DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST cover art

DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST

By: DANDY FUN HOUSE PODCAST
Listen for free

Retro Pop Culture! Toys and Games, Retro Amusements, Arcade Alerts, Theme Parks and More!copyright 2024 neil smith entertainment Politics & Government
Episodes
  • COWNADO! Game Unboxing, Assembly and Review! – Dandy Fun House episode 59

    COWNADO! Game Unboxing, Assembly and Review! – Dandy Fun House episode 59
    Jun 12 2026
    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!
    Show More Show Less
    19 mins
  • RONCO The REAL Story! – Dandy Fun House episode 58

    RONCO The REAL Story! – Dandy Fun House episode 58
    Apr 11 2026
    watch the video below! listen to the podcast below! Chop-o-Matic. Veg-o-Matic. Dial-o-Matic. Smokeless Ashtray. Spray-On Hair. Mr. Microphone. Pocket Fisherman. These are just a few of the handy, dandy, kitschy, quirky products from the genius mind of one man… Ron Popeil (ok, that’s not entirely true. I’ll explain later) but what IS true is that Ron Popeil’s name is permanently etched into history as the man who could sell ice cubes to eskimos and produce the perfect gadget to make them with as well as being the founder and face of… RONCO! And THIS is THAT story! Time to Set it! Forget it! And Let’s step into the FUN HOUSE! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House Video Show, Podcast and Blog! I’m your host Neil Dandy and this is where we bring you the best in retromatic pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! And what could be more fun than throwing back to the crazy, clever, quirky and classic as-seen-on-tv products from the legendary Ron Popeil and his namesake company RONCO!? BUT FIRST! I want to tell you all about our amazing DANDY FUN HOUSE T-SHIRTS! They are the perfect attire for singing into your Mr. Microphone or relaxing pond-side with your Pocket Fisherman and best of all they are 100 percent cool-o-matic! But wait! There’s more! Buy one t-shirt and get a second one for ZERO DOLLARS OFF! Just visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and Order yours today! Oh and while you’re there, be sure to check out our new designs like GORILLATUDE, BODY BY DONUTS, MAYPOP TIRES, LED ROBSTER and more! They make great Christmas gifts! Just get to the Dandy Fun Shop at the Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com today! THE STORY OF RON POPEIL AND RONCO! Ok! RONCO! It’s impossible to tell you the story of RONCO without also bringing you the story of its founder and pitch-man-in-chief, Ron Popeil. You may remember Ron as recently as the 2000s selling kitchen gadgets on tv, but his more amusing products stem from the 1980s,70s and from Ronco’s founding in the 1960s. But to really po-peel back the curtain on the iconic RONCO and the man who started it all, Ron Popeil, we need to go back farther! MUCH FARTHER! The year: 1935. A little jewish boy named Ronald Milton Popeil was brought kicking and screaming into a world of many wonders to a mother named Julia and a father named Samuel Popeil who was an inventor and manufacturer of household products. Not much is known about the early life of Ronald Milton except that his parents divorced at a very young age and he went to live with his grandparents in Florida because… that’s where grandparents live. Samuel Popeil But in 1952 at the age of 17, Ronald went to work at his father Samuel and Uncle Raymond’s manufacturing facility, Popeil Brothers in Chicago, Illinois selling kitchen gadgets in the street markets. He was a natural and claims to have made over a $1000 per week before heading off to college for a whirlwind 6 months of higher education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, paid for by his sales earnings but quickly ditched college to go back to earning money with the Popeil Brothers marketing his father’s inventions The Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic and the Dial-O-Matic. That’s right! In fact, many of the most iconic and soon-to-be Ronco products were actually invented by Ron’s father Samuel and already had millions of sales before Ronco was ever even conceived! But the products had a problem! In order for salesmen to conduct their demonstrations, because the products were so efficient at what they did, they had to carry around an obscene amount of vegetables everywhere they went! So Ron’s big solution was to film the products in action and broadcast it to the world as television commercials which were surprisingly more cost effective than anyone in the Popeil Brothers company ever imagined! POCKET FISHERMAN In 1963, the senior Popeil, Samuel knocked it out of the park again and straight into the rivers, lakes, ponds, streams and seas (if you’re bold enough) inventing the one and only POCKET FISHERMAN! Samuel thought up the concept for the Pocket Fisherman after almost putting his eye out with the end of a full-sized fishing pole. This was instead, a fishing pole you could put in your pocket (unless you’re wearing skinny jeans). Inside the handle was a miniature tackle box including hooks, lines and sinkers! You can still buy the Pocket Fisherman today at Ronco.com and the modern version can even extend to become a full-sized fishing pole! BIRTH OF RONCO! Success Out of the Gate! Mel Korey, co-founder of Ronco Ron continued working for his father until the mid-1960’s when he decided to branch out on his own along with a brilliant friend he met during his brief stint in college, Mel Korey and establish the now-historic company known as RONCO in 1964. He continued to distribute his father’s products but also brought on goods from other ...
    Show More Show Less
    Less than 1 minute
  • COWS IN SPACE Game Unboxing, Assembly and Review! – Dandy Fun House episode 57

    COWS IN SPACE Game Unboxing, Assembly and Review! – Dandy Fun House episode 57
    Feb 16 2026
    watch the video below listen to the podcast below Have you ever wanted to mooove through time and space? Well, you’re in the right place because in this episode of the Dandy Fun House, we’re going to unbox, assemble and play and review the game… COWS IN SPACE! Let’s step into the Fun House! Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House. I’m your host, Neil Dandy, and this is the place for your favorite retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff. And today we’re doing toys and games. Toys and games, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you call it? a toy with a game, a TWAG! That’s what they say in the industry, baby! But first, I want to show you our Dandy Fun house t-shirts! They are woven from 100% heifer fur, and they’re guaranteed to keep you warm on cold nights, or at least lukewarm nights. So yeah, buy one or be square. We cut four holes in them, one to crawl your body into, two to put your arms through, and one to stick your pokey little neck out of. What do you want from me? I’ll tell you what you want from me! You want some of the new designs at the Dandy Fun Shop, that’s right. Like LED ROBSTER, BODY BY DONUTS, and of course, SODIUM SUBSTITUTE LIFE! Just get over to the Dandy Fun Shop today! Okay, COWS IN SPACE! Let’s take a look at it. Groovy box, baby. I’m liking this. All right, you got a couple of kids. They don’t look too young. They look kind of like preteens with grandpa over here. Grandpa looks kind of like me. What the? What’s going on with that? I’m not sure I like that, but anyway, the front, cartoony, colorful. It’s just popping real nice. Yeah, you see the game there. It shows it, and these guys are wearing headbands with flying saucers on it, and it looks like they’re picking up cows, I assume magnetically. And the sides are all the same. They didn’t really go hog wild on that. Nothing on the bottom. Let’s check out the back. Okay, we’ve got slimer aliens here, and they’re showing the game. “Use your magnetic UFO headband to quickly pick up cows from the spinning base.” Oh, the base spins! “It’s the best game in the universe, and out of it! The out of this world head to head race to capture as many cows as possible.” Now, what is it with aliens and cows and crop circles? I don’t get it. Motorized spinning base, we already know that, ages six plus… Two players… Ten plus minutes. How many rules could there possibly be to this thing? Oh, and What Do You Meme Family? So this game, even though it doesn’t really say the manufacturer… oh, it DOES say the manufacturer! I was looking all over for it, and I just now found it, and now it’s too late for me to research the company. Usually, I like to do something about the company that makes it, and apparently the company is, it says “RELATABLE” at the bottom for the brand. Very understatable, but somehow they’re affiliated with What Do You Meme apparently, but What Do You Meme is more of an adult-oriented game, but I think there’s a family version of it as well, to the best of my knowledge. Well, okay, we’ve had a look at the box. Let’s unbox it! UNBOXING I did PRE-slit the tape on it, just so I wouldn’t have to fumble with it. And… okay, there’s not much to see from the top there. Let’s just go ahead and do a big slide out. Oh, and you can see pretty much everything! You slide it out and there’s nothing left in the box, so we’ll just go ahead and lose the box. And this is what we’ve got. We’ve got the game itself, and you got the parts of the magnetic headband. You got the UFOs here. This looks like it’s going to be real simple. This might be a short review today. A “Cows in Space” instruction booklet. How many instructions could there possibly be? We’ll look at these if we have to. I’m thinking we don’t have to. I think this thing’s pretty self-explanatory. You got a bunch of cows in these little bags here, spotted on the top, pink on the bottom. Looks like you got seven in each bag, three bags, that’s 21 cows. And then we have a barn in a bag which apparently clicks right into the middle of the game field. Now I’ll probably never get the box closed again. Thank you very much. Oh, and the headbands! That means I’m going to have to take off my cool cow hat. It does look like the headbands are adjustable. And I guess I really only need one headband. There’s a little notch here, and you just kind of put your flying saucer link in there and kind of shove it down there. And then you adjust your headband and strap it on. It’s a plastic headband. It’s not stretchy or spongy, but that’s good because if it were stretchy, it’d be made out of fabric. And then you’d have everyone’s sweat building up in the fabric, and you’d have to wash it. Since this is plastic, you can just wipe it off and you’re good. So I guess I’ve got to lose the cow hat on my head so I can play this thing. THIS ladies and gentlemen, is...
    Show More Show Less
    13 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet