Creepy Crawlers

Creepy Crawlers (or Thingmaker) is an activity toy made by Mattel, beginning in 1964. The toy consists of a series of die-cast metal molds resembling various bug-like creatures, into which is poured a liquid chemical substance called "Plastigoop", which comes in assorted colors. The mold is then heated to about 390 °F (199 °C) on an open-face electric hot plate oven. The Plastigoop is cured by the heat, and when cooled forms semi-solid, rubbery replicas which can be removed from the mold.

The concept of the Thingmaker was introduced in 1963, as part of Mattel's "Vac-U-Maker" set. This omnibus toy combined the new molds and Plastigoop technology with the existing "Vac-u-form" machine, which molded simple sculptures by heating thin sheets of plastic, then using a vacuum pump to form the softened plastic over hard plastic forms. Following this introduction period, the Thingmaker portion was spun off as a separate set, and launched as the "Creepy Crawlers" line.

Mattel packaged molds from various sets to be sold separately, and also combined molds into larger omnibus editions, encompassing several themes into one set, under names such as "Triple Thingmaker", "Super Thingmaker" and "Every Thingmaker". Mattel produced many Thingmaker sets as follow-ups to the original "Creepy Crawlers" throughout the 1960s, utilizing a variety of themes, aimed at both boys and girls. There were also several exclusive single mold sets, such as Superman and Tarzan, and original Mattel concepts including Squirtles and Gangly Danglies.

It is generally believed that production of the original Mattel Thingmakers was discontinued following consumer safety concerns over allowing children to use a small electric heater as a toy.

In 1978 Mattel released an updated (and safer) model of their "Creepy Crawlers" toy. Called the "Thingmaker II", this version used a very differently formulated Plastigoop, and utilized plastic molds, into which was poured the heated Plastigoop. In this set one heated the Plastigoop and poured it into the green plastic mold(s) to cool; the molds were not put into the heater, which looked like a small cauldron. The reformulated Plastigoop did not work well and the process of making bugs, etc. with these sets was typically slow, taking an hour or so to make a creation. Needless to say, the late 1970s sets did not work as well as their predecessors, and the attempted revival was a short-lived one. Only two sets were produced - Creepy Crawlers and Flower Fun.

After being out of production for more than a decade, the "Creepy Crawlers" brand was brought back in 1992 by a New York-based company called ToyMax. With much stricter safety regulations in place, the new version of the Creepy Crawlers set re-introduced the metal molds and earlier Plastigoop-type formulation, but now utilized a lightbulb-powered "Magic Maker" heater, with a heat-triggered door designed to remain closed until the mold had cooled sufficiently to be handled safely.

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Wikipedia