Wormee, Squirmles and Frizzlies?
Finding this ad for “Wormee” by Imperial Toys made me realize that this toy concept has been around non stop for 40 years, under multiple names.
My dad sold these as “Squirmles” back in the day, to the best of my knowledge this was the brand everybody ripped off:
You can see a display box of Squirmles in the top right corner of the photo above.
I still see (and occasionally been conned into buying) Squirmles at those touristy gift shop/traps/vaccum cleaner for a wallets places I stumble into every vacation.
Remco AHI launched their own brand called Frizzlies in the early 1980s.
BTW, I’m really good at these things, you’d swear it was alive!
A few years ago we saw these in a gas station we stopped in while on vacation. My daughter bought one. I was so proud.
I vividly remember a television commercial for Squirmles.
I remember these!
They were on TV ads in the 1970s + '80s. The ones I saw were sort of a magic trick: your Frizzlie, or whatever name it had, was attached to maybe, 2 ft. of fishing line. You then tied the other end of the line to your jeans, or a button on your shirt, or your belt, or etc..
Then you learned to wrap the Frizzlie around your arms + hands, so that the toy looked [alive, when you moved it around in your hands. A clever toy for the money, I guess.
I had one of these as a kid back in the early '80s, I don't recall what it was called. I picked up a few at I think a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum a few years ago for the nephews. I had no idea they were still being made!