Seamonkey animal6/3/2023 ![]() ![]() A pen-sized, coil-springed weapon that unfurled a metal whip at the flick of a wrist, the Kiyoga took off (well, sort of) after Burt Reynolds used it in his 1981 big-budget stinker, "Sharkey's Machine." With typically shameless panache, von Braunhut peddled the Kiyoga for $59.95, calling it the ideal weapon "if you need a gun but can't get a license."īut in the late 1980s, the Kiyoga snapped back at its inventor. So what if Sea-Monkeys did not actually spring to life sporting broad grins, spiky tiaras and perky hairdos? So what if the sperm-like creatures could not truly be hypnotized, play baseball, or rise from the dead?Įverybody past the age of 6 knew Sea-Monkeys were little more than an elaborate hoax, but von Braunhut's witty packaging ensured that everybody still loved them - enough to certify him as a beloved king of American kitsch.īut then von Braunhut, who died recently at age 77, cooked up a drastically different toy - the Kiyoga Agent M5. Twisted von Braunhut surely was, but if you asked the legions of baby boomers who mail-ordered his packages of amusing disappointments in the 1960s and '70s, it definitely seemed like the good kind of twisted. What else can you say about a man who transformed a dinky, transparent species of crustacean into "Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys," peddling billions of the creatures under fantastically false pretenses? A man whose 194 other patents included those other unforgettable staples of comic-book advertising, Invisible Goldfish and X-Ray Spex? Nobody ever doubted that Harold von Braunhut was one twisted dude.
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