Madballs
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Madballs were a series of toy rubber balls with strange and disgusting faces created by AmToy, a subsidiary company of American Greetings in the mid-1980s. The toys incoporated gross-out humor in the vein of Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids. Each ball had a character synopsis and a strange name.
The toyline was later turned into a short-lived animated television series, a series of comics and a video game[1][2][3].
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[edit] Toys
The toys were high quality, foam rubber collectible bouncing balls; however, the toy sold very well for a passing fad. There were two series of the original round Madballs collectible toys, each series consisting of 8 balls each as well as a collection of Super Madballs, a larger version of the original Madballs, shaped like other sports balls, such as the American-football shaped "Touchdown Terror", and the soccer ball named "Goal Eater", and the basketball named "Foul shot". There were a total of 4 super Madballs in the larger series. There was also a short series of Head-Popping Madballs, where bodies were attached. Each of the heads on the Head-Popping Madballs were interchangeable, creating more possibilities for enjoyment. There were also two different vehicles made for the Madballs. The first was the "Madballs Rollercycle". The second was a Madballs tank with some sort of catapult device on it for shooting the madballs. There were countless other licensed Madballs items, such as stickers(non trading), shampoos, Valentine's cards, tableclothes, party favours, and more along those lines.
[edit] Original Madballs
- Screamin Meemie : A baseball with a frightening face and large tongue
- Slobulus : A drooling creature with one eye hanging out
- Aargh : A one-eyed, blue Frankenstein's monster
- Hornhead : A hairy horned cyclops
- Dustbrain : A mummy
- Oculus Orbus : An eyeball
- Skull Face : A skull
- Crack Head : A head with an exposed brain. This Madball was later renamed 'Bash Brain,' due to the unpleasant connotations of 'crack head' as a slang term for a drug user.
[edit] Second Series Madballs
- Snake Bait : A medusa
- Freaky Fullback : A mutant football player
- Splitting Headache : Unmatching left and right head sides stitched together
- Bruise Brother : An ugly biker
- Wolf Breath : A werewolf
- Fist Face : A hand clutching an eyeball
- Swine Sucker : An ugly pig
- Lock Lips : A creature with its mouth locked shut and one eye covered by a rivited plate
[edit] Super Madballs
- Touchdown Terror : A football with a manic grin and missile-like fins and tip
- Goal Eater : A soccer ball with very large pointed teeth
- Foul Shot : A basketball bursting open to reveal a face with worms crawling out of one eye socket
[edit] Television Show
The toys eventually spun into a Saturday morning cartoon beginning in September of 1987 created by Nelvana Limited.
In this show, the madballs do all sorts of silly skits that are accompanied by a laugh track. Sometimes the animation looks like something done by Monty Python, having big feet squish someone or a song and dance routine.
The Madballs were not part of a Saturday morning Cartoon series. They had two direct to home videos. The first one was a full animated feature, lasting 30 minutes in 1987 called "Escape from Orb", which featured a female Madball named "Freakella". She was featured in the cartoon only and never made into an actual Madball toy. The second home video was a series of Jokes, and skits, more of comedy than anything else, in Monty Python animation style, called "Madballs-Gross Jokes"
[edit] Characters included in the TV Show
- Screaming Meeme : A baseball with an eerie grin, voiced by Geoffrey Bowes
- Hornhead : A cyclops face with a horn, voiced by Keith Hampshire
- Aargh : A blue Frankenstein with one eye totally open & one totally shut, voiced by John Stocker
- Skullface : A skeleton face with a smile, voiced by John Stocker
- Dusty : Voiced by Jeri Craden
- Freakella : Voiced by Cree Summer
- Sandy : Voiced by Alyson Court
- Slobulus : A drooling face with one eye hanging from the socket, voiced by Dan Hennessey
- Bruise Brother : Looks like a biker with a German helmet, eye patch and beard, voiced by Dan Hennessey
- Freaky Fallback : A purple monster wearing an orange football helmet, voiced by Dan Hennessey
- Occulus Orbus : A giant eyeball, voiced by Len Carlson
- Bash Brain : A normal face with its scalp ripped off to expose its brain, voiced by Len Carlson
- Lock Lips: Voiced by John Stocker
- Wolf Breath : The leader of the bad guys. He wears a brown uniform and has light brown skin. Voiced by Don Francks
- Swine Sucker: A fat ugly pig, voiced by Len Carlson
- Skip : Voiced by Christopher Ward
[edit] Episodes
1. Escape from Orb!
2. Gross Jokes
This list is incomplete
[edit] Marvel Comic Book
[[Marvel Comics, under their subsidiary division, STAR COMICS, created a comic book series based on the Madballs property. It began as a 3 issue mini-series in 1986 and continued at issue #4 as a Bi- monthly comic book in 1987. The book was cancelled at issue #10. A Madballs Annual comic book was also produced in the UK, under Marvel Comics UK, 1986. Not printed in USA, but can readily be found on the internet at auction sites.
This comic book was printed under Marvel's Star Comics imprint, a name they used to print all their children's comics at the time.
[edit] Modern Revival
In early 2006, toy company Art Asylum announced that it had partnered with original right holders American Greetings to revive the Madballs toys, with both classic characters and new designs. As of this writing in Feb 2007, there has been no sign of the new Madballs, which were supposed to come out in Fall 2006. There is virtually no news of this at all, or what happened to the new series anywhere on the web either. There were initially supposed to be a first series with 4 Madballs. 3 originals, and one new one. Madballs.com will show you these in detail.
