Recently during my everlasting shop clean ups I came across a bag of accessories for an old hockey game. A Canadian classic, called a table top rod hockey game.
A rod hockey game?? Yes as in the way you operate the players to play. By pushing and pulling and twirling rods.
My rod hockey game that was in safe storage.
Lots of accessories missing on this pic
When I was a kid we had such a game in my house and I remember playing it with my brothers and friends. After its introduction, this game brought out by Monro quickly became a success story. Who knew a game about Hockey would became so popular in a Hockey crazed country :-)
With success comes competition, there were a few starters in the field, but it quickly whittle down to two companies: Munro and Ideal.
Ideal being second, got licensing rights from the NHL to gain a leg up.
That is why if your players have NHL uniforms and logos, that game was made by Ideal. If instead they have kinda look alike uniforms not quite NHL, no team crest, just the team city they represented, that was made by Munro. Munro instead, had secured exclusive deals with some of the players; Such as Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr. But still no NHL logos.
Recognize the look alike teams?
The original 6 teams of the NHL 1940-1967
From Top L-R
New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings
Toronto Maple Leaf, Montreal Canadiens
Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks
Players from Ideal Toy had of course the official logos of the teams
Montreal Canadien shown
Pic from Ebay
In my bag was a full set of players (6) for each teams (6) = 36 players, two nets, the infamous magnetic puck and the 4 metal racks to store the spare team players. That mean, out of the 6, 4 teams on the racks, the two remaining in play. They remains all protected, well at least they stay together, easy to spot when gone MIA and do not rub against each other
So that set me up on a quest to find my game, which used to be taking up space in my shop, so I relegated it to a safe place a while back because I could not find the bag of players, puck and etc.
Now that I got the accessories, let's fetch the game. Turns out it was in a very safe place. Took me days to find it, and even then I had to ask Jean if she saw it, cause I could not understand how such a big and bulky thing could just remained invisible. I looked everywhere!
She said: Did you look on the floor under the built in shelving in the storage/gym area?
I thought so, but worth a second look.
Talk about a very safe place, really out of the way.
There are exercise machines in front of this area.
Apparently if I was to used the thread mill more often, I would have seen it.
Who knew? :-)
So now that the game board and its accessories are reunited, I got curious and wanted to know more.
Note this is not the game from my childhood, that one has long disappeared. This is one I found at a yard sale years ago, about mid 90s.
Electric Hockey Master Game
Made in Canada by Munro Games limited.
With the patented magnetic puck.
I realize I am probably missing a few bits but I hardly see how this game can be called "Electric"
Perhaps something to do with the patented magnetic puck???
I have yet to pin down the patents, but between 1957 and 1961.
What does it do? The puck stick to the player stick, enabling more fluid moves and you can flung the puck a la slap shot :-)
Even has the referees most often seen, calls.
Assuming the referees can see :-)
My referee is missing, but this is how he would had look like.
His hand is bend 90 degrees to hold the magnetic puck
Pic from Ebay
Lets look under the hood, err play field
One side
Steel gears mechanism
and the other.
Notice the metal strap to an empty hole
and what looks like a battery holder?.
One tab is attached to the net basket structure.
Yes indeed, it fits perfectly a D cell,
one and a half Volts (1-1/2 V).
The other battery tab goes to the other empty hole.
On the top you can clearly see evidence of brackets
being fastened into those two empty holes behind the net.
This is what those brackets would had supported, the backboards. One on each ends behind the nets.
I cannot say for sure if it was those shown here, because they had many small variations of the same game. I heard of 30-40 different models, with various features added or removed.
On these backboards, the current from the battery would had flown
between the two metal foot brackets, illuminating the lamp and sound off the buzzer until
the puck has been cleared from the net to reset the circuit.
Pic from Ebay
Back of the boards. The big dented wheel in the middle
is rotated to show a number from 0 to 9 in the window up front.
the score on your side, the other side does the same.
Pic from Ebay
That rectangular..ish slot on top is for the top bracket.
The tab sticking out on the field is for kicking up the puck in center ice to start the game.
You can also drop the puck from some brackets or from the referee.
So there was obviously a bracket to hold the center piece. Nowadays inside the arenas that is where you would find the giant screen and scoreboards, on all four sides. Back then, no giant screen, just scoreboards.
Again many variations thru the years to introduce games at various price points. From roughly Cdn $5 to $12 for such a game in the Simpson, then Simpson-Sears Catalog (would later becomes Sears Canada) back in my days early 60s
Here are some examples I found on line
This is very much like my game, with the back boards (2)
and the center piece (manual Score board, or timer)
You can also see the 4 spare players team on their racks.
It also shows those blue cartons to shown
which were the home team playing and which was the visitor's team.
Those are often long lost apparently, go figure :-)
Pic from an auction site
Ok so that explain the big emphasis on "Electric" Hockey game, you shoot in the net, you score, the light goes on and the buzzer goes off, until reset by pushing down on lever to fling the puck out of the basket back on the play field. Pretty minimalist, but wow, you shoot, you score and the lite goes on :-)
Just like in the real game.
OK so I exaggerate, just because you are shooting at the net,
does not means you are going to score...
Especially if Patrick Roy is in the net :-)
But I digress...
I get how it is suppose to work, but I'm still scratching my bald spot trying to figured out how the puck trigger the lite. Very primitive, read inexpensive mechanism, but as I remember it: It always lite when I was shooting :-)
So more searching . Probably will try to get some of the missing piece off Ebay. It needs a good clean up, some derusting, some unbending some rods. But it is playable as is, or rather will be shortly.
The pic I saw on Facebook that started my quest to unearth
my game after founding first the bag of accessories.
Now all I need is more beer to play with my friends :-)
Here is the story of the NHL expansion thru the years, from 6 teams (the original 6, I grew up with) to todays 31. And still no team back in Quebec city, bummer :-(
Lastly here is a short story of Munro and the role it played in developing this table top hockey game, which at one time reigned supreme from coast to coast in Canada
And if you remember, a few years ago, Lee Valley came out with a kit of the hockey game that started it all, the original Monro game, born of necessity during the depression. The Monro company will cease operation in 1976.
Here is a nice blog from someone who built the LV Kit
Bob, with hockey on the brain. This is supposed to be Stanley cup times, well poop. Are we playing golf yet? Staunch Montreal Canadiens fan since 1956
