2727 Sniffing Out Success.

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Page 2727. It’ll be a while before we get another one of these numbers.

Some of you will know I have been trying to collect a complete set of Mattel’s Mad Scientist Living Ice and Monster Flesh sets. I had three of them from when I was a kind but was missing the other three. I managed to get two of the missing sets, and a few sets of the Monster Lab Escape board game, which also has a two part monster mold, but the final set eluded me until recently. Anyway, at long last, a friend of mine managed to cajole the final set out of a guy who was an huge pain to deal with that I had given up on. So, sets in hand, I set about finding my 2 part silicone rubber toy set, I got about a decade ago, specifically for making solid versions of the monster molds. Unfortunately when I mixed the stuff it seemed to have gone off. I thought it was a 1 to 1 mix, but it didn’t cure. So I decided to go online and see if I could look up the instructions. I had forgotten the actual product name though so it took some detective work to find out again. Strangely, very little information about the product, called Zubber, exists online compared to many obscure products. Still, there was enough to track a set back to ebay where the seller had taken pictures of the instructions. They very kindly sent me higher resolution images so I could test out my mix. It turns out that the ratio is 1 part activator to 1 part silicone, so I had mixed it correctly but it simply didn’t cure. I decided to try again since I have at least enough to make a few figures still. This time it seemed as though it wasn’t going to cure again. I waited twice as long as it’s supposed to take but the little ball I made from the leavings of the mold wouldn’t cure. So I assumed it wasn’t ever going to cure, but left it in the mold because I didn’t have anywhere to dispose of it handy in my workspace and I didn’t want it to get on anything. A day later when I went to throw away the zubber I found that the stuff in the mold had actually cured, but the little ball from the outside hadn’t. I have no idea what happened other than maybe I didn’t mix it thoroughly enough. It certainly appeared to be properly mixed, and only the outside stuff didn’t cure though… Anyway, the next time I have a spare moment I’m going to try again. I don’t have enoigh Zubber left to do all the colors for all the monsters but I can make at least two of each I think.
Additionally I intend to make a little video about the various findings I made while searching for these things. The board game in particular is interesting to me since I haven’t seen one shipped with parts still on the sprues. Anyway, it’s interesting to me and probably no one else, but I don’t care. I want to do it.
Mattel hasn’t produced anything like Mad Scientist in decades that I know of. They’ve always produced slimes by themselves, and for toy sets, like the Masters Of The Universe Slime Pit, but Living Ice and Monster Flesh have never come around again. Living Ice is basically a translucent putty like you can get basically anywhere even now. The closest in texture I’ve ever found in the wild is Aaron’s Thinking Putty in the various translucent types they make. It’s not exactly the same however. It’s more sticky. Plus, actual Living Ice smelled sort of like cigarettes. Nothing new has that odd odor. Monster Flesh was more like a dough, but it was very wet and sticky. Unlike how it looked on TV. On TV it looked more or less like Play-Doh. In fact, Play-Doh is about as good a substitute as you can find. It’s cheap and comes out not sticky. I’ve never found a modern dough product that had the sticky feel, or acrid smell, of actual Monster Flesh. In both cases the unopened examples have desiccated over time. I didn’t think putty even did that but apparently it does. I’ve never tried to moisten any of the old stuff again, but I suspect it won’t work since it clearly had more than just water in it. I don’t even know how you would revitalize Lining Ice than has become solid. The old stuff I have never solidified. It’s just very dirty looking and gross. I hesitate to manipulate it since it’s had 20 some odd years to grow god knows what in it.
I had all three colors of Living Ice, since the Monster Lab set came with clear and I had two Living Ice mold sets. I only ever had two of the three options of Monster Flesh; green, which came with the lab and blue, which came with Ogore. Red was the third available color and it came with the final set that took longest to track down; Eyegore.
The board game came with red as well, but I never had the game when I was young.
Anyway, I doubt very many of you care all that much about my little obsession, but it’s my blog so I’ll talk about what I want.
For now however I will leave you to your own devices. As always a new page will appear on Friday and I hope you come to read it. Support links up top. Stay safe until next time.