A few months ago I noticed that Houdini's Escape Room were advertising a new room called Poppa Plocks Wonky Workshop, an 18+ room and the adverts for it gave it a dark tone, so of course, once our busy October period was through I had to make sure that my first stop after scare season was to Houdini's to experience this room. Poppa Plock's Wonky Workshop is actually a relocated escape from from the now non operational Handmade Myserties. I met up with some friends and we entered this wonderful escape room. We had all previously done at least one other room by them in the fantastic RMS Titanic so all of us knew the level that this company could do. We arrived and were greeted by a wonderful guy who checked us in and told us to take a seat. After a small wait and a couple of games of Pucket we were taken to the briefing cinema room. We filled out the forms and had a lovely chat with the guy (Whose name escapes me, sorry). He told us to wait here and we would be collected for our room shortly.
What he didn't tell us was that our Games Master would also be a character from the room in Wynne. He came bounding into the room, excitedly clanging his symbols and instantly made us feel excited. He explained the story of the room. Poppa Plock was in the process of creating his next master piece toy in Roy/ Poppa Plock had locked away parts of Roy so it was never completed. Luckily Poppa Plock had left clues to how to make Roy before he died and it was our job to solve the clues and make Roy. It sounds more complicated than it actually is and Wynne does a hugely better job than I have at explaining the story. Wynne then leads us to the room, walking and banging his symbols as he walked. We entered the room and the first thing that catches your eye is the huge display case that has Oki and many other toys inside. Wynne explains that he locked Oki away because he was bad. The game had begun.
Warning: Potential spoilers ahead
Around the room you will immediately notice toys and games including a test of strength game. Bashing this would summon Wynne who you could call on if you needed hints or clues throughout your time in the workshop. It was a very unique way of getting hints but it kept inline with the story of the room and just worked, even if his arrival in the room each time meant standing well clear of the door due to the velocity and force in which he enters. Wynne also has other features that i've never seen in a room before but i'm not spoiling that as its well worth experiencing yourself. The room is very linear so you will have to solve clues and puzzles to progress which was slightly annoying given we got really stuck on one. All the puzzles are themed around toys and games and it really adds a childish fun element to the room and the mix in styles of puzzles means there is something for everyone.
The room itself does have an 18+ rating but other than an outline on a wall and some very adult language there isn't really anything else in the room that warrants the rating. For a room with this age rating I guess I was just expecting a bit more than what was actually in there, but its not really a negative as such as the few adult themed things did give us a chuckle. Oki also talks through his cabinet but this was really hard to hear so maybe turn the speakers up a tiny little bit. BIG SPOILER AHEAD, WE DID WARN YOU. There was however one puzzle that we had an issue with and that was with the Scrabble and Snakes and Ladders lock. As you unlock each box you get a hint at how to solve the next clues, except for this puzzle. The clue hints that you are looking for a vulgar word that had been played and as such we were looking at the board for a word that had been played and trying to work out which one of the many it could have been as there was quite a few words on the board that could have been played, but this was all incorrect. I won't reveal the actual thing but we wasted a good 10 minutes on this and needed a couple of hints from Wynne as we would never have got it without it.
Despite this one puzzle and some sound issues with Oki the room played really well all culminating in an unexpected ending that was extremely clever. We managed to escape in 54 minutes and 33 seconds. We had a great laugh and it was so great to get back to Houdini's. The room has a lot of potential to go really scary and we hope they embrace this during October like many other escape rooms have started to do as we imagine it would add an entirely new level of terror to this creepy room, especially if Oki left the cabinet. I want to say a huge thank you to all the team involved in our visit. I had a lot of fun.
Houdini's Escape room has multiple locations throughout the UK and have nine rooms different rooms in eight locations as well as two online escape rooms. You can find our review of RMS Titanic at one of their two Southampton locations here and you can also book tickets and find out more information about the rooms on their website. It was also announced about 10 minutes before this review got released that Houdini's would be opening a brand new location in Bristol.