The Toys of Summer (Winter Edition), PART 3: "Blobimals"

Click here for intro and PART 1.
Click here for PART 2.

PRODUCT:

Blobimals

VISUAL PROOF OF THIS PRODUCT’S EXISTENCE:
[see below]

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Very few people are saying anything about Blobimals.  Even the Blobimals website doesn’t offer an entry-level description of the product.  Instead, the website invites you to enter the world of the Blobimals, and I can’t find any place where they “break character” for Blobimal novices (“Blobimalices”?) and say, “OK, so here’s what a Blobimal is…”  Same for the Blobimal Facebook page.

While it’s hardly an official product description, a writer at squidoo has this to say:

"Blobimals; my guess is that they'll be this year's hot playground toy this autumn/fall term… Blobimals are really easy to make.
1. Simply pop open the tub, and take out all the bits.
2. Start shaping your monster's body in the squishy putty and when it's done, place it on a clean, flat surface.
3. Stick your monster's feet, arms, horns, eyes, and mouth into the putty body - wherever they look cool!
4. Admire your monster creation, and take a photo for your friends.
5. Pull off those monster limbs and face, squash that monster body, and start all over again, to create a brand new monster every time!
6. Or, leave your Blobimal overnight to melt into a pool of monster slime - yucky!
Blobimals are available in three varieties: a one-eyed toothy green monster, a two eyed fanged monster, and a three eyed spikey red version."

THE GIST:

You get a ball of clay that seems like a cross between Play-doh and Silly Putty.  Shape it into a monster.  Add the accessories.  Check back later and find your monster melted into a puddle.

PROS:

I’m a sucker for things that do what they’re supposed to do.  Once, Beth and I saw some ad that was bragging about how this fancy new vacuum cleaner sucked up dirt.  And I said to Beth, “Sucking up things is what makes something a vacuum!  If it doesn’t do that, it’s not a vacuum!  By definition!”  She told me I was so cute.

And while I have lived long enough not to be shocked when a product doesn’t work exactly as advertised, at the same time I am especially satisfied when it does.  Would Blominals provide that level of satisfaction?  Could a putty really be firm enough to mold but soft enough to melt into a puddle?

Even though we bought it as last-minute stocking stuffer and didn’t have a lot riding on its functionality, we still hoped.  At first, the clay was a little firm.  We softened it up.  The girls sculpted their monsters, then accessorized.

These pics are recent—not taken from that first day—but they are a fair representation of “take one”.

Yes, they melt.  We were all pretty delirious, though none of us fully understood it.  But they didn’t promise we'd understand it.  They promised “mold and melt,” and on that basis, I offer my highest compliment: “The functionality of Blobimals exceeds even my greatest hopes for a product making these particular claims.”

CONS:

With the passing of time (and half-lifes?), the Blominal clay has become more liquidy and harder to shape.  The re-uses may be finite in number.

It would have been nice to get just a little bit more clay to work with.  I suspect that in the very near future, we will combine the blobs of clay and make large monster sculptors a few times before we dispose of the Blobimal clay.

I think we paid $6, which seems a little bit high.  I don’t know what the ingredients are, so maybe $6 is a bargain.  And, like I’ve said, the product does what it’s supposed to do, so I can’t fault them too much for trying to make some cash off of their invention.

RATING:

5 stars out of 5

To borrow an old slogan from the Army, this product is all that it can be.  I respect that.  The PROS are significant, and the CONS are nitpicky.  Consider it stamped with The Hungry Preacher’s seal of approval.

Next up:
Crayola Digital Light Designer

-THP