Fleas on Fred

Editor's note:  Today I am veering slightly off the normal path by featuring a game I no longer possess.  I felt that this game was too great a part of my childhood to let it slip through the cracks on a technicality.

Image:  http://www.amazon.com/Fleas-on-Fred/dp/B001OZM0QW

FaFaFaFleas on Fred!

Where to begin?  This game was the epitome of fantastic.  Released by Tyco in 1995, it consisted of a yellow dog named Fred with floppy ears and a flat back, a whole bunch of fleas on sticks, dull tweezers, and little upright baggies.  The fleas of varying colors were inserted into holes in Fred's back and Fred's switch was turned to "on."  When on, Fred would convulse violently as the players attempted to pluck their designated color fleas from his body and place them in their bags on opposite corners of the room.  The winner was the person who removed all of their color fleas from Fred and placed them in the designated bag first.  Oh, and just in case anyone is concerned that Fred might get a head injury from those convulsions, no worries.  He was anchored to a plastic fire hydrant.  Nice touch Tyco.  For a better visual, please view the FOF commercial courtesy of my favorite website, retrojunk.com:  Fleas on Fred Commercial

I must admit I was not the primary owner of FOF.  My sister received Fred as a birthday gift in November of '95.  It was supposed to be a surprise from Grandmom, but the day before her birthday, my sister and I were playing with the wheelchair lift in Grandmom's van when Caitlin jumped in the backseat, only to noticed the unwrapped FOF package in the trunk.  Despite the ruined surprise, my sister was still thrilled to receive FOF for her birthday that year.  We enjoyed many hours of fun with Fred until one year my mom decided to clean out the playroom (unbeknownst to us) and sadly FOF didn't make the cut.  In mom's defense, the playroom did need a good tidying, so some things definitely needed to go, but I wish she would have used better judgement when it came to FOF.  Needless to say, we came down to the sparkling clean and neatly organized playroom and immediately noticed Fred's absence.  It was too late to save him from his impending doom. 

Years later, my sister swore he was one of the casualties during the flood of '96 when many of our toys had to be thrown out due to water damage in the basement.  But honestly, who is she kidding?  Fred was ENTIRELY PLASTIC.  No flood was going to take him down.  I think subconsciously she was trying to protect my mom, considering that in all other matters excluding FOF, she's the greatest mom on the planet.

Word on the street is that the game has been re-released with a hairer dog.  Bad move Tyco.  The gleam from Fred's jaundiced skin was one of his most appealing features.  Besides, a hairy Fred would never have survived the flood of '96.