The Grandfather Coffin Clock is an item/character which would have appeared in the never-built Museum of the Weird attraction.
Description[]
The Grandfather Coffin Clock (as the name implies) would have been a grandfather clock made out of a coffin. In Rolly Crump's concept art the clock's face had a devil-like face in it's centre with the clock-hands being replaced by skeleton hands. The weights of the clock were presented as skulls and it's pendelum would be an axe. The clock's finial would be a winged skull.
Later maquettes created showed the face in the clock-face as a skull with the beard of an elderly man. Rather than having skeleton-clock-hands this variation had the skeleton hands outside of the clock's face. The clock would have a predominately red colour-scheme.
Appearances[]
The Museum of the Weird[]
The clock's exact purpose in the attraction is unknown but considering it's features in relation to Crump's other creations, it is likely that the clock's face would have been able to speak.
Main Street, U.S.A.[]
Fargo's Palm Parlour is a closed off building on Main Street which serves as a tribute to Rolly Crump while also containing allusions to the Haunted Mansion and the Museum of the Weird. The location is themed around being a fortune-teller's business with the window reading, "Fargo's Palm Parlour; Predictions that will haunt you; Bazaar, whimsical & Weird. Designs to die for Roland F. Crump assistant to the Palm Reader". On the window, concept-art made by Crump appears including the Coffin Clock, a tower from It's a Small World in Fantasyland, and Maui from the Enchanted Tiki Room.
In the Ghost Post's interactive game, this location contained the ghost of Abigail who was trapped outside of the Haunted Mansion and needed to be freed by guests.
The Seekers of the Weird[]
The Coffin Clock is a main-antagonist and the central MacGuffin of the Seekers of the Weird comic-book series. Along with this, the Clock is featured in large amounts of cover-art.
In the story, the Clock is the prison of "The Reaper King" who was imprisoned after killing 60% of Europe with the Black Plague and was subsequently locked away in the Museum of the Weird. His immortal follower Despoina tries to free him only for the Reaper King to strip Despoina of her immortality as punishment for taking too long. He would then be resealed back into the clock.
Trivia[]
- The Clock's appearance shows a resemblence to another skeleton grandfather clock from the 1933 Mickey Mouse cartoon, "The Mad Doctor".
- The clock could have been inspired by a grandfather-clock/coffin which was owned by the real-life Countess of Roslyn and which was used to hold the skeletal remains of her lover/secretary.