Entertech & LJN Toys: Spit Balls toy line Review (1988)

Oh the 1980's...how I love the strange and weird things you contributed to the toy world.. What never ceases to amaze me is just how many different random toy lines exist out there that I am continually discovering every day. I grew up during the big fad of Madballs, but as they were gross toys I never could have any of them. The one concession I had was the Madballs Head Popping Action Figure version of Skull Face as he was just a skeleton and not anything gross like Slobulus or Bash Brain. What's funny is there was an entire line of similarly sized crazy ball toys out there that I could have gotten instead, had my mother or my 8 year old self known about them.

This line I only discovered back in 2013 while a friend of mine & I were in a local retro toy store. Inside a bin of random crap I found one of these Spit Balls called Sgt. Spitz and I had no clue what it was from. Only "1988 LJN Toys" stamped on it's reverse side was the only clue I had. My friend said "Oh! That's a Spit Ball! I had those when I was a kid." and then the game was afoot. After a few quick eBay searches I found a few MOC sets and quickly bid on three of them. One was snagged out from under me, the cooler set as it had a Jack-O'lantern & Shark Spit Ball in it (what an awesome pairing that was!), but the other two I acquired and am now reviewing for you today.

So, without further blathering, let's jump right into Spit Balls!

These guys are great, why did no one want to buy these back in 1998???

Contents! What do you get??
Two Spit Balls per pack and that's it! There were a total of 12 produced and divided between 3 different teams or factions which I will get into below. The two 2-packs I'm reviewing contained Shades (a beach ball) & Spitz-Skull while the other contained Frank N-Spitz and Kicker (a soccer ball). They come carded on small blister cards with FIVE whole Spit Balls Points!

5 Spit Balls Points...my ship has finally come in!

Why? Because every toy line back then had to do this so you would feverishly stock-pile them like a squirrel in a blizzard only to find out the line was cancelled and these were as useful as wet toilet paper. As far as I know, there were never any promotions or mail-aways so these are really just nice to look at if not anything else.

Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
There is no story or world for the Spit Balls like there was for Madballs, and maybe that was the reason why the line was not a smash success? Each of the 12 Spit Balls are divided up into three different groups:

The Wacko's!

The Beasts!

The Jocks!

And that was the most we had to work with. Are they all on the same side and these were just classifications OR was each group against the other? The world may never know...

My favorites right off the bat had to be Jack O: Spitz and Lockjaw so I was most annoyed when I lost the bid for them. I love Halloween and a shark-shaped ball creature is just an added bonus. Next time eBay...next time...

Okay, so let's look at the actual toys now: the sculpts all all of these are great but you can see how they cut corners here & there to save on sculpting costs. The backs of every single Spit Ball are exactly the same with a little square sculpted on the bottom. Why? So you can stand them up on the table. This blew my mind. Where as my Madballs roll all over the place, here LJN solved the problem with a little flat square for them to balance on. Brilliance in it's simplicity.

Kicker (Front View)

Kicker (Side View)

Kicker: Just a soccer ball that appears to have taken one to many kicks to the head...ball? The sculpt is really fun and they even incorporated one of the black Pentagons of the soccer ball design to give him a nose. It's a clever touch that really adds a a lot of character. Only downsides are I think the red paint from his tongue started to leech into the right side of his face leaving a little pink hue and the rear of him does not have the soccer ball design painted on. These totally ruins the illusion that this is a soccer ball and I really wish they had a larger budget for paint applications.

Shades (Front View)

Shades (Side View)

Shades (Rear View)

Shades: Out of the 4 here, this one is my favorite. So much character and expression on his face. Plus his sunglasses show his eyes by use of clever paint applications. This was a great touch and really gives the illusion that they are real plastic or glass lenses, especially as they easily could have just left them blank. The attention to detail was very present in some of these Spit Balls, the sculptors definitely had fun on this line. Unlike Kicker, LJN chose to paint the 2 large orange sections of his ball on the rear of the sculpt, so this does look more like a complete toy and less like one they sent out half-painted.

Spitz-Skull (Front)

Spitz-Skull (Right Side)

Spitz-Skull: Part of the "Wacko's" group of Spit Balls, this is your typical skull type of sculpt. Again, like all Spit Balls only the front is sculpted but it was done in such a way that it appears the rounded rear of the ball is just the back of the skull, so it somewhat blends together nicely. Spitz-Skull has tiny purple dots for eyes with gray surrounding it to make them look either hollow or sunken-in and it works well. His mouth is sculpted in a sort of 'grin' making him look rather insane...or just really giddy. They painted him a gold tooth (because why not?) and he squirts his spit not out of his mouth, but out of his nose-socket. That was clever, they did this again with Sgt. Spitz who squirts his spit out of the tip of his cigar. Gotta love ingenuity!

Frank N-Spitz (Front)

Frank N-Spitz (Left Side)

Frank N-Spitz: An interesting take on Frankenstein's Monster, this one is your stereotypical green color with bolts on his....neck? Since Spit Balls are basically disembodied heads, the sculptor still tried to give him his signature neck bolts, and this actually works. I just wish they were painted and thus stood out a bit more. Frank here has black eyes with tiny red pupils and an expression on his face that is more of...sadness then anger or rage. He seems rather placid, just living his un-life and minding his business. His hair is painted gray with a very high and tidy cut to it typical of most Frankenstein's Monsters.

Unfortunately he also succumbs to the 'rear-ball-look" all these Spit Balls have. What really distracts from the design is that the change is so abrupt leaving the hair to sort of pitch towards the center of his head and then vanish into a large, green sphere. Out of the five I own, this one ruins the illusion the most, and really does not compliment the sculpt at all. Sgt. Spitz has his green helmet painted all the way to the back, Shades has all his orange quarters painted, but by leaving it blank here makes it seem like he's emerging from a ball instead of being a ball. The real saving grace of this sculpt is the placement of his spit squirt hole: the center of his forehead. Designed to look like the stitches along his forehead have begun to separate, the water squirts from here instead of his mouth and it's a perfect hiding spot if you just want to display this as a Frankenstein's Monster head and not use it as a Spit Ball. Touche' LJN.

How to work a Spit Ball really was very simple, as is depicted in this drawing from the back of the card:

It's amazing they had to go so far as to explain this...

...I think we could have figured it out.

Oh what ever would I have done without this. I

Should I try to get this brand new?:
Absolutely, if you can find them that is. These show up far less frequently then the licensed Horror & Ghostbusters sets but keep hunting for them to see if they turn up, they are worth the wait. On card their price can fluctuate based upon the seller and how much they want or need to make on the sale. I believe my carded samples cost me $15 each which was not too bad given how rarely they show up. Finding them loose is not a bad idea either as the paint they used is very durable since it needed to flex with the squishing of the Spit Ball. My Sgt. Spitz toy still had a very decent amount of paint coverage for a toy that probably had been bouncing around a toy box for the better part of 2 & a half decades, so if you see some loose snatch'em up!

So what do you really think about it?:
These guys are fun, and if the price was right back in the day I may have bought these up like crazy. They're small, squishy, they fit in your pocket AND they squirt water. With amazingly fun sculpts that have a lot of character, I think these really could have found a nice little niche for themselves up near the front of stores by the cash registers. I guess people were just not into the whole idea by 1988 especially as Madballs was already gone. Good line that did not get nearly enough attention.

Check out me de-carding Frank N-Spitz and Kicker as well as showing off Spitz-Skull and Shades in the video below!

Kenner Lil' Loggers Ranger Rob & Chops the Beaver Review (1983)

I never ever heard of this toy line growing up. I may have passed them on clearance at Toys 'R' Us or Kay-Bee Toys dozens of times over the years, but I have no active memories of seeing or holding them.

"Hey there! Need us to chop down some wood??"

From what I can gather, Kenner tried making a boys toy equivalent to their popular Sea Wees line of mermaid dolls and instead gave little boys different lumberjacks to collect. As I was three years old at the time, I may have missed the memo that lumberjacks were an 'in' thing. As the line faded into obscurity during the past 33 years since it came out (WOW I feel old...), apparently no one else thought they were cool either.

Who can blame kids though? In 1983 we had Masters of the Universe G.I. Joe and Transformers was showing up a year later in 1984. What chance did a line of water-squirting lumberjacks have against those toys??

That being said, this is a goofy fun little line that has some pretty decent toys in it. The sculpting is on par with toys of the decade (the little animal pals and the lumberjack head sculpts are very well done, very full of character) and goes to show that you didn't need hyper realistic detail to make a toy.

Contents! What do you get??
The pair of Lil' Loggers I grabbed are Ranger Rob and his beaver companion Chops. You also get a sponge log for the two of them to ride on while in the bathtub, sink, kiddie pool, lake or pond. That is all the accessories they have, even the saw that Ranger Rob is clutching in his right hand is apart of his arm and is non removable. That works out fine with me, as I know something that small would have gotten sucked down the drain quickly as a kid, so this was a smart move on Kenner's part back then.

Ranger Rob & Chops the Beaver MOC (Front)

Ranger Rob & Chops the Beaver MOC (Back)

Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
They each have matching hats, a theme amongst all the Lil' Loggers and their Pet Pals, with squishy heads or bodies so they can absorb and squirt water. Each Logger has 3 points of articulation with simple rotation points at their shoulders & head. The little animals are non articulated and are really just companion pieces. Aside from doing that and floating in their sponge logs, these guys don't do much else.

Ranger Rob & Chops Front View

Ranger Rob & Chops Right Side View

Ranger Rob & Chops Back View

Ranger Rob.....or Yukon Cornelius with blonde hair: YOU decide!

Chops the Beaver: a born killer

Close-Up of Chops' Unpainted Beaver Tail

They stand up well too, although Ranger Rob is at bit of an angle so on un-even surfaces he will take a header very quickly. Chops is solid though and will stand or sit fine. Only nitpick I have is Chops' tail. I know the extra paint applications probably didn't cost out, but for a beaver I feel it is important that his tail be shown prominently. Here, it just blends in with the rest of the sculpt. Other then that it's fine, I'd even go as far as to paint it but I'd rather leave it as it is; how else would I play with it in the sink??

Just a Lumberjack and his Beaver floating downstream...waitaminute..

The line had a three other figures in it, Jumper Joe & Rocky Raccoon, Trapper Tom & Paddles Bear and Woody Warren & Buzzy Beaver.

(Cross-Sell Picture from the card back)

(Cross-Sell Picture from the card back)

Ranger Rob was originally named "Ranger Rick" but apparently Kenner did not know about the magazine of the same name and shortly after his name was changed to Ranger Rob. Some card backs show the original name, but the later releases featured the change PLUS a glimpse of an un-produced new figure...

Bluster Bear & Dither Duck Un-released Figure cross-sell picture

Bluster Bear & Dither Duck were shown in I believe a Kenner Toy Fair Catalog for 1983, but for whatever reason (I guess the line not selling well should qualify as a reason...) it never saw production. This was part of the reason why I wanted this particular carded version of Ranger Rob so much, it actually showed this un-made toy on the back. This line is obscure enough, I don't even want to think how hard this toy is to find even if it was made. Hell, for all I know it could have been made- there is simply not enough known about this line.

Should I try to get this brand new?
That's hard to answer. If you want them in the most pristine condition possible so when you yank them off of the card so they will be in great shape, look for them carded. If you don't care about that & just want the toys, look for them loose. Prices on these on eBay vary greatly so you may see one seller with just one of the Pet Pals loose for $25.00 OR a carded sample for the same price. I paid $21.50 for this but I've seen some sellers list these at $200+, and this line does not have the collector drive to warrant that price. Sure they are old and obscure as hell, but I doubt there are more then 10 people on the internet actively hunting for them- myself included.

So what do you really think about it?
This is a fun toy. As a kid I love playing with my toys in the water, so if I was given this as a gift I'd totally have had fun playing with it in the tub. I doubt I would have sought them out on my own as I loved monster toys and a lumberjack with a pet animal might not have struck the fancy of my 3 year old younger self. As a grown up toy lover, they are cool and I will definitely be hunting them down to at least round out the set if possible.

If you come across one during your own toy hunts and are into lumberjacks, toys with animal companions, toys that squirt water OR weird odd-ball things from the 1980's- pick it up, you won't be disappointed.

Ranger Rob & Chops in their Sponge Log

Oh! Be sure to check out the video I made below for this as well. I try not to talk about the same things here in the blog and there, but if you want to see the toy IN ACTION, check out the link below to our YouTube account. It's kinda bare-bones right now, but the videos work and you can see everything clearly, the snazzy stuff comes out later on.

Fisher-Price Smooshees Smugglers: Scooter Pup review (1988)

Ah Smooshees....this one takes me way back, all the way to 1988. This line was from my younger childhood, and I did not have many of them (only 3 or so) but my sister, my good friend Alison (aka 'Alison Up the Block') and I would play with these often. I still have the Squish Fish she gave me, minus his cool fish bowl accessory though.

So what do you DO with Smooshees you may ask? Why, SMOOSH them of course!

Thats basically it.

The whole line revolved around the concept of taking small, plush animals & humans and cramming them into their hard plastic, under-sized accessories. Damn, when I say that outloud it sounds kinda morbid....but hey they're only toys so it's alright! Squish their brains! Whoopie!! :-D

*ehem*

The Smooshees Smugglers sub-theme of the Smooshees (I'm driving my auto-correct with that word btw, it keeps trying to change it to 'smooches') line revolved around a secondary play pattern: taking your toys with you in secret. Want to bring them to class in school but would get in trouble? NO PROBLEM! Fisher-Price makes a pen with a Smooshee to cram inside! Don't want a pen? How about a Note pad? A Diary? Purse??? With this line, Fisher-Price had your back.

This assortment though, didn't really do much to hide the Smooshees...more or less you just would wear them and people would look at you oddly whilst you walked around with small, 1980's obnoxiously colored animals all over your clothing.

I'd say the 1980's called and they want their colors back, BUT this was in the 1980's so I'll just sit here quietly.. 

Dottie Kitten is by far the most neon of the bunch; bright neon yellow hair, AND pink? Put your sun glasses on folks, this kitten has a bright future. Anyone? No? Alright fine, moving on...


Contents! What do you get??
This is part of the basic (aka cheaper) Smooshees Smugglers assortment so you don't get much. Just the Scooter Pup Smooshee and a yellow-orange clip to tote him around with.

Scooter Pup, his Clip & Packaging

Okay cool, tell us about 'em!
The colors on this guy are crazy. The normal Smooshees line was mostly lighter pastels, but the Smugglers are that crazy loud 1980's color combinations we all loved back then..and shuddered at today. I love it though, the over the topness of it all just makes it loads of fun. All the Smugglers also had rooted hair, something not seen on any other Smooshee so that adds a lot of character to them too.

Scooter Pup in his clip (Front)

Scooter Pup in his clip (Left Side)

"Um...help, I got stuck in this thing..guys? Little help...?"

Should I try to get this brand new?:
If you can afford it and its not outrageously priced, go for it. Lots of kids smooshed the every lovin' crap out of these toys so after almost 30 years loose samples not in the best of care could probably be very gnarly. I made the mistake of storing all my Smooshees inside their little accessories which made them all rather....deflated. I won't have that problem with Scooter though so that's a good thing. I paid $10 for this on an open card but never used and that was a great price. I saw one or two listed for $25.00 and that's not too bad, especially considering the larger sets with the cooler smugglers items are at $80+ on eBay. That's just nutty, but to each their own I guess.

So what do you really think about it?:
This was a fun part of my childhood and I don't foresee myself buying these in droves unless I can get them for a steal. They are fun toys and can really add a splash of 1980's madness to any display in your house.

Check out the video below for Scooter Pup in action although not getting smooshed into anything aside from his hang tag.