So you forgot about those annoying robo-dogs? Yeah? Whoops, sorry to remind you.
Even as a kid, the novelty of those toys only took 2.5 seconds to wear off.
Zorphbert & Fred by Dawn Griffin
Aliens, disguised as dogs, making fun of .. well.. YOU.
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Migraine Fuel, now Zorphbert is starting to sound like most mothers. 🙂  I suspect when Fred is done playing with it and wonders off to something new we’ll see Zorphbert sitting there enjoying each flip with excitement.  I know there’s still a little alien child in there somewhere Z.
I remember as a kid almost every truck stop had one of those flipping animals, whether it was a dog or frog, or whatever. Â They absolutely mesmerized us at the stop, and we pleaded with our folks to get us one and when we finally wore them down and got it home…yep, within a few minutes the thrill was definitely gone. Â But we’d continue pulling it out of the toy box from time to time to watch it flip or to add it to our hot wheels track as a new obstacle.
Now skip ahead 25 years and my oldest just absolutely fell in love with this walking, snorting pig at a toy store when he was almost 2.  So we broke down and got it for him, and you know what?  I still hear that thing being turned on to this day, 4 years later as both the boys enjoy it, even though now it has a broken leg and can’t walk across the floor anymore, they still enjoy it’s little snout going in and out and snorting along.  I know one day the pig will fall quiet forever, but until then I hope they still find some thrill and excitement out of it from time to time.
amazing how some toys (or at least their concept) are timeless and still appeal to kids today. Thanks for sharing Todd 🙂
You know I found mine in the back of my closet some weeks ago. I showed it to my little sister and she had never seen one! That makes me wonder if the younger readers (do we have any?) will get what Sproing is supposed to be doing.
yknow… probably not! But that’s the way it goes… I write what I know, and I don’t know much about Pokemon or Bratt Dolls or Avatar or whatever kids are into now. But, if you want to debate the issue– the owners wouldn’t have that type of stuff either, so usually the subject matter is going to be things 30-somethings will know about. Buuuuut, when the Weird Kid makes an appearance, I should do my research!
I remember KB Toys back when I was in high school had these in a little “play pen” near the front of the store. They also had the pig mentioned by Todd and a little dog that would walk two feet and yap then walk another two feet. Well needless to say as teenagers wandering the mall with nothing better to do we made it our mission to “liberate” the animals from KB and would gently place them outside their barrier and then stand on the other side of the mall, lean against the rail and make bets on how far they would get before the KB employee would notice. After a while KB had a “guard” on duty at all times on Friday nights to prevent the liberation of robotic animals.
 Sadly, I was a KB employee back in the day… I think the employees, like the animals, wanted to be be liberated!
ahaha, so Vince was driving YOU crazy, then. :0P
I always wanted to work in a toy store, but judging from my other retail jobs (Barnes & Noble, Tower Records), it probably would have been more asinine than fun. Gamestop was another “dream” retail job LOL. Yknow, when I was 14.
ROFL! Great story, definitely something my HS friends & I would plot out in detail, and then either wuss out or find something else that was more interesting. I remember having this whole plan to go into one of those fancy “white” stores– that carry only white clothing (not even sure if they are still around)… fully armed with supersoakers full of cranberry juice.
as much as I despised the mall, ideas like this made it bearable.
Ha!