Sunday, October 23, 2011

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………… “

14 comments:

Linda Sue said...

LOVE Crazy IKE! How cool! I can see how you could spend the hours playing with them and setting them up and suddenly They start arguing and wanting each other's limbs and heads and oh my- there goes another day...

Sarah said...

I have not seen this toy-we must not have been lucky enough to have it here! It looks great-I love the bright simple colours nad the possibility for using the imagination-the best kind of toy! I love your photos of your latest Crazy Ike play session!

Anzu said...

I'm interested in such creative toys. Toys allow us to act as any ones at our imaginary world. In a way, those free us mind from stressful days.

Buttons Thoughts said...

I have to admit I never seen a Crazy Ike toy they look very cool I so would have been playing with them. B

Pearl said...

How cool!

I've never seen these before.

I grew up with Lincoln Logs. :-) YAY! I can build a log cabin -- or a different log cabin!

Pearl

Far Side of Fifty said...

Thanks for the introduction into Crazy Ike..I have not seen him before. Way cool toy. :)

CarrieBoo said...

Well, I didn't realize the South Park "Ike" was based on a real guy! (Girl, woman, man... long-faced duck-like creature.) That is so cool!

Butternut Squash said...

I love the many facets of you. That was fun!

elizabeth said...

These are such fun!
Sort of a cross between Mr. Potatohead and Lego.
Yes, I bet you had fun making the post.
I can't wait to make cool stuff with Henry since I'm just a large child myself!

Debbie said...

very cool....i had no idea!!

susan m hinckley said...

How do I not know Crazy Ike?! I feel like I've really missed something. Maybe it's one of the few things in the world I'm not old enough to remember? And I love your photos of things that you caption, btw. You really have a gift for it.

susan m hinckley said...

Okay, sort of off-topic here but here's something you might find twisted-but-interesting, given your interest in taking the aforementioned photos: http://www.junk-culture.com/2011/10/film-of-dolls-murder.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+junk-culture%2FdkDm+%28Junkculture%29

Anonymous said...

Brilliant - I've never seen Crazy Ike before - now I want a set!!

Jill said...

You have a great talent for imbuing all your little creations with life Leenie.