Shrinky Dinks

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Shrinky Dinks is the name for an arts and crafts toy for children invented in 1973 by Betty Morris from Wisconsin and later marketed by the colouring book giant, Colorforms. They start out as thin, flexible plastic sheets that can be coloured with felt-tip pens, colored pencils or crayons and cut into shapes. When heated in the oven or heat gun, the plastic shrinks into a much smaller, thicker, and more rigid form, while retaining the colored design.

The first kits were manufactured by the major toy companies of the time such as Milton Bradley, Colorforms, Western Publishing, Skyline Toys and others.

The shrink plastic is still available from many retailers and can be used for anything from charms to pins.

[edit] Pop-culture references

California rock band Sugar Ray formed in 1992 with the name Shrinky Dinx, but later changed it (upon threat of lawsuit from Hasbro).
Family Guy - In an episode of Family Guy, Albert Einstein steals the idea of Shrinky Dinks from God.
Futurama - In Anthology of Interest I, Fry invites an 500 foot tall Bender to make Shrinky Dinks together before the latter's untimely demise at the hands of a similiarly enlargened Doctor Zoidberg.