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neil dandy in the shower with emma-lou the dandy dogneil dandy holding soggy doggy game box

In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’m taking Emma-Lou, the Dandy Dog to the dog wash! I’m also going to unbox, assemble and show you how to play the TOTY Award Winning game – SOGGY DOGGY! Let’s step into the Dandy Dog House!

neil dandy in shower with emma-lou the dandy dog

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video show, podcast and blog – the home of your favorite frivolities! I am set up here in the Dandy Ranch half bath and laundry room to give Emma-Lou the Dandy Dog her monthly bath and I do expect to be fully drenched by the time we’re done here!

You might remember Emma-Lou who hosted episode 17 where she told you all about the Top Ten Dog Friendly Attractions in America! I thought it only fitting that I ask her to help me out today so we can bring you the unboxing, assembly and show you how to play the Toy of the Year (TOTY) Award-winning game SOGGY DOGGY from Spin Master!

BACKGROUND

Before we get into the dog bath, let me tell you about Spin Master!

earth buddies toys

Spin Master started in 1994 with just a $10,000 investment and a toy line called Earth Buddies which was basically a ball of panty hose with a face on it stuffed with saw dust and grass seed and you grew the grass like hair. So part sock toy, part chia pet and part Mr. Potato Head.

Through innovation and acquisitions, these guys grew Spin Master over the years into what is now an absolute global powerhouse in the field of children’s entertainment with such notable toys and games as Kinetic Sand, Batman, DC Universe, Etch A Sketch, Hatchimals, Monster Jam toys, Orbeez, PAW Patrol, Rubiks Cube, Jumanji, Giant Candy Land, Giant Sorry, and earth-friendly versions of classics like Connect Four, Chess, Jenga (although I don’t think they’re allowed to call it Jenga) and so much more it would take this entire episode just to explore and ain’t nobody got time for that! Go on over to spinmaster.com to read their story. It’s absolutely fascinating!

neil dandy giving his dog a bathemma-lou the dandy dog running through the kitchen

Alright, I’m going to finish scrubbing Emma-Lou here (her favorite part is at the end where she gets baby-wrapped in the towel!). I’ll give her an after bath treat and then we’ll head over to the kitchen table and dig into this SOGGY DOGGY game!

neil dandy holding soggy doggy game box

So here we are in the Dandy Fun House Studios kitchen! Emma-Lou has finished her bath, gotten her treat and we’ve got this Soggy Doggy game box to get into. Let’s crack this puppy open and see what we’ve got!

soggy doggy game boxback of soggy doggy game box

As previously mentioned, this game won the TOTY Award for 2018 (Toy of the Year). Great graphics on the front, the sides are pretty much all the same but with different orientation and the back (as usual with these sorts of things) shows kids playing with the game and having fun. Pretty much par for the course thus far! Soggy Doggy is the Showering, Shaking Wet Doggy Game and the highlight of the whole thing is this big shaggy dog toy that sits in a bath tub and shakes water all over the place. Right off the bat HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS THING!?

The game appears to be targeted to little kids (ages 4+) but looks like it would be fun for everyone which is pretty much what drew me to it. The quick synopsis of the game play is to race around the board, wash Soggy Doggy and if he shakes, you go back to the start. Sounds pretty simple! Let’s put unbox this thing, grab a screwdriver and 3 AA batteries (not included) and put it together!

UNBOXING

closeup of soggy doggy toy outer skin

The box itself is pretty easy to open with just one adhesive tab holding the lid closed and right on top is the Soggy Doggy himself to greet us. SD is about the size of a small hand puppet and is made of very soft rubbervery much like those Koosh toys, which is pretty much what the Soggy Doggy is.

soggy doggy game board / ringplastic pouch of game pieces

A few cardboard spacers to dig out and you get to the game board which is pretty much a plastic ring about the size of a Frisbee. The battery-operated bath tub. And last but not least are the little plastic bags which hold the parts and pieces such as the dog’s skeleton / frame which you dress the kooshy-puppet dog over, mounting brackets for mounting into the tub and all the game pieces which are small to the point that you really don’t want to let kids that are too little play this unsupervised as these could obviously (in my opinion) be choking hazards.

game diesoggy doggy inner frame

game tokens

For the game pieces you have a bar of soap, paw print, bone and rubber ducky. There are also game tokens which are used to get out of going back to start if the doggy shakes on you. Sort of like a get out of jail free card.

ASSEMBLY

toy bath tub from gamebottom of toy bath tub from game

inserting batteries into the game's bath tub

You’ll need a small phillips-head screwdriver to take off the battery door on the underside of the tub and then insert your 3 AA batteries and screw the cover back on. Now why don’t they just make this a spring tab door instead of having to mess with a screwdriver? One would think it’s because they don’t want the kids playing with the batteries, but since the game pieces are small, you obviously already need some form of adult supervision when playing this game. So in this instance, I think you could make the battery compartment a little easier to deal with. Just a thought.

Then right next to the battery compartment you have the on / off switch indicated by an “O” and a “-“. I can personally never remember which of these symbols means which since an O could mean on or off and who the heck knows what a hyphen means. But I guess they want the same manufacturing for global distribution without worrying about language barriers. I get it. I’m guessing the O is for on? I’m going with that!

assembling the soggy doggy gameassembling the soggy doggy game

Ok, so now I’ve turned this thing on, snapped my brackets into the tub, snapped Soggy Doggy’s skeleton onto the brackets making sure the shaking mechanism in the tub goes into the slot in the dog’s underside. Now we dress the koosh dog skin over the frame and voila!

shower head game pieceassembling the soggy doggy gameassembling the soggy doggy gamepouring water into the soggy doggy bath tub

Now we have to insert the shower head into its’ hole in the tub, fill the tub with water and we’re ready to go!

toweling off the wet game area

There are two handles on the tub. One has a paw print on it and you push it down to pump water up through the shower head which gets the dog toy wet. The other handle is the one you turn to make the dog shake. But the catch is that it doesn’t make him shake every time you turn the handle, so you never know when Soggy Doggy is going to soak you! And THAT’S the fun part!

GAME PLAY

soggy doggy shaking

There is a single die with colors, a question mark and a paw print. The youngest player rolls first and then game play goes clockwise. Everyone starts from the home position which is a doggy bed / basket kind of thing. If you roll a color, you advance your piece to the first space with that color which will also have either a number one or two on it. You pump the water handle that same number of times and also turn the spigot handle that same number of half turns and hope the doggy doesn’t shake on you. If the doggy shakes, you go back to the home position but you also pick up a white token which corresponds to your game piece. The next time the doggy shakes on your turn, you simply turn in your token instead of going back to start. If you roll a question mark, it means you roll again. If you roll a paw print, you advance to one space in front of whomever is in the lead!

WRAP UP AND TOWEL OFF!

neil dandy on the floor holding the soggy doggy game box with emma-lou the dandy dog licking his head

I really enjoyed this game. It was simple, fun and unique. The dog is really well done and the action is fantastic. Kids and adults alike will have an absolute blast playing SOGGY DOGGY! Me and Emma-Lou give it four paws way up! My suggestion is to place this game on a towel when you play because despite your best efforts, your table will get wet no matter what you do.

Thanks for reading and come back next month for another awesome adventure here at the Dandy Fun House where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! NOW GO WASH YOUR DOG!

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Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment and Productions, musician, DJ, Emcee and author. Aren’t you impressed?
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