I see the word “toxic” over and over in this thread. Was this really anything worse than leaded gasoline?
2 Likes
I think it taught me careful procedure when working with dangerous stuff.
Still, chance of burns, fire, choking hazard, and it probably wasn’t too great to swallow the goop, liquid or hardened, especially the glow-in-the-dark goop…
3 Likes
C̸̢̛͗̏h̷̩̻̞͗e̷̡̙̒͛̌m̵͓̘̟̿̐̓i̶͍͎͌̈͠s̸̞̈́t̴̗̀͘͠ȓ̴̨ͅy̵̛͙͊̐ ̸͕̫̓s̸͈̀e̵̩͎̒t̵̳͘s̴̘̼̀̿!̵̜̱̻̄̃
6 Likes
I definitely remember this commercial and theme song from the version they released in the 90’s that just used a lightbulb and likely a less-toxic goop.
3 Likes
The original was only fun until that first burn. I’m talking skin blackening burn. Usually small but very traumatic.
My favorite dangerous toy that was really “Swell from Mattel” was the Air-Blaster Bazooka. Great kit when playing Army. That baby could rattle windows and if used close enough break them if you weren’t careful.
3 Likes
My cheeks ache just looking at that picture
2 Likes
If you’re sucking inward, you’re doing it wrong!
(and yep, puffing on those things was a chore).
4 Likes
There was also an EDIBLE creepy crawler variant. A neighbor kid had one.
She made me an edible bug of some sort. Just vaguely sweet and rubbery.
8 Likes
In the glorious past all of the best toys were basically hot plates!
2 Likes
Yup, this thing:
2 Likes
We got these, and later my younger sister got the edible version. A few years later Mattel riffed on the “things that burn kids” idea with The Strange Change Machine.
It let you take a small moulded plastic toy, heat it up and smash it into a little block, then heat it again and watch it unfold back into its original shape. This provided twice as many opportunities to burn a finger. It was probably safer because the temperature didn’t seem quite as high as the Thingmaker.
2 Likes
Creepy Crawlers have been around for six generations!
Wait, isn’t that 120 years?
1 Like
I still have mine and the Fright Factory expansion. Someone in my neighborhood closed their toy store a few years ago and was giving away like 25 bottles of goop. For free! I picked them up and when my kids were growing up we made a bunch of critters with them and their friends. So happy.
1 Like
The original Creepy Crawlers set was my first consumer purchase. I later added the skeleton mold. Also had glow-in-the-dark Plastigoop, IIRC. It felt empowering to have a home version of industrial molding equipment to make my own toys with.
I later acquired the Steange Change Machine mention by other commenters.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
