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02/16/2005: The Madballs Bop Bag!

When I was wee ladding, I had a Smurfs “bop bag” featuring none other than Gargamel himself. I guess the thinking was, since kids were going to be beating the holy fuck out of the bop bag, the company might as well have based it on a villain character. I loved that stupid thing so much. Me being the youngest and weakest of seven brothers and sisters, it was the only thing in the house outside of Sandy the unloved dog that I could successfully pin for the Intercontinental title. Gargamel always came back for more of my patented body blows, Bull Charges and Tiger Punches, because that’s what any good bop bag does.

Bop bags came in all colors and sizes, and sometimes bop bags were full of surprises. In the very odd case shown above, the technology was bestowed upon the popular but not that popular Madballs franchise, run by those who were convinced that such classic characters as “Wolf Breath” were destined to become more than mere foam rubber balls, even if every attempt to move ‘em into new territory blew up in their bankrupt faces. I don’t know how many Madballs bop bags were produced, but I’ll put the bank on the fact that less than five were sold. EVER. Not that it isn’t an object of supreme excellence — it is, but kids who were heavily into Madballs had probably grown older than “bop bag age.” Three-year-olds weren’t allowed to have balls with devil faces on them.

God, that was a bitch to blow up. I need to stop smoking and start nebulizing.

After blowing it up forever, the end results were pretty cool. “Aargh” and “Dust Brain” are the chosen representatives, conspiring to forge an “3-D” effect against a clear plastic background. There’s nothing absurdly 3-D about it, but the box is convinced otherwise. For more information on Madballs, don’t click here, click here.

ahhh its been too long x-e.
hey its been two months since i lost my net….and its still christmas???!

What game is that? Bobbing bags? I never called them bop bags, always punching bags. I was a loser growing up.

I had a bop bag with a Ninja Turtle on it. Donatello, I think. Eventually it popped, but instead of throwing it out, I hung it on my bedroom door. Yeah.

Not only did I have an Incredible Hulk Bop Bag, but one Christmas I received boxing gloves from my Aunt and Uncle. Why the bought me boxing gloves when they knew damn well I had two older sisters is beyond me. Kinda like in 3rd grade when I won a mini-tool set, and promptly took apart all my B-list robot toys. I swear, people that give gifts like that secretly hate kids.

Never had a one of those but I always wanted one. I did have an inflatable T-Rex but it wasn’t the same.

you are sneaky, what with putting trick links and all other like forms of chicanery.

Ps. I had that Artoo clothes hamper.. I fit inside the damn thing at one point! oops.. am I a little early?
Must b the time machine…

Awww, who am I to judge? I smoke 15 Camel Turkish Golds a day. I call them diet sticks.
My 2 year old, Xander (http://profiles.myspace.com/users/5293991) LOVES his bob bags. He also loves making his stuffed frog use the toilet, so whatever.

Last week I was going through some old photos and found one cryptically named pencils.jpg. Turns out it’s a picture of a bunch of frigging ROCK PENCILS that I uploaded after the Poconos article because there were a bunch of underprivileged bloggers who had no idea about the wonder of pencils with little pebbles inside. Here it is: Pencils.jpg, uploaded 7/30/03.
Times really flies by, doesn’t it?

If Matt could put up one of his videos up for complete download, which one would you want it to be? My vote’s for the 1983 ABC Saturday Morning special with Dick Clark; an article wasn’t enough for me on that one.

I’d like to see the episode of He-man called Fisto’s Forest. Or the episode in which the tentacles grab He-man from behind and his reaction is to shout "SQUID!"

‘Aargh’. That’s gotta be the most inspired name for a toy since, I dunno, Spoons the Go-Bot.

In Machine Robo (which Go-bots is just the crappy western version of), Cy-kill was just a minor character called Bike.

smoking makes you cool. havent you ever seen monster squad? the "cool" kid was cool not because he wore shades or a leather jacket, but because he lit matches on his boots and frigg’n smoked! p.s. why isn’t you NES hooked up matt?

My punching bag had a clown picture on it. Since I don’t like clowns, it was my only chance to punch one without my parents getting angry with me.

I had one of those bop bags, but I think it had a clown on it. What I remember MUCH more fondly was something called "Rocky Boppers" They were like inflatable boxing gloves that you put on your hands to safely pound on your pals. I believe that I had the Mr. T ones, as I was obsessed with ANYTHING "T" at that time. So this was around Rocky III. Anyone else remember these things?

Also…I want to know the story of the room that pic was taken in. Matt, is that your store room?

Can’t say I ever had one of these bop bags, but I most certainly do remember Madballs.

Back in 6th grade at the height of their popularity, they were seemingly a dime a dozen. So everybody had them. And everybody brought them to middle school. And everybody flushed them down the toilet, because it would clog and jam the pipes, creating a rather large mess.

Soon after our weeks of fun, nobody seemed to have them anymore and they sort of just disappeared.

The next fad was taking large Ziploc bags, filling them up with air, sealing them tight, bringing them into the bathroom, jumping up in the air and landing square on the bag. The resulting ‘explosion’ could be heard throughout the entire school. Good times, good times indeed.

A couple years ago I found some comics from that August and they had the ads for that particular Saturday lineup. I’ve been wanting to see them since then.

I’m confused why the company felt it necessary to explain that the real-world object exists in three dimensions.

My Mother in-law is coming to visit soon and there has always been tension between us. She is a very devout Christian and seems to think I am not as faithful as herself. Yes, my husband and I go to church every Sunday and pray before meals and bed, but we do not have a painting of Jesus in our house. My husband and I practice "safe Christian sex", as you well know means that we only fornicate to procreate. But lately my husband has wanted to fornicate for pleasure. I caught him looking at Janet Jackson’s picture on the internet (from her supposed "wardrobe malfunction") and think that the FCC should really crack down on this kind of smut! So my question is, should I serve a traditional Easter roast beef or try something a little different and go ‘tofurky’ to honor her vegetarian ways?

That snake link reminded me of my all-time favorite X-E article, the one where Matt announced that he was taking the site in a bold new direction: Tigers.

I have a bad habit of posting before reading….
Now that i have actually read the article, nice throwback to the snake article. Still relevant in ‘05 as the day it was written.
Interestingly enough, I too had a dog named Sandy when I was young. We got her from someone else so, I we didnt name her. Must have been a rash of dogs being named Sandy’s post-ANNIE and GREASE in the early 80’s…

I’m dying to know what a Gargamel bop bog looks like. My googling didn’t bear fruit, but at least now I know what a Snively Whiplash bop bag looks like.
Speaking of quitting smoking, is anybody giving up any juicy vices this month?

Matt, I am awe stricken by how much awesome crap you have in your house. I would pay good money just to be able to tour your over stuffed apartment and look at all that awesome stuff.

ANyway I had a Yogi Bear bop bag when I was younger. I always hit it with that Nerf Sword I always loved as a kid and put one or two bite marks in. It was too tempting to resist.

I had a punching bag it was a generic bear one. I got in trouble for deflating it and cutting the bottom to get the sand out.

Manimal, I think I had the same inflatable t-rex. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about bop bags, mainly because I have one in my office. My graduate advisor’s own advisor was Al Bandura, the pioneer of social learning research. He was the first to point that (obviously) if kid’s watch other kids beat the crap out of a bop bag and get rewarded for it, they’ll do the same thing, even if they weren’t reinforced for it themselves. Seems obvious enough now, but shook the world of psychology in 1961 (see http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm) if you care to learn more). A world of research on aggression in kids has come out of that. The point of this story is that I pay homage to my academic grandfather with a Bobo the Clown bop bag than I beat the crap out of almost everyday.

Matt,
Good to "see" you back on the site! I have to say I love when you take pictures of stuff in your house because I love looking at all the random stuff you have in the background…okay so maybe I’m not paying attention to the main focus of the picture like I should but who cares?

Oh and as far as Bop Bags, I had a giant inflatable E.T. when I was younger but it was actually like a life sized thing (rather than his picture on a bag) that had a round bottom so he could wobble back and forth. and yeah you could punch him.

I had a few bop bags when I was a tike. My favorite one was Boss Hog from Dukes of Hazzard.

Yeah matt-
Your store room in the back of the picture looks cooler than 10,000 toys-r-us(es?)…Can I beg for some detailed pictures of it?? Or is it as safely guarded as the honeycomb hideout?

I had a Scooby Doo bop bag. I actually injured myself on it. I bet you think that’s impossible, right? Well, I did it, yes, I did. In all of my infinite wisdom, I turned the bop bag on its side and proceeded to stand on it. Yes, it was cylindrical. No, I am not half retarded. I was actually only about four. The worst part about this story was the fact that, not only did I stand on the stupid thing sideways, but I stood it on our stone mantel. When the blow-up sausage flipped out from beneath me, the first thing I hit was the mortar, and the first thing I hit it w/ was my chin. I had to get stitches, but luckily I couldn’t see the wound, since it was on my face, and I didn’t freak out too badly. I’m told I didn’t even cry during the stitches, whish makes me feel numb as well as dumb. Oh, well.

Matt, maybe you can train to be in the next Rocky w/ your bob bag. It’d be a great story, especially if the first guy you fight is blue with one eye and stitches in his forehead.

I’ve always been under the impression since my sinister youth that if there was a God, he’d most likely look a lot like Dust Brain and not a dude with a mullet and sandals. To each their own!

I use to have one of these but it was Fred Flintstone. I also think I had a Godzilla one at one point. Or maybe my brother did. Any way, they both got popped.

uhmmmm I still remember when you posted the Pocono Snake and Animal Farm article…I couldn’t stop wondering which sort of poisoned mind could throw god forsake beast into that god forsaken place and still had the guts to call it "Farm".

OH MY! Matt What is that and where did you get it from what is that horrible clock monster? You know the one skelator turned in to when he lost his shirt I swear thats the ulgyest thingy ive ever seen what is it and where did you get it from please do anyone know!!!???

I don’t remember having a bop bag…but we DID have an inflatable Easter egg that sort of served the same purpose for many springs in the 80s and early 90s.

Matt, I remember when the TMNT gang was fighting the bop it clown in Secret of the Ooze and when Mikey pretended to be one against that thug…hilarious!!!

"Trajeal comes back and neglects me…sniff, sniff!"
Crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t read any of the past blog entries (Bad trajeal! Bad X-Eer!) cuz I’ve been bsuy doing goofy charity work. Yeah, I’m a cornball. Actually, what spurred ir was MiniTraj #1 was in the hospital last week for what they thought was appendicitis (ended up just being bad gas. Phew!). While she was there, they gave her a handmade quilt donated by Project Linus, a group that makes quilts and blankets for kids in the hospital. Now, I have a mission. At least I have an outlet now, so I don’t have to watch my family members roll their eyes when they see their gift from me is a huge, puffy present that wouldn’t fit into a box. "Another quilt?!? Jeez. I only have so many beds in my house, traj." I actually found some cool camoflouge cloth that I want to quilt up for my soldier (whom I still haven’t heard from. It’s been over two months since I sent the first package). Maybe I could find some retro cartoon cloth and throw one togteher for Matt. I’m sure his girlfriend would love it.

Lost in Ohio, Ann Landers is no longer with us. I suppose she shall remain this way for quite a while.

The backround of Matts photos are always very interesting. How about an XE: Behind the Photos Special Matt?

God that’s one sexy Bop Bag.
I could never have my kids punching a big phallus like that…it would creep me out.

I read the X-E blog constantly, as I have told you, anything concerning babies or educational values of the 80’s goes into my custom blog, so my son/daughter can see that his/her father had way too much time on his hands.

Charity work is cool. Glad to hear min Traj #1 is doing better. Oh, how much for a quilt?

I was officially fired from my "house husband" job, or so I think. Mrs. M informs me she has hired a cleaning lady. Just one more step to me being out of the house eh?

Oh pure bliss…I went to the PX today and they had new Transformer Energon figures, including the ones like the Aerialbots and Combaticons of yesteryear. Matt, you have to do some articles on the new gesalts!!!
I have yet to hear from My Soldier as well…still have the cool bracelet though. On a sidenote, my wife finally received our order of Livestrong bracelets. I wear two, one for my dad and the other for my uncle.

Huge letdown on Valentine’s Day…We went in for an ultrasound and they teased beforehand we might find out the sex of the baby. To my surprise, he actually used the jelly on the belly, er external ultrasound, but the clarity was worse.

He told us to come back in two weeks, when they will do the "big" ultrasound, whatever that means. My wife will be at 20 weeks then, so I hope for some information then.

Matt- I distinctly remember that 40-minute only-on-video cartoon special that Madballs had, and how you used to have a download for it. Don’t you think that something like this calls for the return of such a download?

Oh, yeah, 20 weeks is a perfect time to see things. Big enough to see, but not squooshed enough to miss. When we find out what the baby is, I’ll start a quilt for you.

The "big" u/s is usually the one where they check measurements, get a recording of the heartbeat and give you pictures

(if they do that in Germany).

Ah, Madballs…where would we be without you? All dead, most likely. My own love affair with the ‘balls was short but suprisingly intense, as there was a brief period of time over the course of which my friends and I would actually role-play as the different Madballs, much like the old standbys of superheroes or WWF wrestlers. Oculus Orbus was my personal alter-ego, since he was the "smart one". I’m not sure what made us designate him the "smart one", exactly…maybe the Latin name? In our little make-believe sessions for whatever franchise was the new hotness that month, somehow I always got assigned to be "the smart one"–read, the Nerd: Donatello, Beast, Gyro Gearloose, et al. I think this had less to do with me being an inventor supergenius, than the fact that I wore glasses. Secretly, I identified more with the "surly loner who gets into a fight with Leonardo/Cyclops/Huey, runs away to sulk, meets up with the archnemesis, and must be rescued by his teammates, whereby he learns the true meaning of brotherhood/teamwork/being a duck" archetype.

Being mostly a girly-girl as a child (except for my collection of Hot Wheels), I never wanted a bop bag. Not that I could have had one if I did. Our house was very small, so I’d have definitely broken something. Not to mention that my mother is everyone in A Christmas Story who says, "You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!" rolled up into one neurotic woman. If you sneeze she’s afraid you’ll break your rib. Good thing neither me nor my brother ever played sports.

On an unrelated note, I’m still drinking Pepsi Holiday Spice. One of the local thrift stores is selling the 20 oz. bottles, 12/$2. So what if the sell-by date was almost a month ago…it still tastes like Christmas in a bottle. Me and X-E’s layout won’t ever let Christmas go!

Yes, little E.Claire is a month old. Hope my boy likes older women. I mean, a Manimal-Majorwitz connection is cool no?

Whenever I get my degree, all the parents will be teachers. Actually, come to think of it, my wife’s brother and sister in law are both teachers as are her sister and I think her brother in law as well.

Thanks for the big ultrasound clarification. They have been giving us u/s pictures each time, except for this last time. I felt miffed, "what am I paying you for?" type feeling. My wife just shakes her head how excited I get for a grainy black and white picture. Everytime I get a new one…bam! it goes up as my computer’s wallpaper.

I feel bad about the My Soldier, I mean, we got the packet, but the directions to mail were shoddy plus I’ve never heard from the guy. Hope he’s alright, I mean, it would be nice to know how he is doing, what he needs, etc…

Mine had Rocky on one side and Mr. T on the other! Take that! then i had one later with the pink panther on it…

Forget Robot Chicken, you know what other show is coming to Cartoon Network this fall? Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, which this ToonZone article accurately describes as a "nosehair-fighting anime". Even if you can’t read Japanese, the pictures on the official site should give you some clue as to what kind of whacked-out comedy to expect (supposedly, it’s a loose parody of old school fighting anime like Fist of the North Star). (Unfortunately, for those of us who are Canadians, I have absolutely no idea if YTV will be picking this one up.)

Also coming to television this fall, Loonatics, which has descendants of the classic Looney Tunes characters, and the not-classic token female Lola Bunny, re-imagined as superheroes in a futuristic setting. I say the show should be called "Looney Tunes 20X6" (pronounced "Twenty-Exty-Six").

I had a bop bag. It was a clown with a squeaky nose. I don’t really remember it much, but I know it eventually got a hole in it and died. I like to think that my 2-year-old self kicked its butt hardcore.

Oh, and I have to agree about the comments on Matt’s apartment. I practically salivate. My husband doesn’t like "clutter" (defined by him as anything sitting around that doesn’t have a useful everyday purpose), so, all of my goodies have been sitting in boxes since we got married (and then he complains about the boxes taking up space in the garage [sigh].) It breaks my heart. Rock on with your awesome collections, my brother.

Quick side comment about the Poconos. I’ve never done the champagne-glass tub ($$$$), but I’ve done the heart-shaped tub and the round bed and all that stuff. We went there for our honeymoon two and a half years ago and we’ve been back three times since. There’s this surreal, slightly-tacky quality about it that I just adore. For me, THAT is what makes the Poconos great (sorry, race fans.)

Whoa whoa and whoa everybody. I mean let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. There was already a 18 month old that came to visit her the day she was born and was enthralled. Then, I have a buddy in Jacksonville who just had his first (a son) and he is talking hook up. Now, I have Erik and Traj trying to set up Emmie with the unborn….Patience everyone

Full dance card for Emmie Claire! Too cute.
Re: Loonatics. Hmm, Tiny Toons as superheroes. Interesting idea, it could work, but the characters look kinda goofy. Actually, with those logos on their chests and that color spectrum they look like some sort of gay pride crime fighting squad. Someone really needs to tip off the WB on that or they’ll have their own version of the Spongebob scandal on their hands.

A couple of years ago I got a bop bag of The Undertaker. Extra cool thing about it: It had a voice box in it so when you hit it he said either "Rest in peace" or "I will bury you" (which my niece insisted was "I will marry you"). Not as cool thing about it: You had to put water in the bottom of it instead of it having sand. The water just never seemed to work as well.

"Quick side comment about the Poconos. I’ve never done the champagne-glass tub ($$$$), but I’ve done the heart-shaped tub and the round bed and all that stuff. We went there for our honeymoon two and a half years ago and we’ve been back three times since. There’s this surreal, slightly-tacky quality about it that I just adore. For me, THAT is what makes the Poconos great (sorry, race fans.)"

Don’t know if you’ll read this, Lori, but I had to comment that Mr. Traj and I spent our honeymoon in the Poconos. Did you guys stay at The Summit? That’s where we stayed. It sounds the same. Did you get the cheesy leopard print corner couch and pinkish-red heart shaped sink? We got the room w/ the personal, indoor pool. That was pretty cool. We didn’t have to share. Of course, we could have spent our time roller skating on skates that were purchased when Nixon was still in office, or playing tennis over the net-that-once-was. Ah, good times.

, are you excited about Carnivale tonight? I’m actually anxious for the first tiem this season. I can’t wait to find out where Sophie is going. Do you think she’s preggo? Oh, have you written anymore fanfiction? I’ll have to go check out gay paree.

P.S. Erik, just take care of the shipping to Germany, and I’ll take care of the rest. Deal?

P.S.S. Manimal, does little Emily (or Mommy or Daddy, for that matter) like frogs? I got some cute fairy tale frog cloth that I love. I would live to make her a little crib quilt, if you would have one.

I couldnt stop laughing when Matt mentioned beating his dog for the intercontinental title belt. Possibly because I had no one else to beat either…

i’m probably going to die of lung cancer before the age of 35 though, so don’t listen to me

When I was little I got something out of a 25-cent vendy machine thing that was a ball of red viscera (detailed, not really something that you’d think a kid would want to look at) with two eyes and a mouth (hole with teeth). It had this awful, tormented expression of pain that almost made me feel sorry for it. When you squeezed it, blood would pour from wounds all over its disgusting body/face (the blood was contained within a thin rubber membrane around the whole thing, and when you released your hand the blood was then sucked back into its wounds and eyes and mouth). Probably one of the most tragic moments of my life was when it was forever lost over the neighbor’s fence. Did anybody else have this wonderful crime against humanity, and if so, was it a Mad-Ball?, because I don’t remember.

*reads the notes between Trajeal and EMajorwitz and is totally lost*
It’s like a poorly translated soap opera!

Mad balls, Mad balls….fun for one, fun for all we play with the…Mad balls. They’re gross, funny, yucky, sick. There’s 8, so you can take your pick..

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at 9:24 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.