Fantomen Spelet (which translates to ‘The Phantom Game’) is a board game produced by Alga in Sweden in the 1950’s. The game is believed to have been manufactured in 1952, however no dates are printed on the board game.
Alga was founded in 1917 by it’s parent company, Pressbyrån AB in Sweden, which produced and sold newspapers, magazines and stationary. The name Alga is derived from the names of the wives of two of the directors of Pressbyrån AB, Anna Lundqvist (AL) and Anna Gadh (GA).
Pressbyrån AB would become part of the Bonniers group of companies in 1930. In 1938, Alga commenced producing games and in the 1940s, it published children’s books and comic books, not only in Sweden, but also in Finland and Norway.
From the late 1950’s to the mid 1980’s, Alga became Scandinavia’s most famous board game manufacturer, thanks to a successful marketing campaign in 1963, when they created the famous slogan ‘Alla Spelar Alga’, translating to ‘Everybody Plays Alga’.
Alga is still running today, with several games produced by Alga being sold in a variety of countries under the BRIO label, including Denmark and Poland.
The top of the lid of the Fantomen Spelet board game features an image of the Phantom with crossed arms, with no other graphics found on the outside or the inside of the cardboard box. The box measures 12” x 8” x 1”.
The 3 panel fold-out playing board made of heavy stock cardboard contains playing instructions on the right of the playing board, with the rear of the board void of graphics.
The illustrated board game displays images found in Fantomen comic strips. The game is a step-by-step race to reach a treasure chest, moving markers across the board on the designated numbered tiles (101 in total). Based on the number spun on a provided dice, is the amount of moves a player makes.
The Fantomen Spelet board game comes with 4 varying colored markers and 1 black and white dice.
The art found on the top of the lid of the Fantomen Spelet board game is similar to the illustration found on the Fantomen comic book cover of edition number 1, published in 1951 in Sweden. The illustration is credited to George Camitz.
The Phantom 