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Madballs

Madballs
Madballs toys.jpg
Advertisement for Madballs toys
Type Bouncy balls
Inventor AmToy
Company American Greetings
Country United States
Availability 1985–present
Materials Rubber, Foam
Official website

Madballs is a series of toy rubber balls originally created by AmToy, a subsidiary company of American Greetings in the mid-1980s, later being revived by Art Asylum (2007-2008) and Just Play, Inc. (2017–present). The toys incorporated gross-out humor in the vein of Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids. Each ball had a character synopsis and an odd name. The toyline was later turned into an animated television series, a series of comics and a video game (which contained some elements from the cartoon) for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.

The toys were tennis ball-sized rubber or foam collectible bouncing balls with horrendous faces and designs which had a fascination particularly on the part of boys; however, the toys only sold well as a passing fad. There were two series of the original round Madballs collectible toys, each series consisting of eight balls each as well as a collection of Super Madballs, a larger version of the original Madballs shaped like other sports balls, such as the American-football-shaped "Touchdown Terror", the soccer ball named "Goal Eater", and the basketball named "Foul Shot".

There were a total of three super Madballs in the larger series. In addition, four of the first series of 8 Madballs were each made available as water-squirting and miniature wind-up variants during the 1980s. There was also a short series of Head-Popping Madballs, where bodies were attached. Each of the heads on the Head-Popping Madballs were interchangeable and were capable of being ejected from the body, creating more possibilities for enjoyment. There was also a vehicle made for the Madballs. It was called the "Madballs Rollercycle". There were countless other licensed Madballs items, such as stickers (non trading), shampoos, Valentine's cards, tablecloths, silly string, party favours, and more along those lines.


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Wikipedia

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