Creepy Crawlers

Creepy Crawlers (or Thingmaker) is an activity toy made by Mattel, beginning in 1964. The toy consists of a series of die-cast metal moulds resembling various bug-like creatures, into which is poured a liquid chemical substance called "Plastigoop", which comes in assorted colours. The mould is then heated to about 390 °F (199 °C) in an open-face electric hot plate oven. The Plastigoop is cured by the heat, and when cooled forms semi-solid, rubbery replicas which can be removed from the mould.

The concept of the Thingmaker was introduced in 1963, as part of Mattel's "Vac-U-Maker" set. This omnibus toy combined the new moulds and Plastigoop technology with the existing "Vac-u-form" machine, which molded simple sculptures by heating thin sheets of plastic, then using a vacuum pump to form the softened plastic over hard plastic forms. Following this introduction period, the Thingmaker portion was spun off as a separate set, and launched as the "Creepy Crawlers" line.

Mattel packaged moulds from various sets to be sold separately, and also combined moulds into larger omnibus editions, encompassing several themes into one set, under names such as "Triple Thingmaker", "Super Thingmaker" and "Every Thingmaker". Mattel produced many Thingmaker sets as follow-ups to the original "Creepy Crawlers" throughout the 1960s, utilising a variety of themes, aimed at both boys and girls. There were also several exclusive single mould sets, such as Superman and Tarza, and original Mattel concepts including Squirtles and Gangly Danglies.

Creepy Crawlers was also adapted as a cartoon that run from 1994 to 1996