Creepy Crawlers



For every young girl or boy who aspires to become Dr. Phibes.

     Posted By: Paul - Tue May 26, 2015
     Category: Animals | Insects and Spiders | Toys | 1960s





Comments
These molds have been repurposed to make gummy bugs.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 05/26/15 at 09:01 AM
I came across the remnants of two sets of these while cleaning the garage at my parents. These toys are a government safety bureaucrat's nightmare -an exposed heating element that will sear off the pads of your fingertips if touched.

Sadly the Plastigoop is no longer available. Some company acquired the name from Mattell and tried to revive it many years later but the formulation was not quite right. Also, at the time there was an edible food grade Plastigoop on the market but that was rather short lived, probably because it was incredibly messy and stained clothing.
Posted by KDP on 05/26/15 at 10:40 AM
I had that, and it rated just above lawn darts as far as safety went. The "edible" Plastigoop tasted exactly as one might expect something named Plastigoop to taste.
Posted by Bill the Splut on 05/26/15 at 01:31 PM
Mattel followed up on this with, if my failing memory serves, another burn hazard called "Incredible Edibles." The heading unit had a loud this time, and it and the mold were found. It came with various food grade goos you could bake to something close to Gummi Bear feel, in the cheapest artificial flavors imaginable (I preferred the root beer, of course). Of course I could use the IE goop in my Creepy Crawler mold, but it burned very easily.
Posted by Mark McDermott on 05/26/15 at 02:06 PM
Should be "lid," not "loud."
Posted by Mark McDermott on 05/26/15 at 02:07 PM
You can still buy the old metal molds with Plasti-Goop and GoopFX included on Amazon. You will have to use your own home oven though.
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 05/26/15 at 03:50 PM
My son had one of these and it was a pain to use and a burn hazard as was mentioned above.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 05/26/15 at 06:19 PM
Had at least three toys with "dangerous" heating elements: Thingmaker, Vac-u-form, and a cotton-candy maker. Played with them for hours, unsupervised, never got burned. Don't need to add that you couldn't have any of those today.

Cotton-candy maker was cool. Came with colored sugars and paper cones to pick up the spun sugar. Then my older brother, "destroyer of things," decided to try using Jell-o instead of sugar. End of toy.
Posted by mindful webworker on 05/27/15 at 12:02 PM
Dear Mindful Webworker,

Are you attempting to get us to believe that children, at some time in the distant past, were actually smart enough to avoid hot objects without PhD degree holders supervising? Preposterous! You've either been watching way too much S/F or you've found a stash of funny weed somewhere.

Sincerly,

Expat47
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 05/27/15 at 12:07 PM
I had one of those, and lawn darts and a wood burning set. Furthermore I never wore a helmet while bicycling. And evidence suggests I survived.
Posted by Jimpy on 05/27/15 at 01:14 PM
We did manage to survive the 50s and 60s using dangerous toys. But we learned through the school of hard knocks and pain about what not to do. And had some, but not much, common sense in choosing our recreational activities. Being very free range kids injuries were accepted but the destruction of a good pair of pants was not.

But some things we did know not to mess with, unlike the F state idiot who got into kissing poisonous snakes recently.
Posted by Gator Guy on 05/27/15 at 06:30 PM
Expat47: "You've either been watching way too much S/F or you've found a stash of funny weed somewhere."

It's true, I often do feel as if I'm a visitor from another dimension.

But it's merely time-travel.
Posted by mindful webworker on 05/27/15 at 07:01 PM
@MF: Damn! I was hoping for funny weed and that you'd share.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 05/27/15 at 11:42 PM
I played with mercury as a kid and never suffered from dain bramage.
Posted by PowellSkier on 07/05/15 at 03:26 AM
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