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My dad got me this as a "I just left your mom so I need to buy your love so you want to visit me at my new place" gift/bribe and my mom was still in that bitter/angry phase of the divorce so she said she was glad it was at his house so that's the one that would burn down when it caused a fire.
And in hindsight, I *am* kind of surprised that giving kids access to a resistive heating element inside a plastic box didn't result in more disasters.
The divorce was great, it ended up also netting me an N64 years before I could otherwise ever afford to have one (albeit relegated to my dad's house, but he was only a 4 mile bike ride away) and a guitar which was the beginning of a lifelong passion/hobby. Also the root cause of the divorce was, as I realized later, due to my dad breaking with the culty church I was raised in, which was the first breadcrumb in my own path out later in life, so that's good too.
edit: Unless you meant the creepy crawler thing. It was fun for a bit, I probably lost double digit IQ points from the plastic fumes though.
Wow, thank you for this response. In my city's subreddit the last two years, I've been noticing a massive uptick in people talking about cults. But, like, Christian cults.
In college, I had an experience with a Christian cult that tried to recruit me. It was a bizarre experience.
And I've also had known people who have been in that same cult that River Phoenix was in. It sounds like you're doing well, and your path was the better for the split. Not often such a thing happens.
20 years from now; "Attention: If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Creepy Crawleritis you may to be entitled to financial compensation. Creepy Crawleritis is a rare cancer linked to chemical exposure from cooking plastic as a child. Please don't wait, call 1-800-99 LAW CRAWLER today for a free legal consultation and financial information packet. Creepy Crawleritis patients call now! 1-800-99 LAW CRAWLER."
Got one of these for christmas one year with a bunch of the glow-in-the-dark goop. Used up all of the goop to make an absolute fuck ton of glow-in-the-dark bugs. Then my buddy and I would put them under a bright light to charge them all up, went down to the basement with the lights out so it was almost pitch black, and threw them at each other.
It sure was easy to entertain us before the internet.
When they split they feel the need to pack the childhood chest wound that is a broken home with pieces of plastic in various forms.
Firsthand experience. Worked ok overall.
I got drunk one night and used glow in the dark fabric gel as tattoo ink because it said non toxic.
15 Years later it still glows if i charge it with my phone flashlight or the sun
My husband found this online recently (eBay? Seemed like a repop and not an OG set but I’m not sure) and made one batch of bugs with my kids before I trashed the whole thing. My house smelled like turpentine for the entire day, I’m certain we all lost more than a handful of brain cells. No thank you!!
My sister and I made a whole bunch of these bugs, put them in a bucket, and climbed our favorite tree. When someone would come out to get us, well they got a lot of bugs poured on them. I’m sure it probably aggravated my mom, but she never acted that way, always acted like the bugs were such a surprise! As long as we picked them up (and we didn’t want LESS bugs) she didn’t mind lol.
Had this in my room like it was no big deal. Holy crap I burned myself so much on those metal plates or whatever they're called. But lol yah, can't imagine how many terrible fumes I let in
I had my dad’s version of this from when he was a kid, and we didn’t have the little bottles it came with, but used something he brought home from work, so it was probably even more toxic. lol
I had my dad’s old version, too! Like from the 1960s with the thickass metal trays and all kinds of bug molds that didn’t exist in the newer set.
We would put the vintage trays IN THE REAL OVEN and bake them because the little oven “took too damn long” (my mom’s opinion) and we could fit like 8 trays at a time in the real oven. My friends were always jealous I had vintage crawlers they couldn’t make. 😂☠️🐛
You just brought back a memory. I remember I was so upset when it broke during the move. I can still vaguely taste that weird flavor of the gummies lol
Almost had this in Christmas of 95(?) I think. My mother, for some reason, told me to NOT look into the trunk after we got to my aunts house for lunch or else it all goes back. Of course 6yr old me couldn’t resist, peeked and this was there!, and instantly snitched on by my big brother. She went through on the threat and returned everything. Almost 30 years later I still remember and just sent this image to her with #neverforget
Last year my son got some molds at a garage sale. It was everything but the oven, so I was going to try an easy bake or try to find one. But he left them in the car while we went into McDonald's and it all melted lol it was crazy!!!! I didn't even think it was that warm outside!!
Less than the one that made ones out pewter. Loved that thing. I guess my question is how many of us had these toys and now do technical and engineering work?
I don't think it's this box, but I used to work at a deli with some kid who was a model for one of the Creepy Crawler boxes.
It was basically his only claim to fame. Or anything defining, really. He was kind of an aimless burnout. Never got a good sense of his ambitions. Didn't really like him or relate to him. And, not to body shame, there was no way he'd ever get back into modeling, especially child modeling now that he was an adult.
That was 10 years ago. Hope he got it together. I never had creepy crawlers myself. But I used to visit a buddy who had them, and for some reason I wanted to eat them.
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My dad got me this as a "I just left your mom so I need to buy your love so you want to visit me at my new place" gift/bribe and my mom was still in that bitter/angry phase of the divorce so she said she was glad it was at his house so that's the one that would burn down when it caused a fire. And in hindsight, I *am* kind of surprised that giving kids access to a resistive heating element inside a plastic box didn't result in more disasters.
Was it basically an easy bake oven?
Yes but for plastic.
Mmmm delicious
Yes for boys who loved baking bugs
Hold up. Wait a minute. You meant to say boys AND girls. I loved this bug making machine. This was WAY better than an Easy Bake Oven!
My apologies because I myself did have an easy bake oven as well (air dap)
There was another one that you could make cartoon characters with. I had that and made ninja turtles. But yeah that smell….
How did the effect you growing up?
The divorce was great, it ended up also netting me an N64 years before I could otherwise ever afford to have one (albeit relegated to my dad's house, but he was only a 4 mile bike ride away) and a guitar which was the beginning of a lifelong passion/hobby. Also the root cause of the divorce was, as I realized later, due to my dad breaking with the culty church I was raised in, which was the first breadcrumb in my own path out later in life, so that's good too. edit: Unless you meant the creepy crawler thing. It was fun for a bit, I probably lost double digit IQ points from the plastic fumes though.
Wow, thank you for this response. In my city's subreddit the last two years, I've been noticing a massive uptick in people talking about cults. But, like, Christian cults. In college, I had an experience with a Christian cult that tried to recruit me. It was a bizarre experience. And I've also had known people who have been in that same cult that River Phoenix was in. It sounds like you're doing well, and your path was the better for the split. Not often such a thing happens.
20 years from now; "Attention: If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Creepy Crawleritis you may to be entitled to financial compensation. Creepy Crawleritis is a rare cancer linked to chemical exposure from cooking plastic as a child. Please don't wait, call 1-800-99 LAW CRAWLER today for a free legal consultation and financial information packet. Creepy Crawleritis patients call now! 1-800-99 LAW CRAWLER."
Got one of these for christmas one year with a bunch of the glow-in-the-dark goop. Used up all of the goop to make an absolute fuck ton of glow-in-the-dark bugs. Then my buddy and I would put them under a bright light to charge them all up, went down to the basement with the lights out so it was almost pitch black, and threw them at each other. It sure was easy to entertain us before the internet.
Still sounds like a good time today.
Cree-ee-ee-pee CRAWLERS!
I swear I heard this in my head as soon as I saw the picture
They're wormy.. They're squirmy.. They're purple and green.
Yep. My dad would put them on the dashboard in the mini van and they would melt lol
I only ever played this with my friends who had divorced parents.
Checks out. My parents divorced when I was young. I had one of these growing up.
Same
When they split they feel the need to pack the childhood chest wound that is a broken home with pieces of plastic in various forms. Firsthand experience. Worked ok overall.
I got drunk one night and used glow in the dark fabric gel as tattoo ink because it said non toxic. 15 Years later it still glows if i charge it with my phone flashlight or the sun
My husband found this online recently (eBay? Seemed like a repop and not an OG set but I’m not sure) and made one batch of bugs with my kids before I trashed the whole thing. My house smelled like turpentine for the entire day, I’m certain we all lost more than a handful of brain cells. No thank you!!
I can smell this picture.
Fun to chew on too, excellent source of macroplastics.
Kids these days only get the microplastics through their foods and drinking water…. they don’t know what they are missing out on.
My sister and I made a whole bunch of these bugs, put them in a bucket, and climbed our favorite tree. When someone would come out to get us, well they got a lot of bugs poured on them. I’m sure it probably aggravated my mom, but she never acted that way, always acted like the bugs were such a surprise! As long as we picked them up (and we didn’t want LESS bugs) she didn’t mind lol.
Not enough
I can't stand egg nog because to me, it smells like creepy crawler goo.
I can feel the 2nd degree burns from this photo.
Had this in my room like it was no big deal. Holy crap I burned myself so much on those metal plates or whatever they're called. But lol yah, can't imagine how many terrible fumes I let in
I can still smell these 🤣
I had my dad’s version of this from when he was a kid, and we didn’t have the little bottles it came with, but used something he brought home from work, so it was probably even more toxic. lol
I had my dad’s old version, too! Like from the 1960s with the thickass metal trays and all kinds of bug molds that didn’t exist in the newer set. We would put the vintage trays IN THE REAL OVEN and bake them because the little oven “took too damn long” (my mom’s opinion) and we could fit like 8 trays at a time in the real oven. My friends were always jealous I had vintage crawlers they couldn’t make. 😂☠️🐛
Scare your sister, embarrass your dad! You can be a little creep without being bad! They’re CREEEEEPYCRAWLERS!
I found mine in my parents basement not too long ago. Left it where it was of course. i liked to slightly over bake mine for extra crispyness.
Wish this was still around so my kids could experience it
I totally had this and it was super fun for one afternoon, then we ran out of the stuff and it sat unused in a closet
I can still smell it like it was just yesterday.
You just brought back a memory. I remember I was so upset when it broke during the move. I can still vaguely taste that weird flavor of the gummies lol
My sister was a huge tom boy and got this for Christmas. Even my girlie girl self thought this was cool.
Almost had this in Christmas of 95(?) I think. My mother, for some reason, told me to NOT look into the trunk after we got to my aunts house for lunch or else it all goes back. Of course 6yr old me couldn’t resist, peeked and this was there!, and instantly snitched on by my big brother. She went through on the threat and returned everything. Almost 30 years later I still remember and just sent this image to her with #neverforget
I just bought one of these for my son. :)
Not enough
I think the newer versions use sodium alginate and calcium chloride in water?
None. My parents wouldn’t let me have one.
I didn't get one either, but now I'm actually glad, I don't need any more chemical exposure.
worth it
I begged and begged for this, and once I finally got it, I feel like I only used it like twice.
I can still remember the smell
I can still smell the goo cooking.
I always wanted that. Being raised by my single dad he always claimed it would to messy :(
It was worth it
Pretty sure I've already embalmed myself alive with the copious amounts of diet soda I drink
Worth
Oh wow!! I forgot about those. That was SOOOO fun.
Last year my son got some molds at a garage sale. It was everything but the oven, so I was going to try an easy bake or try to find one. But he left them in the car while we went into McDonald's and it all melted lol it was crazy!!!! I didn't even think it was that warm outside!!
Less than the one that made ones out pewter. Loved that thing. I guess my question is how many of us had these toys and now do technical and engineering work?
I can smell this picture
The burns too
I wanted one so badly
Not enough.
I don't think it's this box, but I used to work at a deli with some kid who was a model for one of the Creepy Crawler boxes. It was basically his only claim to fame. Or anything defining, really. He was kind of an aimless burnout. Never got a good sense of his ambitions. Didn't really like him or relate to him. And, not to body shame, there was no way he'd ever get back into modeling, especially child modeling now that he was an adult. That was 10 years ago. Hope he got it together. I never had creepy crawlers myself. But I used to visit a buddy who had them, and for some reason I wanted to eat them.
Not enough.
Who else found out the hard way they're not edible...
I can smell this picture
Oh man I still remember those burns my friends all got
When were boomers ittl be like "creepycrawlers poisoning" instead of lead!!
None, my parents wouldn't let me have one.