Q.L.M. Mini-Rant- “What Do Kids Play With Nowadays?”
Does this product look familiar to you? If you ever watched more than fifteen minutes of Nickelodeon in the 90’s, it should.
Gak wasn’t just a simple combination of Elmer’s glue, borax, and garish coloring agents of questionable toxicity…it was a lifestyle.
First produced in 1992, Gak was marketed to kids as the ultimate adult-antagonizing agent: a product that looked like mucus, felt like cold congealed bacon fat, and sounded like flatulence when digitally manipulated.
Gak, unlike Play-Doh, was more of a sensory experience toy. People didn’t really “do” all that much with Gak by itself, constructively, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t loads fun to play with. Common Gak-related activities included grossing out grandmothers and pretending that a blob-like fiend was attacking your Transformers and/or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures.
After the success of Gak, Nickelodeon later released more art-conducive products of similar surreal appeal, like Floam and Smud.
Is it just me, or do they just not make these kinds of toys for kids anymore?
I dunno. Maybe I’m just getting old…
