Creepy Crawlers - Varieties of Thingmaker Mold Sets

Varieties of Thingmaker Mold Sets

• Giant Creepy Crawlers (1965) — This set featured nine molds (as did the original "Creepy Crawlers"), but these new molds featured just one giant creature apiece.
• Fighting Men (1965) — This set of six molds could be used to create mini soldier figures, using an innovative two-part mold to give the Fighting Men a front and a back. The set also included pieces of wire to place in the figure, making it bendle with the bottom wire protrusions being able to stand on a styrofoam base. Other molds in the set created weaponry and equipment for the Fighting Men to carry into battle.
• Creeple Peeple (1965) — This five-mold set formed strange heads, arms and feet. When assembled onto a pencil, they formed weird, Troll-like creatures.
• Fun Flowers (1966) — Seven molds full of different styles and shapes of flowers and leaves, for use in decorating and design.
• Fright Factory (1966) — Five of this set's seven molds were dedicated to creepy disguises, making pieces such as fake scars, snaggled teeth, or a third eye for one's forehead. Another mold (with a special insert) made a shrunken head, and the last made a dangly skeleton that one built from parts.
• Picadoos (1967) — A Thingmaker for artists. This one featured molds with 10x10-space numbered grids. By carefully placing colored Plastigoop in the grid, one could create decorative artwork in either beads, mosaic tile, or cross-stitch varieties.
• Mini-Dragons (1967) — The eight molds in this set formed wings, horns, claws, tails, and other body parts, which could be combined into various fantasy creatures.
• Eeeeks! (1968) — In the same vein as Mini-Dragons, this set of eight molds formed several varieties of mix-and-match legs, bodies, heads, wings, antennae, etc., to create large, bizarre insects.
• Zoofie-Goofies (1968) — Seven molds form heads, bodies and feet of various animals, from cats and dogs to elephants and lions.
• DollyMaker (1969) — Five two-sided molds are used to create two styles of little dolls, and a wardrobe of late '60s fashions and accessories for them.
• Super Cartoon Maker (1969) — A licensed Thingmaker, the eight molds in this set form replicas of Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters, such as Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy.
• Jillions of Jewels (1970) — The last of the classic Mattel Thingmakers. The set had five molds, but instead of the liquid Plastigoop, these formed solid plastic "gemstones" and jewelry frames from two kinds of powdered "Jewel Dust" compounds.

It is generally believed that production of the original Mattel Thingmakers was discontinued following consumer safety concerns over allowing children to use a small electric heater as a toy.

In 1978 Mattel released an updated (and safer) model of their "Creepy Crawlers" toy. Called the "Thingmaker II", this version used a very differently formulated Plastigoop, and utilized plastic molds, into which was poured the heated Plastigoop. In this set one heated the Plastigoop and poured it into the green plastic mold(s) to cool; the molds were not put into the heater, which looked like a small cauldron. The reformulated Plastigoop did not work well and the process of making bugs, etc. with these sets was painfully slow, taking an hour or so to make a creation. Needless to say, the late 1970s sets did not work as well as their predecessors, and the attempted revival was a short-lived one. Only two sets were produced - Creepy Crawlers and Flower Fun.