Woodland Happy Families Card Game, Pictured By Racey Helps
First Published: 1951, Pepys Series by Castell Brothers Ltd., St. Cross Street, London
Illustrator or Designer: Racey Helps (and Ern Shaw in the earliest edition)
Contents: 44 Cards + Rules Booklet
There are 11 Families with 4 cards each.
There are two early versions of the 1st Edition of the game.
In the earliest version the families have no distinguishing colour of their own and none of the title panels have a black border.
The two versions are displayed together by family, with the earliest version above the now familiar version.
The Mouse Family
The Robin Family
The Shrew Family
The Frog Family
The Squirrel Family
The Badger Family
The Mole Family
The Fox Family
The Owl Family
The Rabbit Family
The Hedgehog Family
An early press advertisement shows the Master Fox card without a border.
There is typical humour from Racey Helps throughout the game. Mrs Frog attends to her smiling tadpole in a cot, Miss Frog is reading "A Frog He Would A Wooing Go", Master Squirrel is using a hammer to crack a nut, Mrs Hedgehog is looking worriedly at her hot water bottle as she fills it.
The card backs and box differ slightly in the colour of the print, red/buff for the early version and red/white for the later. The box bases and top flaps differ slightly too. The rules in the earliest version I know of credit Ern Shaw but he is not credited in any subsequent editions.
There is also a Gibsons version of Woodland Happy Families and Woodland Snap which will soon have their own entries here.
The Gibson's versions of both games are still available brand new from Gibsons today. What an incredible unbroken run of nearly 75 years for two card games. They have been with Gibsons for most of their life, far longer than they were with Castell Brothers, but they have always been and remain classic Pepys games.
For details of all the games Racey Helps illustrated for Pepys click this link.
Game & Version Details
 | Woodland Happy Families 1 - Card Back |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Card Back |
 | Woodland Happy Families 1 - Rules Front |
 | Woodland Happy Families 1 - Rules Back Games Advertised: Speed Wu Pee Peter and the Wolf Sylabex I Commit International Football Whist Mickey and the Beanstalk |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Rules Front |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Rules Back |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Rules Front Variant |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Rules Back Variant Games Advertised: Woodland Snap Little Grey Rabbit Wild Life |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Back |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Top |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Side Left |
 | Woodland Happy Families 1 - Box Base |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Base |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Base Variant Envelope Style |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Side Right |
 | Woodland Happy Families 1 - Box Back With Flap |
 | Woodland Happy Families 2 - Box Back With Flap |