Halloween Special: The Scariest Thing We Own

Before anything else, let's just take a look at the way this toy was advertised:


Apparently, the Tuneyville Choo Choo was meant to be fun for the whole family, especially 'your favourite toddler.' It worked on much the same principle as the hallowed Fisher Price Record Player: notches set at interval on the plastic records triggered different notes, in order to play a song. In this case, it was whistles in a train instead of music box tones.

The only trouble is that you can only play songs in one key, and apparently the good people at Tomy who made the Tuneyville chose an evil-sounding minor one. The video you are about to see is my wife's old Tuneyville--I never had such a thing. It both fascinates and terrifies me, as it does our 18-month-old daughter. It sounds Satanic -- as if you could take out the batteries and it would still keep coming after you! This is a far cry from the happy train pictured in the commercial...