When I was a kid, the big toy craze was cooking by light bulb - EZ Bake Oven for girls ('natch), and Creepy Crawlers for boys. A wildly simple idea, and fun for the whole family. You could make a cake the size of your pinkie nail, or a gooey bug. The best part was burning the shit out of your fingers as you removed your concoction from the light bulb.This was particularly true of Creepy Crawlers, which was basically a hot plate with a metal tray. No light bulb technology for the Creepy Crawlers back then - you just plugged the sucker in! Pour your goop into the tray, put it on the hot plate with a special metal tong-like device, and watch it cook. Remove from heat, place into a dish of cold water (watch it steam!!) and voila!
My kids received one of these from my brother. I was especially moved (sincerely!) because I remember it being my brother's favorite toy in the whole world. These days, they make it a lot tougher to burn yourself. I always felt that was a right of passage in kid-hood, but i guess it's necessary in our over-litigated world. The Creepy Crawler maker has a safety device door. It won't turn on unless the door is closed and latched. The light bulb (60w chandelier) turns itself off when it reaches temperature. And then....you have to wait for the damn thing to cool before you can get your bug out. There is a little arrow that goes up and down to indicate temperature, and the latched oven door won't open until it's cool. After that, you get to dunk the thing in water and pull out your bug. On the plus side, they seem to have perfected the goop for easier removal. I seem to remember we used to pull off a lot of bug legs. And yes, the kids love it.
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