I LOVED CRAZY IKE

He wasn’t much to look at. His head was too big and his legs were a little short.

He had no hair and a face more bland than Charley Brown, but I loved him.

I loved his giraffe, too and that other thing he hung out with which could become a horse, 

a dog, a goat, an alien from outer space---whatever. 

My sibs and I went through several sets of Krazy Ikes. They first arrived in a yellow box. (the toys, not my sibs) Later they moved to a long yellow canister. I remember asking Santa for more Krazy Ikes and being pretty excited when my order came through.

Ike’s features were so vague that they could be girls or boys, grownups 

or kids with only a little stretch of imagination. 

Usually the blue ones were boys and the red ones were girls.

We could make countless odd creations, sometimes using the instruction book for ideas. 

But we quickly went from motorcycles and shot guns to space ships, furniture,

weird automobiles, a canon, and on and on.

The set I have now is old and brittle so I have to be careful with the hard plastic parts. Some of the soft plastic parts have chew marks from when they were used for teething.

I still find Krazy Ike and his friends so fascinating that it took quite a while 

to finish taking pictures for this post.

“What do you mean I look sad? You’re the one with the long face!” 

“Yeah, but your legs don’t match and your toes turn in.” 

“What! Why I oughta………… “