Ha! I could picture them being scared and making Scooby Doo noises with some scary background music like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdyY20rGpJ8
Inspired by "Grandpa's Chess Pieces": My found set of wacky wide-eyed bewildered Knights.
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Feb 5, 2021
0
#3
I wonder why those knights are looking at me like that... too much caffeine? Maybe they are just hyper? Or maybe they have a secret...
Don't trust them until you interrogate them thoroughly.
Awww; those knights are just so darn cute! In fact, I'd be tempted to call an arbiter over and complain that your knights are too cute and make it hard to concentrate...
I love those knights!
Please tell me where you found those. I’d love a set too.
Krames wrote:
Please tell me where you found those. I’d love a set too.
Since seeing them posted here 2 months ago, I've been searching the usual spots; eBay, eBay.uk, Etsy, etc. One of the biggest challenges in my hunt was using correct search term keywords. I mean, what the heck do you call these oddballs? It's not like it's a historical set.
France, French, German, vintage, antique, chess, set, pieces, chessmen, wood, old, Lardy, Staunton, etc.. then weed out all the modern stuff from China, India, anything Russian or Soviet, plastic, etc.. And then YOU DO FIND something kind of similar if you squint a little bit, but it's the wrong size. Many of the sets are in the 2.5" ballpark. It was a tough (mostly enjoyable) hunt.
AFTER ALL THAT, I actually ended up finding it locally. LOL
I loved them from that first ‘grandpa post’ too. I’ll keep searching. Thanks!
Krames wrote:
I loved them from that first ‘grandpa post’ too. I’ll keep searching. Thanks!
With 3" Kings, this set is a bit smaller than mine. And it looks like they've seen a pretty rough life. But haven't they all?
“When 900 (errr.. 90) years old you reach, look as good you will not, hmm?” ~ Yoda
These sets are out there. Just gotta be watchful. 
Those piece deserve a Scooby snack!
Feb 9, 2021
0
#11
Pawnerai wrote:
Having been recently inspired by a topic thread by @danielaKay HERE where she went about restoring her Grandpa's chess pieces, I embarked on a hunt for a similar old banger set with "slim shady" Knights of my own. I found the wacky wide-eyed bewildered look of her Knights so charming. Not worth much monetarily. But fun factor? Priceless!
3.5" tall Kings with 1.375" base. Unweighted. Unfelted. The finish is barely holding on.
These Chessmen deserve one last shot at glory on the wooden battlefield. TOURNAMENT READY!
OMG, they look exactly as shell-shocked as mine, poor things 
I recently bought a lot consisting of of partial sets and the one wooden set had these knights, pretty much an exact match. The two black knights are missing but seems impossible to find these as single replacements. I did a lot of sleuthing on these, thinking the set was Lardy (all other pieces match Lardy) but the Lardy sets I saw have knights with the forehead to muzzle at a near horizontal plane. I think these are a German design, possibly by Bohemia, and have seen them described as "dog-faced". I kind of agree as from the front they do have a "Scooby-Do in shock" visage. Or a horse who just got the whip. I am probably getting a set of 4 Lardy knights to help fill the set so my two "dog-faced uglies" may be available. 2 1/4"
I'm by no means an expert. When I was searching for the Scooby Knight set, I found examples in sets described as German and other sets as French. Which kind of makes sense since the two countries do share a border, there might be some intermingling of styles. So if both countries used this general style of Knight, I looked at the other pieces of the set for clues. If you look at the Rook in my original post #1 (not #9) the top battlements gracefully angle outward. I see this characteristic in many vintage French sets. Rarely (if any) German sets. Whereas the Scooby Knight set in post #9 with it's more traditional looking Rook may be French or German. Does the shape of the Bishop mitre give any clues? The taller elongated crown on the Queen? Not sure. The beat up box my set came in has the remnants of a label, but is gone unfortunately. Made in Framany? Germance? Hah.
The head of my knight is loose and gets glued to a peg on the base. possibly they used the same head on both Staunton and Regency style sets?
Most definitely. I'm sure they just tweaked the pattern of the bottoms to add more flat surface area and glued it onto the base of these "transitional" (?) Scooby Knight sets. I've seen some really gnarly abused sets where the Knight top is completely sheared off the bottom base.
I have 2 sets on order w NOJ and I love one of the chavet repros on another site..... but I’d say that a ‘scooby’ set might be my #1 wanted right now.....
ruh roh
I went to bed last night thinking I should post some pictures and title them "Rut Roh" b
I went to bed last night thinking I should post some pictures and title them "Rut Roh" but see great minds think alike. By the way "Rut Roh" was Astro from the Jetsons, not Scooby Do but I date myself. These do look like Great Danes to me though, eyes forward like a carnivore rather than on the sides like an herbivore.
Having been recently inspired by a topic thread by @danielaKay HERE where she went about restoring her Grandpa's chess pieces, I embarked on a hunt for a similar old banger set with "slim shady" Knights of my own. I found the wacky wide-eyed bewildered look of her Knights so charming. Not worth much monetarily. But fun factor? Priceless!
3.5" tall Kings with 1.375" base. Unweighted. Unfelted. The finish is barely holding on.
These Chessmen deserve one last shot at glory on the wooden battlefield. TOURNAMENT READY!