I stumbled across this great Japanese site cataloging Japanese novelty toys from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. Some favorites:
-Who needs "Love Plus" when you've got the Nintendo "Love Tester"?
-The "Tomboy" Slinky knock-off that suggests using it as a cigarette holder.
-Mini Robot... IT WALKS LIKE A HUMANBEING
-Nude Spider, which spews forth a naked woman when squeezed.
The same site also includes an exhaustive list of plastic kaiju, yokai and ninja tchotchkes (I can't believe I spelled that right on the first try) sold at candy stores back in the day.
thanks for posting that Matt! im really digging all those japanese crazy novelty toys. the wind up "shudder pig" still tops my list of one of the most bizzare toys i have ever seen.
Posted by: jim m | December 05, 2010 at 12:06 AM
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51641424@N07/4972359276/
heres a pic of shudder pig.
Posted by: jim m | December 05, 2010 at 12:10 AM
Quite amusing - this was before plastic was as popular to use in toys, was it? Were these sold in the US, like the current slew of "made in China" toys? Granted, these look not too bad in terms of quality.
Posted by: Kecen | December 13, 2010 at 02:13 PM
I'm not sure what they're made out of, actually. They look plastic-y to me (the little kaiju, yokai, and ninja definitely are.)
Posted by: MattAlt | December 14, 2010 at 10:39 AM