THE RISE AND FALL OF NESSIE HUNT
When Tony Harmsworth was 10 years old, he flicked though the pages of the 1959 edition of The Eagle comic. He was so taken by the sight of a Venusian lake monster attacking Dan Dare that he sought out the nearest beast he could find on Earth. He looked to Loch Ness. Now, over 60 years later, he’s made a career of drawing people to the mysterious waters. In 1980 he helped set up the Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition and established the award-winning Discover Loch Ness tour company. He was the administrative coordinator of Operation Deepscan in 1986/7.
He also created the impressive board game Nessie Hunt, which comes with 250 components, including 180 game cards, four plastic expedition leader figures, Nessie money, a large folding game board and, of course, a plastic ‘head and neck’ Nessie. The box asked: “Can you solve the age-old mystery with this exciting educational family game? Use sonar, cameras, video, and collective eyewitness reports in your fascinating search for the Loch Ness monster. Based on the real search at Loch Ness.” Despite the ambition of the game, or perhaps even because of it, Nessie Hunt would prove to be a troubled project.
Tony knew he’d need help with producing and marketing his game and so he brought in a friend called John Atkins. John had been in sales since leaving the RAF, so he became sales director in exchange for a decent chunk of the Nessie Hunt equity. Then, with a riskfree grant from the Highlands and Islands Development Board, a small business loan from the Bank of Scotland and investment from friends and family, the funding was in place to create the game. Then troubling news surfaced: another group was also working on a Loch Ness Monster game.
Concerned that a rival would affect Nessie Hunt’s chances, they bought the competitor out and production began.
The first 60 copies of the game were sent straight to the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition in Drumnadrochit, a short walk from the Loch itself, where a steady stream of game sales might be expected from the 100,000 visitors each year. Sales from other tourist locations were aso part of the plan, and Tony was set to visit the International Toy Fair in Earls Court, London, hoping to break the game into the world market; but then he received a shock.
He visited the Loch Ness Centre Shop (with two dozen extra games loaded in the boot of his car) to check on sales. “I was dismayed to find that they had only sold two games,” he remembered. This lack of interest was reflected across the other shops that stocked it.
Worried about the financial implications, Tony and his team decided to press on with the International Toy Fair.
Perhaps that might give the game the push it needed. Sure enough, Nessie Hunt made a splash in London. The game beat Transformers to win “Best New Product of 1987”, and Tony’s late brother-in-law Derek Colclough won an award for the best press photograph at the fair with a diver bursting out of the loch and holding the game aloft, all in sight of Urquhart Castle. Tony even appeared on the TV shows Wogan, Saturday Superstore and No 73
promoting the game. Yet even with enthusiastic PR support from then Doctor Who Colin Baker, sales were slow. One of the issues was price. “It had been too well made and the content too lavishly produced. One retailer asked why we had bothered putting pictures on the game cards. My explanation that a Nessie game should have pictures of Nessie in it
was met with, ‘You could have done that in the second edition’. And, of course, he was right.”
Tony was plagued by Catch 22s. He was advised that a full advertising campaign would save the game, but they needed to fund that with game sales. Woolworths and WH Smith said they loved Nessie Hunt... but would only commit to buying units in big numbers after the ad campaign was launched. “I was snookered,” Tony said.
And so, despite the awards and praise, Nessie Hunt
gradually vanished from shelves. Today, it’s not quite as elusive as the beastie itself, but it’s close. Now and then it raises its lonely head on eBay... then sinks without a trace. But if you want a slice of fortean board game history, Tony is still selling them. At the time of writing, he has a mere 12 left (£75 + postage). You can net one of these noble stragglers yourself, and read more about Tony’s fascinating life with Nessie by visiting www. harmsworth.net/#lochness.