Another game I wish I had hung on to. The castle alone would have made a perfect set piece. The claws were amazing. Sometimes, my friends and I would just play with them alone, having what I guess could be called "Claw Fights!" But anyone who got hit--Ouch!--it really hurt.
The reality of "Bats In The Belfry" was so simple. The castle was the main prop. So were a set of, I think, a dozen plastic black bats, who, again, I thought were kind of cute. Atop the big tower was a green circle, which pushed down. Onto this circle the bats would be placed. Then, the players grabbed a claw, and waited. The orange claw was my favorite. Someone would press one of the skulls below, which acted as some sort of timing mechanism. Eventually, the green tower circle rose, and the bats would fly out, all over the place. The object was to try and catch as many bats in your claw. I loved the game's description--"Who ever catches the most bats is the biggest monster."
Except this was a game where no one cared about winning. It was all about thrills--having one's own monster claw, the set-up, the props, the pop-up payoff--this was one of the best games I ever owned! So, why didn't I keep it?
Anyone who was smart enough to has a treasure!!!!!!!!!!!!
And will be immensely popular with young trick-or treaters, at Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't remember this one at all?
ReplyDeleteBut I LOVE the name, and concept! Did the bats shoot out very far?
They'd never get away with this today: imagine the lawsuits as children poked each others eyes out with those sharp claws!
I often wonder why there was no such thing as "lawsuits" until the 1980s: life was lot more fun when you were responsible for your own stupidity, and couldn't sue your way out of it.
ReplyDeleteViolence in children's gmaes, at this time,
got more and more weird. Stay tuned for some
future posts, which will cover this, And some
games were even covertly sexual, which I will
also cover!