
I think that I picked up my copy of Fighting Ships for less than $10. I
don't think that the description was that good, so neither the seller nor I
knew what it was.
I just bought it because it looked interesting.
I'll have to check and make sure that it's still complete. Right now it's in
my son's room on his game shelf. Not for long.
Paul Sauberer
The Maverick
>
> To give some idea of what they are worth here is what I got for them:
>
> Task Force - $102.50
> Fighting Ships - $203.59
> Strategic Command - $142.50
> Tank Trap - $104.50
> Woods Edge - $112.60
> Gold Crown - $188.50
Ah, ebay... if these prices were repeated on a regular basis, then that
would give us an idea of what the games are worth. Otherwise, these
prices tend to scream out "bidding war"... ;-)
the Mav
--
"Never give up -- never surrender!" Commander Peter Quincy Taggart
Marshall
boardw...@uswestmail.net (Board Warrior) wrote:
>
> The one with the exploding bridges was a civil war game based on the
> battle of Chickamauga, and the armies were blue and gray. One army
> had to cross a river (hence the exploding bridges) and take a fort
> held by the other army.
>
Wow, that brings back memories. I managed to talk my parents into
getting the civil war game when I was about 9. What I remember was a
plain cardboard box with a thin plastic map and the plastic figures and
some parts for a fort and a bridge. There were no instructions and I
could not even figure out how to put the fort together so it was a bit
of a disappointment to me. But the figures were great. The field guns
had a snap on wheels that would turn and the soldiers where in great
positions for plain old toy soldier wars.