Flubber

In a 1963 tie-in with the Walt Disney movie Son of Flubber, Hasbro developed a product called Flubber, a substance made of rubber and mineral oil that could bounce like a ball and take imprints (similar to Silly Putty). After it had been on the market for several months, the company began receiving reports that Flubber was causing a rash. The Flubber formula had passed all the regular tests, but the company began testing again, this time on volunteer prisoners. One prisoner developed a rash on his head, and the company learned that the product irritated hair follicles of a small percentage of the population.

Hasbro recalled Flubber--thousands and thousands of balls--and consigned it to the city dump. The next day Hasbro execs received a call from the mayor of Providence, who informed them that a black cloud hovered over the dump; the rubber would not burn properly. Merrill Hassenfeld of Hasbro called the Coast Guard for permission to weight the Flubber and dump it at sea. Permission was granted. However, the next day the Coast Guard called to complain that Flubber was floating all over Narrangansett Bay. After paying the Coast Guard to sweep the ocean, Hassenfeld took the mess and buried it in his backyard. (adapted from Toyland)

follow up:

So they got permission to weight them down and sink them off the coast. But Flubber balls got loose and floated to the surface. The Coast Guard had to collect fifty thousand of them and return them to Hasbro. Finally, they buried their stock in an area near their factory and paved it over as a parking lot.

That worked for thirty-five years. Then employees began seeing Flubber rising like the undead through cracks in the pavement. That was just as Disney released a remake of the old movie. The 1997 movie Flubber was roundly panned by three quarters of the major reviewers. And, although neither reappearance was welcome, I can recommend one latter-day Flubber reincarnation.

A widely-circulated recipe tells children how to make their own Flubber-like material from water, white glue, and borax. When they're done, they'll be embryonic chemists who've made their own long-chain polymeric material. And they'll have made their own fun as well. I'll post a link on how-to-do-it, on the Engines web site.

I still subscribe to the schwarz theory that Slime, SillyPutty and other goo-based toys were originally industrial accidents.
- steve 3-20-2009 5:19 am [add a comment]

i had flubber. it was a toy craze on my block in the dallas subs and everyone (my age) had some. it started clear and greyed after lifting up a few news print images. it bounced like a superball too. one day i went out front and slammed it down in the street. being amorphic, it took a wild hop and i never found it again. it was a mysterious toy. and post minimal before there was minimal.
- bill 3-20-2009 1:14 pm [add a comment]

make your own GAK and other stuff. or if you have a cat just wait a minute...
- bill 3-20-2009 1:41 pm [add a comment]