Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/18/meet-these-incredible-collecto.html
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“fart jokes transcend time”
Amen.
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That “buzzer” is amazing. I got one when I was a teenager and I was most impressed. How are you going to give someone “an electric shock” in a handshake with something that isn’t electric? But it works! It’s clockwork - you’re tickling the palm of your victim - but they feel it like an electric shock! Five stars from me…
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I had one of those, too! Really effective.
I used to spend hours browsing the novelty rack items. This looks like a great collection.
I like the reflection that it provides a glimpse at the culture of the time, too.
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I’ve still got a pair of those spy glasses with little mirrors built into the frames so you can look behind you - if your hair was short enough. All I see now is white whispy stuff.
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The back of the “Boy’s Life” magazine had the ads for the Johnson Smith Company, and I would mail them pocket change for their garlic candy and blue mouth gum. I think the first scam I ever fell for was “100 magnets” that they sold for 99 cents. I’d spend hours reading their catalogues.
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The “throw your voice” ad reminds me of this classic Tex Avery cartoon:
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I did a body of work in Grad school that addressed my childhood expectations for these jokes, and how the far exceed the reality of the item. These souped-up versions were rendered ineffective, as the were obviously dangerous and on-one would fall for the gag. Trying to find the image of the joy-buzzer, which was a dynamo connected to a copper-studded rubber glove. I made a catalog that has unfortunately has been lost to the mists of time.
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Wait - this stuff actually exists?
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Seeing this made me nostalgic for my childhood affection for the Johnson Smith catalog, so I wanted to see if they were still around, and now I haz a sad:
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As a boy, I wanted the hovercraft so bad. I still want the hovercraft.
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C’mon, what was the scam with the magnets? Were they miniscule or did they never show up?
I ordered the walkie talkies with the sparkies coming out of them in the picture. They were the string type 
.
Still have grudge.
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It was like a 3-inch square refrigerator magnet that broke apart like Hershey bar to make 100 extremely tiny, useless magnets. It’s not exactly what I imagined. Now I think I paid 99 cents on a lesson about life.
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Exist? Indeed! And – just like Trump – are pure garbage. 
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Those were lots of fun. You could even improvise a whoopee cushion with it by placing it carefully under a seat cushion. However, in third grade I had the most fun with one. Remember those lines at the end of a church service to shake hands with the minister? He did not see that one coming.
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These things served a valuable lesson for childhood development.
Kids would save their money and buy this stuff and be disappointed.
The message they learned: “ADULTS SELLING STUFF LIE TO YOU, BEWARE”
That is a valuable lesson to learn.
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Wasn’t that just plans? I remember they advertised that you only needed a vacuum cleaner to power it, but of course that would leave you tethered to an power socket and the available power might not be sufficient.
A better solution is a fairly powerful leaf blower.
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Oh, wow! I viscerally remember these pages from the back of Boy’s Life.
I got a kick out of the Star Trek starship pricing:
Only $2.95 each!
Get both for $6.95!
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I also recognize this from Boy’s Life! I wrote to get the “Build muscles fast” instruction book or some such, and I stuck my mom’s return address stickers on the envelope, and they obviously didn’t even open the letter because they mailed the booklet to my mom.
