A high school physics teacher had a primitive one. You had to sit really still in the center or it would tilt into the floor. And someone had to push you to go anywhere. And, of course, range is limited to the length of the power cord.
I don’t think anyone learned anything that day.
I bought the very similar “200 piece army men package with vehicles” with similar results. I expected a set of green army men based on the picture, but got tiny flat plastic pieces that all fit in an envelope about the size of a paperback book.
I found an old webpage that finally did explain what the hell Grog Grows Own Tail was about
The ad:
The explanation
Odd phrasing. Wouldn’t it have been weird for Grog to grow someone else’s tail?
“A fool and his money…”
Anyone know if any of the novelty catalogs that you could request are available on the internet, possibly archive.org? Fun House Catalog doesn’t seem to be (though there is this teaser):
Why did it have to point out that spider monkeys like lollipops? That was odd to me.
I also noticed the “12” edited in.
I got some antique magazines at an estate sale, and last night, looked through a few of them. One of them was a farming magazine from the 1920s, and its classified ads included one for FREE SHETLAND PONY! Just send a letter, and we’ll send you your very own horse!
Most likely, they were pictures, if they sent anything at all.
I found a faster way to save up the comics. The local pharmacy sold five cent pieces of bazooka gum. They were considerably larger than the single pieces and their comics counted as twenty of the penny ones, IIRC.
I sent in for a camera. I think it took a hundred comics. It took a long time to arrive, and when it did it was tiny. It took 120 film and was so small it made twice as many exposures as the film was labeled for- a 12 exposure film was supposed to give 24 pics with this camera. I guess the developed film would have produced 12 prints that each had two pictures. I can’t really say, I never used it. I wish I still had it, but mom never let old stuff hang around.
If I remember right woolly monkeys ,squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys with the main ones that were available. I’m thinking about the 1950s
I had the exact same thing in the 70s. Tiny black plastic camera. The exposure button broke the first time I pressed it, so I never even got to see what kind of pictures it took. I never bothered redeeming any Bazooka Joe comics after that.
My brothers and I had a ton of those, but we never ordered any – we got them as “good conduct prizes” from our pediatrician after our checkups. We called them the “Air Step Cars”, since they were stored in a box which had originally held Air Step shoes. One I specifically remember was identified as a “New Prefect”" (British Ford).
1963, my oldest brother bought a Spider MonkeyIt was delivered in a cardboard box. I was only 6, and heard my mom shriek when she read on the box, “Live Animal”. (My brother had already left for school.)
Charlie Brown started out pretty docile, but within a few months, he was terrorizing the whole family. My dad packed him up and sold him to a pet store in Omaha. Looking back, he was probably frustrated he didn’t have a mate. Yes, people could buy them, and I think he cost 5$. And yes, they belong in a zoo!
Or better yet, they belong in the forest, with their mothers, and their troops.