"Remember Madballs?"

I have been spending a lot of time looking at a nostalgic website called retrojunk.com. The site looks at all things from the past that people may miss or want to be reminded of.

I managed to find the site when I typed 'madballs' into the Google search engine a few weeks ago to get the picture I used for my 'Base Brawl' post.

Madballs were ugly looking balls that kids collected back in the 1980's. I had one given to me on my birthday in 1987. It was purple and grotesque. I have looked for a picture of a similar ball but haven't been able to find one.

Madballs were the toys I forgot all about. If it wasn't for that maniacal baseball picture I needed for the post I surely wouldn't have been reminded about them.

They seemed to have been most popular in the United States. Over there the balls had their own cartoon series and comic book. I have this vague memory of buying a Madballs comic with my pocket money but I could be wrong.

When I look back at the toys of my childhood it makes me think of Josh and whether - when he is twenty years older than he is now - will he be looking at similar things to remind him of the toys of his day? The current crop of toys seem to be spin-offs from television and movies. It seemed to be different back then as some of the cartoons and films were made due to the popularity of the toys.

I titled this post 'Remember Madballs?' after a phone conversation I had with Miguel. I hadn't called him on the phone for weeks and the first thing I asked him when we spoke a few days ago was 'Hey, remember Madballs?' He must have thought I had lost my marbles... or my Madballs. Forunately, he did remember them.