Pig toy returns to normal after being squashed - video

Lokulokus are little plastic toy pigs from Japan. Throw them onto a tabletop and they'll be squashed flat. Then they'll slowly return to their normal roly-poly shape. The video is a delight. Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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xiaosquared

in china, they have people trying to sell those for 1-3 yuan (under 50 cents) at basically every tourist spot.
davidaarong

Nice stress relief

http://www.audiodrums.com
Lukstr

This is incredible. I must have one.
The Unusual Suspect

Is this for real, or a video played in reverse of a plastic toy melting?
Doran

I have it from a reliable source that these, while really nifty, have a tendency to rupture prematurely.

Bummer.
Antinous

This teaches children the important lesson that it’s okay to maim and mutilate animals and people because they’ll just reshape themselves in a few seconds. Cool.
Mark Frauenfelder

I’m guessing Tex Avery and other animators of the squash-and-stretch school aren’t welcome in your nervous system either, eh, Antinous?
Anonymous

My brother brought me one from Korea… It exploded in just a couple of days, and now I’m sad…
donnamatrix

I’m reminded of Terminator 2.

I don’t think I want one of these. It might murder me in my sleep to keep me from heading up a revolution. :(
dcdomain

Ah, my friend brought back one from Korea too… last I saw it was early in the summer. Not sure if it’s still in one piece.

While a bunch of friends and I were down in Argentina, we picked up a bunch of tomato versions in Buenos Aires.

Here’s a few photos of the tomato version in action:
http://flickr.com/photos/kevinboon/1252806929/in/set-72157601710567579/
rouftop

Paws up!
virgilsoames

I remember that when I was Beijing, vendors were sitting in major pedestrian underpasses near where tourists flocked. They had boxes of them, and I recall a passerby bought one for twenty yuan.
Jake Bullet

I picked up a bunch of these last year in Bangkok. They came in a bunch of different flavors (tomato, soccer ball, yellow smiley face, etc.)

When I brought them home, I found that they didn’t work quite the same in the cool dampness of Vancouver as they did in the steamy mugginess of Bangkok.

They quickly collected dust and dirt and quickly lost the stickiness that makes them splat so nicely.
friedbeefsandwich

Oh my god, Terminator Pigs, EVERYBODY PANIC!
feverblue

I love the eerie crow sounds in the background. Strangely appropriate.
boinkboink3000

These things (in various shapes and designs) are like 10 cents each and are very common in any Asian city streetmarket.
anthropomorphictoast

Squishy pigs. Utterly useless. So naturally, it’s COOL AND I WANT ONE.
Burns!

I picked up a handful of these things in Shanghai last month. 20 yuan (about US$3) seems pretty steep, though. I got them 4 for a dollar. They’re pretty amusing, but the novelty wears off quickly. They are filled with a mystery liquid, but the TSA didn’t have a problem letting them on the plane. Good thing I didn’t have a tube of toothpaste or anything “dangerous” with me.
pr10n

Maybe if you throw one at a friend’s face, the pig might squirm through the nostrils and then reform inside your friend’s skull. AWESOME.
gabrielm

OK everyone! Now, how do I get one without traveling to Asia?

Really – someone needs to corner the import market!
dculberson

I had a giant yellow slug that did this. It left slightly greasy spots on the walls and collected dust pretty quickly. It was a lot of fun, though. You could wash the dust off with dish soap and warm water. Eventually chunks came off and it looks pretty ratty.

My brother bought it for me somewhere in Spokane, Washington.
MrScience

Woot! One step closer to Gibson’s… material…

Case felt her move her fingers experimentally. The material of the ball seemed to offer no more resistance than temperfoam. "I wouldn't move them, if I were you." The interior of the ball seemed to tighten slightly. "It's a sex toy Jane bought in Berlin. Wiggle them long enough and it crushes them to a pulp. Variant of the material they make this flooring from. Something to do with the molecules, I suppose. Are you in pain?"
Wingo

This intrigues me immensely, for some reason.

Sorta-kinda reminds me of those weird sticky spider-thingies that you could throw at the wall and it would ‘crawl’ down.
abq halsey

This looks incredibly toxic. Pregnant women should not handle this, because your baby will come out looking like a half-eaten turducken.
Anonymous

“They quickly collected dust and dirt and quickly lost the stickiness that makes them splat so nicely.”

I had a somewhat similar polymer-based toy as tween in the early nineties:

http://www.amazon.com/Official-Icky-Poo-Book/dp/1591742412/

It got dirty pretty quickly, but you could wash it off with soap and water. It then returned to its original stickiness after a few minutes of air drying.

It also came with a warning that it could discolor latex-based paints if you left it stuck to your wall for too long.

…At any rate, on the off chance you didn’t throw it out, try giving it a wash. You haven’t got much to lose…
usefulcat

You have to be kind to them – the plastic seems to be barely a dozen molecules thick.

If you really want one – you can get them here for $2.50:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3827
GlitchBomb

If you live in southern california…They Sell these in poop, soccor ball,tomato,orange and many other forms at the Kobey swapmeet here in San Diego.
Mazoola

Hmmmm. A life-size human version of one of these and a highway overpass….
joe holmes

I had this toy about ten years ago in the shape of a raw egg. We bought several for stocking stuffers.

Yes, it’s the same material as the toys that crawl down glass. Yes they get dirty but can be restored pretty well by washing. And yes, a little residue is left behind to ruin wall paper, etc…
mellowknees

This appears to be a distant cousin of the WACKY WALL WALKER. Those, too, had a stickiness to their…erm…skin, I suppose is what you would call it. Washing them with dishwashing soap and warm water would remove any fuzzes and other bits of crap that would stick to them, and then air-drying brought the stickiness back. Which meant you could slap that thing on the wall and watch it walk down again and again and again. I wish I still had mine. I loved that thing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_WallWalker
Anonymous

Phthalates make the substance pliable and extremely cool, but have been linked in some studies to smaller penis size among males whose mothers had measurable exposure rates during pregnancy. No kidding. Be careful.
FreakCitySF

I’d love a full auto paintball gun with these!
Dr Triffid

Do not taunt Happy Fun BallÂ®.
dragonet2

i’ve got four cats including two that are <1 year old. This would a pile of goo on the floor before I knew it.

Because of cats, the gooey wall-walker things always gave me the willies. Our house is as clean as it can sanely be, and now I live in an older house that if I obsessed about dust I’d get nothing else done. Between dust and cat hair and cat etc. it’d be more than I can deal with.

Just saying. I also dislike things that are created ‘just’ so someone can be mean to them. It looks piteous as it’s smashed to the floor.

Just saying.
Red Zebra

Why my piggy!? I loveded you, piggy! I loveded yooou!
devophill

This? Is an inert piece of plastic.

Just saying.