Fright Factory (1966)
The Thingmaker Fright Factory is simply AWESOME! Five of the set’s seven molds were dedicated to super creepy disguises, making pieces such as fake scars, snaggled teeth, or a third eye for one’s forehead (my fave). Another mold made a shrunken head, and the last made a dangly skeleton that one built from parts.
The Fright Factory was an eerie variation of Mattel’s Creepy Crawlers toy. These toys basically included molds that sat on a hot plate (the Thingmaker). You poured liquid plastic into the mold, heated it up, and–presto! change-o instant rubbery fun! I spent hours and hours and hours and hours (did I mention hours?) making these things. I LOVED the Thingmakers!
Some of my favorite childhood memories stem from many of the imaginative toys created by the toy wizards at Mattel. The most interesting of these toys by far was the Thing-Maker series of toys. These toys, usually sold in sets, came out between 1964 and about 1974 when the supply of goop dried up after a congressional hearing about the safety of children’s toys. SAD! Dangerous toys were always the most monsterous and FUN!
With this Fright Factory set, I have once again become enthralled with childhood memories of rainy afternoons in the garage. I remember vividly having this Fright Factory set as a child. I had the large cool box set and with these toys would come a box with killer graphics that you couldn’t stop staring at. Inside that box would be several metal molds, a machine with a heating element (usually labeled as a Thingmaker) and several bottles of plastigoop as well as an instruction booklet.
The Fright Factory set also came with glow in the dark goop which glowed a creepy ghastly green and a bottle of flesh colored goop for making the faces of the shrunken heads, scars and other frightening things.
Anything that glowed was a great buy and a NEED to have item when I was a kid! The Thingmaker made for great glowing FUN and it created a glowing madness that turned to passion that is still within me all these years later!
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