Scaling Gumdrop Mountain
August 19, 2009 4:18 PM   Subscribe

Sweet! The Crookedest Street in the World was turned into a giant Candy Land game today, to celebrate the board game's 60th anniversary. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4

Lombard Street was closed to traffic this morning, while children from University of California, San Francisco Children's Hospital and Friends of the Children participated in the game as colored game pieces and interacted with life-sized Candy Land characters. They also got to share a piece of birthday cake.

Here's Hasbro's Press Release. A Candy Land movie is reportedly in the works, as well.
posted by zarq (25 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Awesome!
posted by candyland at 4:52 PM on August 19, 2009 [8 favorites]


Awesome!
posted by candyland at 7:52 PM on August 19 [+] [!]


OK, that's weird. In a good way. :)
posted by zarq at 5:02 PM on August 19, 2009


zarq, I kind of wish no one had commented after that. It would have been a perfect thread. But since you did, I can also say, "Awesome!" So...awesome!
posted by nosila at 5:05 PM on August 19, 2009


My grandma had the 1949 edition of Candy Land and we both loved it. Recently I saw the current edition of the board and couldn't believe it... "King Kandy"? "Queen Frostine"? "Mr. Mint"? Freakin' "Gloppy"? Seriously? What the heck did it need that for? Why didn't they put some LEDs in there too?
posted by scrowdid at 5:28 PM on August 19, 2009


Oh dang it, that might not be the 1949 version. Looks like it might be the 1962 version. Apparently this is the 1949 version. The 1962 is still the definitive one for me, but that 1949 looks pretty excellent too.
posted by scrowdid at 5:35 PM on August 19, 2009


Nice production, but Candy Land is a seriously boring game.
posted by demiurge at 5:40 PM on August 19, 2009


BTW - there's questions on whether Lombard is even the most crooked street in SF

(I'm 2 blocks of Vermont so I vote for that)
posted by bitdamaged at 5:45 PM on August 19, 2009 [1 favorite]


I always wonder about the people who live in places like this.
Like if you live next to a Presidents boyhood home, or underneath the Hollywood sign or near a famous whatever that directors always want to use as a backdrop.
I suppose, if you live on someplace like Lombard St, you just get used to it.
posted by madajb at 5:47 PM on August 19, 2009


Yes, a boring game... unless you're a 4-year-old. I am pretty sure it was the first game I understood "the rules" to. A big part of the reason is those fantastic playing cards that one used to move the game piece forward. Just a square of color, no words, no numbers, no silly symbols. Sublime.
posted by memewit at 5:51 PM on August 19, 2009


posted by kurumi at 5:52 PM on August 19, 2009


I think I was nearly three when I first experienced CandyLand. Does anyone remember that nearly palpable sense of disappointment you first had when learning that the game did not involve tangible pieces of candy?
posted by adipocere at 5:55 PM on August 19, 2009 [1 favorite]


Ditto for Vermont St. being more crooked! We wuz robbed
posted by jcruelty at 6:09 PM on August 19, 2009


As for neighbors of presidents' homes:

When I visited the Harry Truman birthplace in Lamar, Mo. the house next door had converted their enclosed back porch into a little souvenir shop. This was some decades ago. (There was a sign on Rt 69: <--Truman Birthplace, 1 mile. And it was time for a drivin' break.)
posted by hexatron at 6:13 PM on August 19, 2009


Whoops. Lamar is on Rt 71.

Rt 69 is the Kansas-side south-from-Kansas-City route, but I was going to Arkansas.
It has been a while.
posted by hexatron at 6:19 PM on August 19, 2009


Bah, humbug.
I used to bicycle on Vermont street occasionally.
Still more crooked: Snake Alley, Burlington, Iowa.
posted by lathrop at 6:21 PM on August 19, 2009


Wait, no Lord Licorice? That guy is hot, even if he is the villain.
posted by soelo at 6:39 PM on August 19, 2009


More pictures (self-link) here.
posted by twsf at 6:43 PM on August 19, 2009


The crookedest street in the world is really not. Lombard Street, San Francisco's famous street is not the crookedest street in the world –According to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, that honor goes to stone-curbed Snake Alley in downtown Burlington, Iowa.

There's an annual bike race, and the finish line, I believe, is at the end. "Their eyes would roll up and they'd collapse into the grass. It was like the scene in "Empire Strikes Back" where Luke's ton-ton collapses under him on the frozen planet of Hoth. "
posted by cashman at 6:57 PM on August 19, 2009


When BB, Pop and Air Gunn's were little, around 3,4 and 5, my wife banned me from playing Candy Land and any kids games with them. SWMBO said I was to competitive to play with them. I would not let them win every time. I teach them the rules, play fair and square and refuse to let them get away with things. She claims it was going to damage their ego and make them monsters. I thought it would get them used to competing and understanding at an early age that not everything would work out. Also, maybe a little more to do with it, I seem to have only the ability to play to win. I have no problem losing, but I have a problem not giving 100%. I also am banned from her family's Scrabble games because I complain when they help each other out. I have no use for cheaters. So Candy Land was out as was Chutes and Ladders and even Battle Ship or Operation. Now that the kids are young teens, we play Monopoly, poker, Strat-O-Matic and other more adult games to the end. Loser clean up the dishes. Winner doesn't have to clear the next night. My 15 year old daughter who hates all chores (natch) has turned into the most disciplined poker player I have ever played with.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:53 PM on August 19, 2009 [1 favorite]


Of course Candyland is boring for the adults who play it with their kids. But I remember it being absolutely entrancing when I was 3 and 4 years old. The only point of Candyland is that you learn how to play games: how to follow rules, how to accept the role of chance, how to have fun with the process even if you didn't win. I credit youthful games of Candyland for my adult love of other games, and especially for appreciating the thrill of games that involve skill. As a young child, I would have been absolutely entranced by a life-sized game of Candyland, something that could have integrated my growing knowledge of chance with the wonder of make-believe.
posted by amelioration at 8:02 PM on August 19, 2009 [1 favorite]


I hope some marketing drone got a big bonus for that idea. Adorable.
posted by nax at 3:57 AM on August 20, 2009


Oh, it's all well and good, especially showing the out-of-towners. But try that right turn at the end of Lombard. (Hyde?) It's a 90 degree schlep up the street. I had a stickshift and it was raining. Crooked is picturesque, but steep is just challenging.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:34 AM on August 20, 2009


It occurs to me that Chutes and Ladders would be next...
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:27 AM on August 20, 2009


Alas, in life, I seem to draw Plumpy Plumb, more often than not. . .
posted by Danf at 7:42 AM on August 20, 2009


Just a couple days ago went looking for Candyland at Target for my two-year-old friend and could only find some new-fangled fancy version. They really shouldn't have messed with perfection. My friend, and my 13-year-old daughter (and I!) would have all enjoyed this version, I'm sure.
posted by ms_rasclark at 8:52 PM on August 20, 2009


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