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Here in the South, ternaders are a serious thing. They can pick up your house, spin your car around, fly your dog to a new zip code or even throw a cow! We actually have a name for the cow throwin’ ternaders. We call em’ COWNADOS and in this episode of the Dandy Fun House we’re gonna twist up a little wind whipper of our own as we unbox, assemble and play the game of… COWNADO! Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE!
Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your storm-chasin’ host Neil Dandy and this is the place where we ratchet strap down all the patio furniture while we make a Walmart run for all the retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff our wobbly wheeled shopping buggy can handle.
BUT FIRST! I want to tell you about these wind-erful Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Perfect for covering your head while you’re hunkering down in the bathtub waiting for the all clear. They also come with a front and a back to help the rescuers more quickly identify you. One of more of these can whirlwind your way simply by visiting the Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com
And while you’re there, don’t forget about our other dazzling debris digging designs like: Body by Donuts, Led Robster, Maypop Tires and for the yunguns… Shart Tank. Once again, just wobble on over the Dandy Fun Shop located inside the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com and don’t forget to twister one up for me!
Ok, before we get into this unboxing, assembly and playing of this here game of COWNADO, I’d like to get into a bit of the back story of the company that makes it.. MOOSE TOYS!
Based in Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia, Moose Toys was founded in 1985 by a man named Brian Hamersfeld. I wasn’t able to find much about their early products but they are best known for their collectible mini-figure toy lines like Mighty Beanz, Trash Pack, and Shopkins. All of which we’ll probably never review on this show. That stated, we actually HAVE reviewed their game PICKLEBALL BLAST and had a great time doing so,mainly because I got to wear my pickle costume.
Manny Stul
Jacqui Tobias
Paul Solomon
In 2001, Moose was acquired from Brian Hamersfeld by the Chief Executive team of Manny Stul, Jacqui Tobias, and Paul Solomon whom in 2011 began an effort to distribute directly into United States retail and ending its distribution license with the Canadian-based company Spin Master whom we live here at the Dandy Fun House and whose games we’ve reviewed many times. We love us some Spin Master!
But this strategic move by Moose allowed for greater profits after the successful launch of their minifigure toy line “Trash Pack” that same year. Three years later in 2014, Moose Toys launched the Shopkins toy line, which became one of their greatest successes and helped Moose Toys revenue grow to more than $900 million.
In 2015, at the 15th annual TOTY Awards, Moose Toys’ Shopkins Small Mart was awarded the ‘2015 Girl Toy of the Year’.
In 2016, Moose was recognized as Toy Vendor of the year by Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart with CEO Manny Stul also winning the EY World Entrepreneur Year Award, becoming the first Australian in history to achieve this honor.
Shopkins also won the girl toy of the year award at the 16th annual Toy Industry Association’s Toy of the Year Awards for the second time and In 2017, Manny Stul was inducted into the Australian Toy Industry Hall of Fame.
In 2018, Moose Toys forayed into the preschool market with “Kindi Kids”, a Shopkins spin-off which features the Shoppies dolls as preschoolers.
2021, da Moose comes away with five wins at the Australian Toy Awards and expands into Canada market with the Bluey, you know, that ridiculous blue cartoon dog!?
2023, Moose takes home four Australian Toy Awards.
2024, Moose signs a licensing deal with Mr. Beast and releases Mr. Beast Lab. I’ll be honest. I don’t get the whole Mr. Beast thing. I’ve watched some of his stuff. I can’t knock it. I just don’t understand the amount of attraction. But I suppose that’s why I have 1000 subscribers and he has One Thousand Million Bajillion subscribers. God speed Mr. Beast!
Today Moose Toys boasts over 700 staff members and distributes to over 80 countries generating approximately $1 billion in annual revenue. So they’re doing something right over at Moose Toys apparently.
Like the game of… COWNADO! Hopefully. We’ll see which is why we’re here. Let’s get into it!
OUTER PACKAGING
All right, well let’s see this outer packaging here. You’ve got the logo, which is pretty nice, they’ve done a good job on these graphics. You’ve got the mean looking tornado, a little cute cow getting thrown away. You’ve got a cloud here, the lightning bolt and some kids playing with it right on the front and they even show you right on the front what it looks like. And you know, I like that. They’re being real upfront about the whole thing.
Let’s check the sides here. All the sides are the same, still a great graphic, great logo, cows getting thrown on the front. One side we’ve got a vertical graphic, so they did a little something different on one side. Ages six plus two to four players. Now how are you gonna have four players on this? I mean, I’ve done a little research, I know what the game does here.
It’s a nice matte finish on the box, which I appreciate since I’m shooting video. You don’t get quite that glare from the camera. That’s something that the average person wouldn’t be bugged by.
Oh no, a tornado has captured the cows! Slam the cloud to send the tornado spinning. Can you out spin your opponent? Wind up and battle the twister to launch your cow flying to safety!
So I think the idea here is you’re supposed to get the twister to spit the cow out so that it can be safe and not get all torn up in the tornado. Okay and there’s a little cloud and I think you hit that thing. You’ve got a couple cloud paddles and you hit the storm cloud back and forth and it turns out around so many ways and then it launches the cow. And it looks like it has a green stand, a little three-way stand here. Lock it down, the cownado grips onto the tabletop.
Okay well I’ve got a covering on this tabletop so I might have to take that off and show you all my ugly torn up wooden tabletop. But enough of that, how about we open up this box of COWNADO?
UNBOXING
I’ve already slit the tape on top to make it easier but let’s go ahead and open it.
And I’m seeing this the first time myself so I have not pulled this apart and they do have a label here on the box. I’m gonna slide it up and out…
And here’s all the contents. Important before each game: Clear the play area of obstacles, press down all four suction cups. And they did make this thing to be torn down and boxed back up which is real nice because I have some games that are impossible to get back into the box and that’s always real unfortunate and sometimes I get people sending me notes online asking me how to take something apart and put it back and sometimes I have to tell them the bad news. You can’t take it apart and put it back in the box. But this is real nice that Moose Games thought of this.
And here’s some simple instructions. We’ll look at those if we have to but for right now I’m going to set those aside. I’m going to see if we can’t wing this on our own. Okay we have one of the whack paddles. It’s like a purple storm cloud and we have another whack paddle, a yellow storm cloud. So he’s got a little lightning bolt coming out. And they’ve wrapped the individual parts to keep it nice.
Lots of suction cups going on and here’s the base. There are three parts to the base here. Well actually four parts and it’s got counters for keeping score. So they go from zero to three. If you get a cow launched you get a point. It is kind of like foosball.
We have some stabilization arms that lock into the base. And now we’re going to reveal our storm cloud!
I love my job.
And it’s all pretty self-explanatory. Thankfully there are buttons you push to open the receiving parts where things lock into which, once again, help when you are taking it apart for storage. And everything easily locks into place, including the cow.
GAME PLAY
And the idea is one person gets on one side, the other person gets on the other side, and it’s a battle of whacking.
Unfortunately these suction cups aren’t doing so well on this wooden table.
I mean they are but they’re not. You might want to wet them. I don’t feel like wetting them on this table however because it’s a bit of an heirloom for my wife’s family.
(WHACK BACK AND FORTH AND AROUND AND AROUND!)
Oh and there we go! And the cow pops up and launches to safety!
FINAL REVIEW
All right. Cownado. What do I think about this thing?
It’s made better than I thought it was going to be. I really thought this was going to be a cheap plastic piece of garbage. But I gotta tell you this thing is sturdy. It’s well made. I mean it IS plastic but it’s a good quality plastic. And they’ve taken putting it back into the box seriously. And they’ve respected their customers in that way. And that’s huge to me. It means that they care. They cared about the design. They cared about the fun packaging. The cow is a good quality cow. This whole thing should indeed be able to hold up to the beating it’s meant to take. And that’s a good thing.
They put some quality into it, took their time and made it right and everything about this is fun. It looks fun I’m having a good time whacking it around. I’d love to see a couple kids go at this game. And when I donate it to the youth room at my church, I’m sure they’re going to have a blast with this thing as well. There’s not a lot of bad things I can say about this.
The suction cups even have a little little grabber on them. So if you get it on a good slick surface where these things will grab properly, you can let the air out and get them to release.
There’s a counter for keeping score. The paddles… Um, okay, I would like to see a little graphic on the paddles. I’d like to see something fun done with the face of these paddles. For all I know, there could be some stickers in the box I overlooked. So it’s possible that that’s my oversight and not theirs. Because they’re just fantastic otherwise. I mean, is it the greatest game I’ve ever played? Nah, but it’s darn good. I’m gonna give it 9 out of 10 warning sirens!
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And if YOU find yourself in need of more cowbell because let’s face it; it’s never enough. Just ask Blue Oyster Cult. We’ll be happy to provide that for you. Just head over to the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com where you can find a herd of past episodes in video, podcast and blog format, awesome merch at the Dandy Fun Shop and if you feel like throwing money around and getting nothing in return, we also have a patronage page set up for those who would like to support future productions of the Dandy Fun House!
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And…
Super Supporters get that same treatment PLUS I’ll send you something a-MOO-zing from right here at the Dandy Fun House Studios. Might be a cowbell. You never know.
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And five hoof reviews wherever you can leave them always get our untipping gratitude.
And THAT’S gonna chew our cud for today folks! Swing those udders right back here real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!
( And that’s my last cow-themed show for the rest of the year…)
