About a hundred Xmas Days ago (I'm guessing perhaps 1990, maybe even 1989?), I got this from him with the reindeer:
Oh yes! Make A Model Haunted House, by Jon Sutherland, Simon Farrell, Mark Hackett and Richard Jewitt. A dream team if ever there was one. It's a book, containing riddles and some big bits of illustrated card. With the help of scissors, glue and a patient grown-up, it enables you to make the thing on the back of the book:
This PARTICULAR book (as in, the one I've stuck under the scanner for the above display purposes) is another "as new" copy I've acquired within the last few years, as the original book is long gone.
BUT... The model haunted house has survived for over twenty years and through no less than three house moves! Let's take a looksee at it.
Foreboding and sinister, like. And very dusty, too.
Ta-da! Still in an alright state. It's a bit warped (understatement), the hollow tree and the gravestones won't stand up anymore, and the "For Sale" sign's missing, but it holds the general "house" shape well enough.
That's on the outside of the fence. Now we shall see what is OVER the fence (as in, in the HAUNTED GARDEN. Wooooo!).
Ghosts playing tennis! How nice. Well, you would if your house had its own private graveyard, wouldn't you? Not too sure who the fella in the basement window is. He doesn't look too sure either.
"This is where the bodies are buried..." Well, obviously. It's a graveyard. There's a happy old hag in the basement now, and the headless guy lives under the front steps. As for the sneaky-looking vampire peeking through the curtains? Well, it's a full house.
The upstairs windows, and fun stuff's a-happening. Skeletons and candles in the attic, a non-plussed cat, something weird in the middle window (more on that below), and a Hitchcockian murder-in-the-making. Possibly.
This is the bathroom. Originally each room had little bits of paper furniture, but most of these have gone missing. That cute little frog in the dressing gown? You can make him hop around using the long bit of card he's attached to.
And this is what's on the bathroom ceiling! Think it's possibly supposed to be a monster looking down at you from the attic. Or perhaps a sinister mirror-man?
The bedroom's weird. Covered in bloodstains, infested with owls, and the walls have literal ears.
Also, the four-poster bed has sharks in it!
The dining room, complete with table! Not much interesting in here, besides the eyes peeping out of the bin in the corner.
This is the landing, and that poor sod strung up by the wrists? You could see those through the front window too! How fun.
Open the fridge in the kitchen to see these worried-looking lettuces. And do you spy a TRAP DOOR at the back of the room there?
In the basement, we have this strange scene going on.
In the book, there's a load of clues and riddles to help you find the hidden treasure within the haunted house. The riddles can't be fully solved without building the house first (it's clever like that). That big stick that says "PULL" on it may just be the final clue...
OH NO THERE ARE GHOSTS IN THE WAY OF THE GOLD!!!!
Just walk through them silly, you're too rich to be worried about supernatural entities now!
I loved this, ben looking for another for years
ReplyDeleteI remember buying my book in middle school, we used to get them broucher like leaflets what had a load of books on it and we had to fill it out, get it signed by parents and include payment for the book we've chosen. Can anyone remember what them broucher like things were called??
ReplyDeleteThere were at least two of them... Scholastic Book Fairs are the ones that would come to your school with a load of mobile book cases, and Puffin Book Club had the brochures that you'd order from.
DeleteYet another "thing" made redundant by the Internet!