What Are Wacky WallWalkers®?

 

Wacky WallWalkers® are slimy, sticky, octopus-shaped rubber toys that crawl and slither down walls. In spite of this yucky description, there is a magical story behind the Wacky WallWalkers® . The toys were sent in 1982 by Dr Fad's (Ken Hakuta) mother, who was then living in Japan, to Dr Fad's then very young kids, as presents. However, Dr Fad became more fascinated by the toys than his kids. The toys, called Tako in Japan, were fascinating as they were the first ever things that crawled down walls (except for cockroaches !!!). They were named Wacky WallWalkers®, and Dr Fad started to market them to small gift shops and toy stores in and around Washington, DC, where he lived. They were a so-so seller, until the late Nina Hyde of The Washington Post, then CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, for some inexplicable reason (must have been a slow news day), did big feature stories on the Wacky WallWalkers®. The toy was an immediate hit, with long lines around the stores that carried them. In the following months, hundreds of media covered the Wacky WallWalkers® story, and a fad was born.

When all the marketing was said and done, over 240 million Wacky WallWalkers® had been sold, making it one of the biggest selling fads of all times. Many WallWalkers®s were given away in Kellogg cereal boxes. The Wacky WallWalkers® can be seen currently in the many reruns of VH1's I LOVE THE 80'S (in the year 1983).