Comic books ads have always been a fascination of mine. I would peruse those ads in my comic books as a kid, dreaming of ordering a pair of X-Ray Specs (for scientific purposes, of course), that voice-throwing gadget (fool your parents and your teachers!) or a life-sized Frankenstein's monster (because who wouln't want one?!) Sadly, I never ordered anything as my mom told me they were a ripoff. Who knew moms were so smart?
I don't recall ever seeing this pin-on dagger in a comic book, but I would venture a guess it was marketed similarly. I found this in a box lot of magic tricks over the summer.
The open pin is a sure sign of its age. It was manufactured by Honey Toy Industries in 1961.
The owner of Honey Toy was Harold Braunhut. You know him from such novelties as the aforementioned X-Ray Specs and Sea Monkeys. What you may not know is, despite being Jewish, he was a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan and attended Aryan Nation conferences. Kind of puts a downer on enjoying these great gag toys. But let's separate the man from his inventions and look at a few others credited to Harold.
Amazing Hair Raising Monsters: I remember this ad well, although it appeared in my older brothers' comic books, so I'm sure the offer had expired by then.
Invisible Goldfish: The ad's below. Don't you see it? Ha! I kill me. Seriously though, I couldn't find an ad for this. According to Wikipedia, they were "imaginary fish that were guaranteed to remain permanently invisible". I'm assuming Harold was trying to ride the coattails of the "Pet Rock" craze in making money off of nothing.
And if you think Harold was all fun and games (well, we know he wasn't at this point), he also invented weapons.
Image courtesy theawl.com
Apparently, Harold was detained and arrested in LaGuardia Airport in 1979 for attempting to carry these onto a plane. The charges were later dismissed when it was shown the weapon was pretty ineffective (surprise!).
Harold Braunhut passed away in 2003, thankfully with his products outliving his prejudice.
Well that was all very interesting. I used to see the ads for sea monkeys and the 6 ft tall frankenstien and skeleton and long to get one. But alas, my mother was of the same opinion as yours. I am glad to hear that you are babying your crabs. Ooops - that does not sound quite right does it?
ReplyDeleteAs long as my crabs don't have babies, I'm okay with it.
Deletethe dagger is pretty sweet, and while it's easy to see what the "crazy crabs" would turn out to be... don't you STILL want to know what the "grow two living monsters" thing is? I DO. what could it possibly be?? as far as the "invisible goldfish" thing goes, at least if you bought a pet rock, you'd get a rock.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find any information on the two living monsters, but I suspect they were along the lines of Chia pets. There's a good interview with Kirk Demarais, author of the secretfunspot blog (and the excellent book on the same topic "Mail-order Mysteries") at https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/sea-monkeys-and-x-ray-spex/.
Deleteahh -- some sort of Chia-pet like thing would make sense. i was also thinking maybe some sort of apple head thing, like with the old Vincent Price ad (speaking of which, i'm surprised it's not included here!)
DeleteI had the voice throwing thing, it was LAME. But it did come with a small (and cheap) ventriloquist dummy. You'd have more luck trying to throw your voice without the gadget.
ReplyDeleteEven if it was lame, I'm envious. I was convinced something like that existed ever since seeing Tex Avery's "Ventriloquist Cat" cartoon. Meow! Meow!
DeleteWow, shame about Harold's views...
ReplyDeleteThose growing monsters sound like exactly the sort of thing I would have tried to persuade my parents to part with their hard-earned cash for!
I have Harold's old "Hair-Raising Monster" kits from comic book mail-order. There was a two monster version with an Astronarium and a seven monster version without. The monsters are printed cardboard and the growing hair was indeed merely grass seeds. Both kits are completely wonderful in how totally lame they are. If you'd be willing to part with the bleeding dagger pin, I'd be interested in purchasing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information on the hair-raising monsters, Gullible. I actually sold that dagger a while back. Thanks for dropping by!
DeleteIf you sold it on eBay, I’m probably the one who bought it. I’d love to find it still in the packaging. It came carded as “Mad Dagger” and boxed as “Jack the Knife.” Love this crazy old rinky-dink stuff. That’s for replying.
ReplyDeleteI did sell it on eBay, probably not too long after this post. Glad it found a home with you.
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