Mattel’s Snake Mountain had pretty impressive design in terms of the facade, the rotating snake and laughing mountain mouth were pretty wild. And while the backside of the toy was pretty lackluster at best (no comparison to the Fisher Price Castle, that’s for sure) which suggests the lack of attention to detail for many of the mainstream toys during the 80s, it was the electronic echo microphone of wolf’s head that distorts your voice into a demonic cackle that really made this set memorable for me. I used to chase around my little sister and her friends with this and pretend I was a monster—and it was a blast. The Masters of the Universe figures played a significant role in my collection of early 80s toys, so I imagine I’ll have more to talk about from this line of toys over the course of the series. What I wouldn’t do for a wolf’s head microphone right now to raise the level of my playing monster with my kids, it would change the game.
The commercial for Snake Mountain gives a quick overview of this set, and check out the wolf’s head microphone, genius!
Image credit: Wishbook’s “1984.xx.xx Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog P043”
If you were, say, into technology, you might have some fun with Garageband to do something similar- although not real time and it is hard to run with a laptop (but easier than attaching an extension cord to the desktop).
James and I actually made a song the other day for John were we mixed in Steve Irwin quotes, some music and James yelling “Crocs Rule!” It was a good time. You may have inspired me to do a Halloween mix with the kids so I guess this whole toy thing isn’t a complete waste of time, even if Andy disagrees.
I remember the day I got Snake Mountain. Must have been Christmas or something. I seem to recall that the box was really cool. On the back, there was a spooky phrase written in the kind of text that was supposed to evoke the voice distortion microphone, and the phrase was written in reverse. I remember running to the bathroom to hold the box up to the mirror and read the message. Funny how I remember that better than I do the toy itself. (Castle Greyskull I remember a little better.)
That is one hideous toy.
Yeah, but the toy had nothin on the elegant-is-ominous Snake Mountain from the TV series: http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/he-man/snake-mountain.jpg