I always had my Johnson & Smith catalog at the ready. Had some exotic stuff like Bowie Knives. Lots of magic stuff & even some professional patter books. As a young kid, I never grew tired of looking through their catalogue.
... I got the "Mystic Smoke From Fingertips", and it actually worked amazingly well. I had a *lot* of fun with it. It was a thick resin, and just a small dab covered your fingertips when you rubbed 'em together. It then became an invisible film, which extruded ultra-fine, spiderweb-like strands when you pulled your fingertips apart. A slight downward motion of your hand apparently propelled the smoky-looking strands upwards, while also providing air movement that wafted the "smoke" up & away. Lol, the smoke puffs would often stick to themselves, forming strange-looking, weightless clots that drifted away, and then just vanished if someone was coordinated enough to actually catch one. "The Joy Buzzer" was A Classic that *never* failed to scare the heck out of anyone, which would often earn me a fast, hard punch to the upper arm. My dog *loved* the thing, though. I'd wind it up, and buzz the top of his skull. He couldn't get enough of it, so I tried it on my own skull, and it was *AMAZING.* I also got the "Monkey Smokes Cigarettes", and that was sorta cool. The white cigarettes lit, and burned down releasing "puffs" via spaced mini-charges. Dumb but cool, and smelled sharply, gunpowdery-satisfyingly sinister. On a totally unrelated note, I was the kid who discovered that a Greenie Stick-Um Cap stuck on your annoying older sister's bedroom door lock spring-loaded hasp detonated without fail, and immediately earned you even more Eternal Loathing :))) And if you're reading this, Judy, *YES, I'LL HATE YOU 1,000% UNTIL THE DAY I DIE-- AND THEN SOME.* I also had the "Sea Monkeys", which *were* actually fascinating, especially in the dark when they followed a flashlight beam. They also gave me quite the Real Life Lesson about what dead shrimp of *any* size smell like :P
@Judy Hinterlong ... Lol, Judy ... (not my sister, obviously) ... Speaking of pools ... in 1969, I and some other Merry Pranksters on my Freshman third floor dorm hallway figured out that if we unhinged one of the floor's steel doors, packed it with wet towels, and then placed it in the bathroom shower ... Yup. *Instant pool.* We had a lot of stoner fun with it-- until we found out that other idiot kids had done the exact same thing on the second floor, directly below us ... and that *Yup,* their floor had given way, and crashed down into the first floor bathroom. Fortunately no one was hurt, and there was a mass expulsion of the perpetrators :/ We also figured out that if you packed the giant clothes dryers in the laundry room with pillows and folded blankets, and set 'em on *FLUFF,* you got one heckuva ride for 10 cents. Decidedly more creative than being glued to idiotic video games all day :P
I bought the box of 100 Knights for $.99 from Helen of Toy. Stuff like that. The set of Greeks and Romans had working catapults, molded from one piece of plastic but workable. In really weird colors, though, not good solid black & white like the knights. The Civil War guys weren't as good, very indistinct blobs, not like the knights, which were decent semi-flats. I also got the exploding battleship - pretty cool, but not from a comic book, I needed a pile of Bazooka bubble gum wrappers to get that.
Yes, I bought a lot of this junk. The thing that sticks in my mind was the incredibly long waits before delivery. Nine weeks is an eternity to a nine year old. Plus, they wouldn't take money so it took an additional month or two of nagging your parents to write a check. Only after giving up all hope of ever getting your package would a small envelope of disappointments finally, one day, arrive in the mail. And, my parents would always use the inevitable moment of bitter disappointment as a "teaching moment" to make you feel even worse about your purchase. The book safe was cheap plastic and looked very little like a book. The dancing skeletons were cardboard cutouts. The electrostatic generator was only three inches long and it didn't generate electricity, you had to shuffle around on a carpet to charge it up. BTW: my Sea Monkeys never did hatch. I still, however, have my Hypno Coin and was playing with it yesterday!
And after waiting for over 2 months, when my X-Ray Specs arrived they were defective. I went outside where some girls were playing, looked at them with my specs on, and saw NOTHING. I was so mad that I just asked them to take off their clothes, they ran home and told their parents, their Dad showed up and told my Dad, and I got a beating. Total ripoff!!!
Dude. You must be my long-lost brother cause I had all the novelty mags and I LOVED to read them. Watching this brought back so many memories. I can't believe how much I remember ordering as a kid after watching this video. These are some of the items I ordered, Garlic gum, x-ray spex, joy buzzer, air car, coffin bank, monster ghost, mystic smoke, imitation vomit, money maker, snapping gum, fake dog mess, bar bug ice.........And a lot more. I tell my 14-year-old son about these items I ordered and he gets a kick outta them. Thx again for the video. You made my day!!!!
I never ordered direct from J&S but a lot of these items were available in vending machines and gift shops at vacation destinations when I was a kid in the 90’s. I know I had the snapping bubble gum, hand buzzer, spy camera, and a friend of mine bought a pile of fake dog crap. I was a fan of Spider-Man and my dad used to buy me vintage issues from the 60’s - 80’s at flea markets and antique stores. I loved looking at these old J&S ads and would study them for hours. By middle school I would fantasize about the X-Ray glasses and the bevy of masterful racks I could behold with them. Growing up was such an abstract notion and seemed so far away. I never thought those days would end.
I bought a titanium crowbar from Russia from a magazine ad when I was a kid. Took literally two years to come! I’d actually forgotten about it. When it finally arrived the box looked sketch af w all kinds of Russian writing and what not. My dad made me open it in the garage. It was actually a really well made crowbar and I still have it.
There was a "become a ventriloquist" item I didn't see here; I have purchased when I was a child. It was in reality a choking hazard as the item was a metal device in which you place in your mouth. It was only a gimmick that didn't really throw your voice at all.
I had a few items from them in the early 70s. Our rural mail carrier would take our saved coins and write a postal service money order when we ordered something by mail.i spent much more money on sporting goods than novelty items.i still have a hatchet i ordered from the big Sears catslog in about 1969
I had some of these....The Coffin Bank (3:03) really did work,but you had to rewind it after each use. The Monster-Sized Monster (4:36) was an amazing 7-foot-tall poster. I got mine at the beginning of the 70's,lucky for me...because I understand they cheapened out on those and started printing them on two separate sheets of thin plastic. The King Tut Mummy (4:58) ,which was about 2.5 inches in length,didn't really "rise" or "float"...you'd take it out of its magnetized coffin,hit it on one end and change the magnets contained so it would repel the little plastic figurine. I'm amazed they were still selling the squirting flower in the 70's....that gag dates back almost to the late 1800's,when gentlemen wore a fresh flower in their coat lapel on a daily basis,a fashion that had pretty much died out in the latter half of this past century.
Somehow all the kids in my neighborhood got one of those joy buzzers about the same time, added extra zing to a game of tag. My friend also got the smoking monkey. We finally figured out not to bother ordering anything or at least not to expect something great.
I think Johnson Smith is still in business. I see some of those items in these Planet K stores here in Texas. I see the X-Ray Specs, Joy Buzzer, Fake Flies, and other Johnson Smith items I saw back in the day in comic books ads. I have to check, but I’m pretty sure Johnson Smith is the company who makes those items sold at Planet K currently. I purchased several Hercules Wrist Bands for about $1 and some change each. They were supposed to help you lift weights. I know I cut the circulation to my hands and my hands actually got weak and blue. I still thought they were cool and to this day still wear that style of wrist band. I just don’t wear them so tight.
The ad for the hovercraft would have me up all night imagining myself hauling ass all over the place with my hovercraft... I was secretly saving up for it.. until one day I read the dimensions and realized I would not fit on it... Destroying my 11 year old mind
Honor House seemed the most deceptive in their amazing claims about their products. Imagine saving your $1 a week allowance to buy some of the junk and then to feel ripped off IF and when it arrived. There was a mini camera sold for around $2 that brings big bucks today. Great presentation.
“Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.” About week 4-ish the daily eager checking of the mailbox in great expectations.The crappy “Spy Pen“ was both monocular and microscope.
6:30 Fortune Teller Miracle Fish. Yep, I had that one. Just place the fish on the palm of your hand and, I believe, it would either change color or shrink?
I bought the 'smoke from fingertips' which was a piney resin that did kind of smoke when you snapped your fingers. The Spy Pen Radio was cool! It was like a crystal radio that used a germanium rectifier diode in place of a crystal. It had a capacitor too. You did have to clip a wire on to an antenna or ground (i.e. big piece of metal), but local AM stations were clear. This toy started me into a hobby of actual electronics!! As I got older I built all kinds of electronic devices from broken radio PC boards...mostly radio transmitters.
Remember in the 70s you could sell greeting cards and get the shit in the catalog? I got some shit in the catalog one was a gasoline engine hover craft. I was too young, had nobody to teach me how to start it so it was a boat anchor fantasy toy. I was about 8 or 9. That's the search that got me here, 70s toy hovercraft.
I inherited one of the smoking monkeys shown towards the end of this video a few years back when my grandfather passed away. It actually blows little smoke rings. Not in its original packaging but does have a few of the cigarettes left. Curious to know if many of these made their way to Aust. like mine did
Along with these items does anyone remember 'Get 200 Civil War Soldiers ' !! Half blue...half grey.!? Big full page colorful ad. I knew it sounded to good to be true...but my trusting young heart read and reread that ad and it Assured me that I was getting Two Hundred Civil War Soldiers....plastic....for 1.50?? My dad hooted but gave in...took Forever to come...in this ...tiny little box....I got my two armies...horses, generals, foot soldiers...Cannon!!! Ummmm...it was plastic....wafer thin!
Johnson Smith was my bible lol. I order from them all the time in the 1970’s mostly magic tricks and jokes hot and garlic chewing gum, shocking lighter which would shock the shit out of you, hand buzzers, coffin bank..etc it was a ordeal to say the least save up the money fill out the order from mail it out, check the mail every day for the next 5 weeks and finally get your order.
Had the original and rare coffin bank from the 70s (the one in the video is a reproduction from the 80s/90s) Was a metal coffin with a thin cotton sheet over the hand with a metal wind key, far superior than the cardboard repo's.
ohhh no... I circled, and caculated totals, got my mom to write exact check amount with postage... X Ray Specs, Coffin Bank, Hand Buzzer, Laffun head (which is how I found your channel), and many other items. I think my average check was for $13, included like 4 or 5 items. I still have an original Johnson Smith Catalog in perfect condition from 1985 or so. love the memories.
so many things in the catalog screamed at me to buy. I was a curious little kid. I bugged the shit out of my mother too. if not then my grandma would always give me the money too. I was lucky. Im actually trying to collect as many of the novelties as I can find in my catalog.. ***I know I got no life****.. but I like the thrill of the hunt and the good childhood memories or trying out these novelties on my poor grandfather. he was a trooper! . thanks for putting up pics of the actual items with packaging. now I know where to start searching ebay for descriptions.
Always wanted them, never bought them. I especially wanted the bank that looked like a book and the pills that turned into a blizzard when you put them on a cigarette.
Addendum: I believe the "radio pen" was also just a crystal set as it resembled the ones my cousin and I had in size and shape. They were not intended to resemble a pen though.
4 of the items were available at our local 5 & 10 cent store. The buzzer, the chattering teeth, the wrist radio which was just a regular "crystal set" (we'd listen to police calls on that), and the light bulb which you made contact with a piece of tin foil to light (if I remember correctly). Not sure but I think the "hypno-coin" may have been a cereal box prize also. You wiggled it back and forth to make it work, similar to the old campaign buttons of the day. They had the candidate's name and when you move it the face would appear. I remember the ones for Eisenhower for President.
The AM radio SPY pen goes for 200 bucks or more on eBay. I remember the day it came and I tried making it work. The directions said to hook the wire to ground.............like a cold water pipe. That befuddled me to no end.
$200 on eBay? I wouldn’t give 2 cents for it! 🖕🏽👎👎🤢🤮 I to bought that rip off and could not get the thing to work. I took it to a friend of mine‘s dad who was not only a ham radio operator but also an electronics wiz to see if he could help. He took one look at it, looked at me, and said “you got ripped off!“ 😒🙄 He explained how I needed a much bigger set up as well as a few other components to make it work right. One Saturday during summer break from school we set out to make one. A trip to a local Radio Shack and about seven hours later we were done and it actually did work! As for that radio spy pen, I returned it for a refund and got it about 3 weeks later. Lesson learned.
@@theoldestkidintheworld7365 I'm a retired circus clown and they carried clown make up and props made by a company called Larger than life products that were professional quality props along with the usual gag gifts and masks etc... Thanks for replying I really did enjoy the video!😍
Nothing like Johnson- Smith exists anymore, tho the name lives on. I ordered from them in the 60's and got such a thrill after anxiously waiting for the mail day after day to finally see that sweet brown paper package. I got a variety of things. It was a tradition to get an Owl Ring, with Ruby eyes for our club. I once was tempted to order the artificial make-up kit, after seeing Man from U.N.C.LE. and Mission Impossible. I did order the "worlds smallest camera" that came with film! Which I never developed. Didnt know where to develop it. Guess the local processor told me it was specialty, but I think he was full of it now. I got the lock pick set. Skeleton keys is all and one ward lock pick. I think the most treasured item I got was an 1900 paperback book called Coin Manipulation by The King of Coins, T. Nelson Downs with a special addendum on escapology. It was very old, yellowed pages, but the cover pristine. I was amazed at its state of preservation. You could almost smell the wooden attic beams of where low order items were probably stowed by J-S. Imagine having that booklet from the 1900's! It cost 10¢ to get the first catalogue, but later they'd send a free updated version. I noticed later versions started carrying cheaper stuff. Gone were the carbide cannons and miniature blank guns, teeeeeny little guns, and started carrying computer and calculator stuff. In fact my Owl Ring compared to my older brother's, ordered in the 1950's, was simple stamped metal, while his was cast, ductile metal of some kind. Heavier. Better quality. I finally saw one catalogue from 2000 or so, and was utterly saddened to see it was no longer a charming little read. I truly feel sorry for kids these days, but I guess they can't know what they're missing.
I had that catalog around al the time, I think I bought stuff until mid eighties You could still buy certain sew on patches, skulls and symbols Edit Remember the mouse on the string, rats, the squiggle things, my kid thinks I'm full of crap when I tell him about some things, you might have saw the machine bb gun in field and stream, javaro dart guns ,
I just learned yesterday that Johnson Smith closed up for good in December 2019. I had no idea they had stayed around so long. I ordered so much weird and useless stuff from them as a kid in the 50s.
I remember the Johnson Smith catalog very well. I also remember ordering my share of stuff from the catalog and being a bit disappointed. I was just sitting here thinking, reminiscing, and listening to the music. I think what Johnson Smith sold to every red-blooded, american boy during that era was imagination. I would set literally for hours at a time. Looking through their catalog, just imagining how these things worked (especially the X-ray glasses) Show a kid a picture and just let their imagination take over, and there you go. So in my opinion, Johnson Smith catalog sold a young man, dreams and imagination.
As a boy growing up in the 70s, I did make a couple of these purchases. The funniest thing I remember is actually going to bank for a money order for 99 cents(plus shipping).
+tycoon345 There was something spe cial about them. Maybe it was the mystique of mystery. Almost everything was a drawing in comic style with the over use of adjectives in the descriptions. If you weren't a kid, you'll never understand. Thanks for watching!!!
Anyone remember the full page ads for fishing tackle and another for tools? Being a Midwest country boy I always wanted to order those, but never did. Always wondered what you really got.
I remember the Johnson catalogs from the sixties were great tomes... One inch thick and magazine size... Tons of gags, tons of magic stuff, tons of beautiful useless shit... Then in the seventies the catalogs started shrinking down... Great memories.
Guess they were around for quite a while, my comments are from my experience around 1952. Too bad they didn't last longer. Don't know how long they were there before my age group.
I definitely agree with that. I've seen toys re-introduced that were metal in my day and thin plastic today. If it were high density impact plastic it might be comparable in quality. Not only that, but toys that came in cereal boxes like the Sub and Frogman that were powered by baking soda are now available in mail order catalogues for around 10 dollars a piece. Including the pair of black and white Scotty Dogs with the magnets on the bottom.
I ordered The Revolutionary War set thinking something along the lines of the CW Giant Play=set by Marx. I got small pressed out two-dimensional pressed plastic figures and cannon. Should have known when the mailer showed up about the size of 3 bars of soap.
Thank you thank you..it sure did brings back memories..oh i wish to have them all but all i have own was the vertoloquist puppet.where you can throw your voice into that puppet
An early episode of The Simpsons when Bart ordered a spy camera having to wait six months for the package. It actually works and ends up taking a photo of Homer dancing with a belly dancer.
Anybody know what brand the Johnson Smith computer watch was? I had one and wanna find it on eBay but it's impossible. It wasn't really a computer watch....it was a slide rule with stop watch. Red and black in color.
I saw a few of these ads in the comic books I used to read when I was a kid. Some of the ones in this video were also mentioned in another recent film on UA-cam.
I loved the Johnson Smith catalog. I think I even ordered a thing or two from it back in the late 70s or early 80s, and kept a few things circled. However, the majority of my hypothetical money was spent circling things from the Estes and Centuri model rocket catalogs, and the Sears Wish Book, oh, and the Radio Shack catalogs for the TRS-80 and Color Computer stuff.
@@nowthatsjustducky Ahh the TRS80 or trash 80 as it was known to me, my school had a few labs of those. Blue monochrome screen crappy grey cabinet.... Basic Programming...
Anyone buy the remote helicopter with the stupid attached heavy remote cord that was about 20" long? I remember being so excited in the car throwing the 4 C-batteries into the hand controller, and wondering how it was supposed to fly as the attached wire was much heavier that the dinky plastic helicopter itself..and the fraction of a second i pushed the start button, it came right at me and wacked me on the side of the temple with it's blade & welt showing immediately..if that blade would have hit me in the eye !! what an AWFUL, stupid & POWERFUL dangerous 'toy'. If you want to kind of know what it looked like, the toy @1:54 was much like it.
The Johnson Smith catalog WAS the thing I would get! The catalog, itself, was the greatest entertainment.
I always had my Johnson & Smith catalog at the ready. Had some exotic stuff like Bowie Knives. Lots of magic stuff & even some professional patter books. As a young kid, I never grew tired of looking through their catalogue.
Bowie knives that were 2 inches long.
... I got the "Mystic Smoke From Fingertips", and it actually worked amazingly well. I had a *lot* of fun with it. It was a thick resin, and just a small dab covered your fingertips when you rubbed 'em together. It then became an invisible film, which extruded ultra-fine, spiderweb-like strands when you pulled your fingertips apart. A slight downward motion of your hand apparently propelled the smoky-looking strands upwards, while also providing air movement that wafted the "smoke" up & away. Lol, the smoke puffs would often stick to themselves, forming strange-looking, weightless clots that drifted away, and then just vanished if someone was coordinated enough to actually catch one.
"The Joy Buzzer" was A Classic that *never* failed to scare the heck out of anyone, which would often earn me a fast, hard punch to the upper arm. My dog *loved* the thing, though. I'd wind it up, and buzz the top of his skull. He couldn't get enough of it, so I tried it on my own skull, and it was *AMAZING.*
I also got the "Monkey Smokes Cigarettes", and that was sorta cool. The white cigarettes lit, and burned down releasing "puffs" via spaced mini-charges. Dumb but cool, and smelled sharply, gunpowdery-satisfyingly sinister. On a totally unrelated note, I was the kid who discovered that a Greenie Stick-Um Cap stuck on your annoying older sister's bedroom door lock spring-loaded hasp detonated without fail, and immediately earned you even more Eternal Loathing :))) And if you're reading this, Judy, *YES, I'LL HATE YOU 1,000% UNTIL THE DAY I DIE-- AND THEN SOME.*
I also had the "Sea Monkeys", which *were* actually fascinating, especially in the dark when they followed a flashlight beam. They also gave me quite the Real Life Lesson about what dead shrimp of *any* size smell like :P
@Judy Hinterlong ... Lol, Judy ... (not my sister, obviously) ... Speaking of pools ... in 1969, I and some other Merry Pranksters on my Freshman third floor dorm hallway figured out that if we unhinged one of the floor's steel doors, packed it with wet towels, and then placed it in the bathroom shower ... Yup. *Instant pool.*
We had a lot of stoner fun with it-- until we found out that other idiot kids had done the exact same thing on the second floor, directly below us ... and that *Yup,* their floor had given way, and crashed down into the first floor bathroom. Fortunately no one was hurt, and there was a mass expulsion of the perpetrators :/
We also figured out that if you packed the giant clothes dryers in the laundry room with pillows and folded blankets, and set 'em on *FLUFF,* you got one heckuva ride for 10 cents.
Decidedly more creative than being glued to idiotic video games all day :P
That was great, thank you!! I still have a Johnson Smith catalog from '62.
I bought the box of 100 Knights for $.99 from Helen of Toy. Stuff like that. The set of Greeks and Romans had working catapults, molded from one piece of plastic but workable. In really weird colors, though, not good solid black & white like the knights. The Civil War guys weren't as good, very indistinct blobs, not like the knights, which were decent semi-flats. I also got the exploding battleship - pretty cool, but not from a comic book, I needed a pile of Bazooka bubble gum wrappers to get that.
2:06 I waited my whole life to finally see this at the age of 50. Thank you!
Yes, I bought a lot of this junk. The thing that sticks in my mind was the incredibly long waits before delivery. Nine weeks is an eternity to a nine year old. Plus, they wouldn't take money so it took an additional month or two of nagging your parents to write a check. Only after giving up all hope of ever getting your package would a small envelope of disappointments finally, one day, arrive in the mail. And, my parents would always use the inevitable moment of bitter disappointment as a "teaching moment" to make you feel even worse about your purchase.
The book safe was cheap plastic and looked very little like a book. The dancing skeletons were cardboard cutouts. The electrostatic generator was only three inches long and it didn't generate electricity, you had to shuffle around on a carpet to charge it up. BTW: my Sea Monkeys never did hatch. I still, however, have my Hypno Coin and was playing with it yesterday!
back of a cereal box order form for an exact replica of the Batmobile....never got it.
I did not send away for too much but when I did the adults hanging around always told me to "Kiss your money goodbye!".
And after waiting for over 2 months, when my X-Ray Specs arrived they were defective. I went outside where some girls were playing, looked at them with my specs on, and saw NOTHING. I was so mad that I just asked them to take off their clothes, they ran home and told their parents, their Dad showed up and told my Dad, and I got a beating. Total ripoff!!!
Dude. You must be my long-lost brother cause I had all the novelty mags and I LOVED to read them. Watching this brought back so many memories. I can't believe how much I remember ordering as a kid after watching this video. These are some of the items I ordered, Garlic gum, x-ray spex, joy buzzer, air car, coffin bank, monster ghost, mystic smoke, imitation vomit, money maker, snapping gum, fake dog mess, bar bug ice.........And a lot more. I tell my 14-year-old son about these items I ordered and he gets a kick outta them. Thx again for the video. You made my day!!!!
I got the smoke from fingertips, it was actually cool.
I never ordered direct from J&S but a lot of these items were available in vending machines and gift shops at vacation destinations when I was a kid in the 90’s.
I know I had the snapping bubble gum, hand buzzer, spy camera, and a friend of mine bought a pile of fake dog crap. I was a fan of Spider-Man and my dad used to buy me vintage issues from the 60’s - 80’s at flea markets and antique stores. I loved looking at these old J&S ads and would study them for hours. By middle school I would fantasize about the X-Ray glasses and the bevy of masterful racks I could behold with them. Growing up was such an abstract notion and seemed so far away. I never thought those days would end.
My brother and I had a lot of those things
I bought a titanium crowbar from Russia from a magazine ad when I was a kid. Took literally two years to come! I’d actually forgotten about it. When it finally arrived the box looked sketch af w all kinds of Russian writing and what not. My dad made me open it in the garage. It was actually a really well made crowbar and I still have it.
That's awewsome!!
There was a "become a ventriloquist" item I didn't see here; I have purchased when I was a child. It was in reality a choking hazard as the item was a metal device in which you place in your mouth. It was only a gimmick that didn't really throw your voice at all.
Filling out the order form and checking it like 300 times before mailing it cuz you knew it was gonna be a long wait and didn't want any mistakes!
I had a few items from them in the early 70s. Our rural mail carrier would take our saved coins and write a postal service money order when we ordered something by mail.i spent much more money on sporting goods than novelty items.i still have a hatchet i ordered from the big Sears catslog in about 1969
I used to see that stuff all the time in Dad's popular science magazine
So many good memories! Ihad the Johnson Smith Company catalog and ordered some stuff from them, and also from Honor House Products.
I had some of these....The Coffin Bank (3:03) really did work,but you had to rewind it after each use. The Monster-Sized Monster (4:36) was an amazing 7-foot-tall poster. I got mine at the beginning of the 70's,lucky for me...because I understand they cheapened out on those and started printing them on two separate sheets of thin plastic. The King Tut Mummy (4:58) ,which was about 2.5 inches in length,didn't really "rise" or "float"...you'd take it out of its magnetized coffin,hit it on one end and change the magnets contained so it would repel the little plastic figurine.
I'm amazed they were still selling the squirting flower in the 70's....that gag dates back almost to the late 1800's,when gentlemen wore a fresh flower in their coat lapel on a daily basis,a fashion that had pretty much died out in the latter half of this past century.
Somehow all the kids in my neighborhood got one of those joy buzzers about the same time, added extra zing to a game of tag. My friend also got the smoking monkey. We finally figured out not to bother ordering anything or at least not to expect something great.
This was great. I still have several items, notably the Hercules Wrist Band, which still works BTW.
I think Johnson Smith is still in business. I see some of those items in these Planet K stores here in Texas. I see the X-Ray Specs, Joy Buzzer, Fake Flies, and other Johnson Smith items I saw back in the day in comic books ads.
I have to check, but I’m pretty sure Johnson Smith is the company who makes those items sold at Planet K currently.
I purchased several Hercules Wrist Bands for about $1 and some change each. They were supposed to help you lift weights. I know I cut the circulation to my hands and my hands actually got weak and blue.
I still thought they were cool and to this day still wear that style of wrist band. I just don’t wear them so tight.
The ad for the hovercraft would have me up all night imagining myself hauling ass all over the place with my hovercraft... I was secretly saving up for it.. until one day I read the dimensions and realized I would not fit on it... Destroying my 11 year old mind
This was the equivalent of buying things off “Wish” today
They named it Wish because you wish you hadn't ordered it.
You couldn’t have put that any better.. Still curious though as to why people still buy from Wish.. Could do better at a car boot sale
took apart the x ray glasses to see how they 'worked'. it was a feather sandwiched between two sheets of paper,
Honor House seemed the most deceptive in their amazing claims about their products. Imagine saving your $1 a week allowance to buy some of the junk and then to feel ripped off IF and when it arrived. There was a mini camera sold for around $2 that brings big bucks today. Great presentation.
Submarines, spaceships, X-ray specs, sea monkeys, etc. etc. Were we a bunch of gullible saps. LOL
@ the 4:47 mark. I got the mystic smoke. The stuff worked Great 👌😁👍! It actually looked like smoke on your fingers. That was around 1977.
I had a few of those things, the Thing Bank and Floating Mummy, and they were cool!
“Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.” About week 4-ish the daily eager checking of the mailbox in great expectations.The crappy “Spy Pen“ was both monocular and microscope.
Archie Mcphee catalogs have a lot of comic and joke items, but they sure don't cost under a dollar!
6:30 Fortune Teller Miracle Fish. Yep, I had that one.
Just place the fish on the palm of your hand and, I believe, it would either change color or shrink?
I bought the dancing ghost as a kid.
I bought the 'smoke from fingertips' which was a piney resin that did kind of smoke when you snapped your fingers. The Spy Pen Radio was cool! It was like a crystal radio that used a germanium rectifier diode in place of a crystal. It had a capacitor too. You did have to clip a wire on to an antenna or ground (i.e. big piece of metal), but local AM stations were clear. This toy started me into a hobby of actual electronics!! As I got older I built all kinds of electronic devices from broken radio PC boards...mostly radio transmitters.
That's a great story! Thanks for watching!!
Remember in the 70s you could sell greeting cards and get the shit in the catalog? I got some shit in the catalog one was a gasoline engine hover craft. I was too young, had nobody to teach me how to start it so it was a boat anchor fantasy toy. I was about 8 or 9. That's the search that got me here, 70s toy hovercraft.
I remember the ads from the back cover of comic books like that. Cash or Prizes, and it had the most ridiculous looking superhero in a blue suit.
I inherited one of the smoking monkeys shown towards the end of this video a few years back when my grandfather passed away. It actually blows little smoke rings. Not in its original packaging but does have a few of the cigarettes left. Curious to know if many of these made their way to Aust. like mine did
Along with these items does anyone remember 'Get 200 Civil War Soldiers ' !! Half blue...half grey.!? Big full page colorful ad. I knew it sounded to good to be true...but my trusting young heart read and reread that ad and it Assured me that I was getting Two Hundred Civil War Soldiers....plastic....for 1.50??
My dad hooted but gave in...took Forever to come...in this ...tiny little box....I got my two armies...horses, generals, foot soldiers...Cannon!!!
Ummmm...it was plastic....wafer thin!
I remember that ad. There was another one for more modern soldiers too.
@@theoldestkidintheworld7365 Yes!! ww2!!!
Johnson Smith was my bible lol. I order from them all the time in the 1970’s mostly magic tricks and jokes hot and garlic chewing gum, shocking lighter which would shock the shit out of you, hand buzzers, coffin bank..etc it was a ordeal to say the least save up the money fill out the order from mail it out, check the mail every day for the next 5 weeks and finally get your order.
I had the camera, the joy buzzer and flat fish that moved. Funny now
If I was kid who ordered a "Seven Foot Tall Monster", I'd be disappointed when it turns out to be just a poster.
All about being "Technically True", the best kind of truth.
Great video
Thanks for the closer 😂
I had a few of these .
Had the original and rare coffin bank from the 70s (the one in the video is a reproduction from the 80s/90s) Was a metal coffin with a thin cotton sheet over the hand with a metal wind key, far superior than the cardboard repo's.
I always wanted the Greedy Fingers Bank. Now I am not sure if I would be able to afford to keep one if I did find one at a thrift store or yard sale.
I remember getting a lot of that stuff at the carnival when it came to town.
ohhh no... I circled, and caculated totals, got my mom to write exact check amount with postage... X Ray Specs, Coffin Bank, Hand Buzzer, Laffun head (which is how I found your channel), and many other items. I think my average check was for $13, included like 4 or 5 items. I still have an original Johnson Smith Catalog in perfect condition from 1985 or so. love the memories.
+Finbah
The childhood me, is jealous of the childhood you!
I always wanted to order so much, but never did!!!
so many things in the catalog screamed at me to buy. I was a curious little kid. I bugged the shit out of my mother too. if not then my grandma would always give me the money too. I was lucky. Im actually trying to collect as many of the novelties as I can find in my catalog.. ***I know I got no life****.. but I like the thrill of the hunt and the good childhood memories or trying out these novelties on my poor grandfather. he was a trooper! . thanks for putting up pics of the actual items with packaging. now I know where to start searching ebay for descriptions.
+Finbah
Thanks for watching!!
The submarine actually looked legit.
A lot of this stuff was in magic stores back in the day
Always wanted them, never bought them. I especially wanted the bank that looked like a book and the pills that turned into a blizzard when you put them on a cigarette.
Addendum: I believe the "radio pen" was also just a crystal set as it resembled the ones my cousin and I had in size and shape. They were not intended to resemble a pen though.
Reminds me of the ads on Facebook, some of them are very disappointing too.
4 of the items were available at our local 5 & 10 cent store. The buzzer, the chattering teeth, the wrist radio which was just a regular "crystal set" (we'd listen to police calls on that), and the light bulb which you made contact with a piece of tin foil to light (if I remember correctly). Not sure but I think the "hypno-coin" may have been a cereal box prize also. You wiggled it back and forth to make it work, similar to the old campaign buttons of the day. They had the candidate's name and when you move it the face would appear. I remember the ones for Eisenhower for President.
The AM radio SPY pen goes for 200 bucks or more on eBay. I remember the day it came and I tried making it work.
The directions said to hook the wire to ground.............like a cold water pipe. That befuddled me to no end.
$200 on eBay? I wouldn’t give 2 cents for it! 🖕🏽👎👎🤢🤮
I to bought that rip off and could not get the thing to work. I took it to a friend of mine‘s dad who was not only a ham radio operator but also an electronics wiz to see if he could help. He took one look at it, looked at me, and said “you got ripped off!“ 😒🙄 He explained how I needed a much bigger set up as well as a few other components to make it work right. One Saturday during summer break from school we set out to make one. A trip to a local Radio Shack and about seven hours later we were done and it actually did work! As for that radio spy pen, I returned it for a refund and got it about 3 weeks later. Lesson learned.
Great video!
The was an actual novelty shop called the Funhouse in New Jersey and I went many times. It was thier ad that you saw in comic books!
That's cool to know! Thanks!
@@theoldestkidintheworld7365 I'm a retired circus clown and they carried clown make up and props made by a company called Larger than life products that were professional quality props along with the usual gag gifts and masks etc... Thanks for replying I really did enjoy the video!😍
Still have my switch blade comb from the 70s. It's in perfect condition.
Nothing like Johnson- Smith exists anymore, tho the name lives on.
I ordered from them in the 60's and got such a thrill after anxiously waiting for the mail day after day to finally see that sweet brown paper package.
I got a variety of things. It was a tradition to get an Owl Ring, with Ruby eyes for our club. I once was tempted to order the artificial make-up kit, after seeing Man from U.N.C.LE. and Mission Impossible.
I did order the "worlds smallest camera" that came with film! Which I never developed. Didnt know where to develop it. Guess the local processor told me it was specialty, but I think he was full of it now.
I got the lock pick set. Skeleton keys is all and one ward lock pick.
I think the most treasured item I got was an 1900 paperback book called Coin Manipulation by The King of Coins, T. Nelson Downs with a special addendum on escapology. It was very old, yellowed pages, but the cover pristine. I was amazed at its state of preservation. You could almost smell the wooden attic beams of where low order items were probably stowed by J-S. Imagine having that booklet from the 1900's!
It cost 10¢ to get the first catalogue, but later they'd send a free updated version. I noticed later versions started carrying cheaper stuff. Gone were the carbide cannons and miniature blank guns, teeeeeny little guns, and started carrying computer and calculator stuff.
In fact my Owl Ring compared to my older brother's, ordered in the 1950's, was simple stamped metal, while his was cast, ductile metal of some kind. Heavier. Better quality.
I finally saw one catalogue from 2000 or so, and was utterly saddened to see it was no longer a charming little read.
I truly feel sorry for kids these days, but I guess they can't know what they're missing.
I had that catalog around al the time, I think I bought stuff until mid eighties
You could still buy certain sew on patches, skulls and symbols
Edit
Remember the mouse on the string, rats, the squiggle things, my kid thinks I'm full of crap when I tell him about some things, you might have saw the machine bb gun in field and stream, javaro dart guns ,
I just learned yesterday that Johnson Smith closed up for good in December 2019. I had no idea they had stayed around so long. I ordered so much weird and useless stuff from them as a kid in the 50s.
@@barryervin8536 : Interesting timing! Must have been in the air as we reminisced.
The itching powder was fiberglass and it worked! The Smoke from Fingertips kinda worked.
It's disturbing to me just how many of those things I had.
Jonson and Smith catalog was what I ordered.
I remember the Johnson Smith catalog very well. I also remember ordering my share of stuff from the catalog and being a bit disappointed.
I was just sitting here thinking, reminiscing, and listening to the music. I think what Johnson Smith sold to every red-blooded, american boy during that era was imagination. I would set literally for hours at a time. Looking through their catalog, just imagining how these things worked (especially the X-ray glasses) Show a kid a picture and just let their imagination take over, and there you go. So in my opinion, Johnson Smith catalog sold a young man, dreams and imagination.
I sent away for lots of this junk!
As a boy growing up in the 70s, I did make a couple of these purchases. The funniest thing I remember is actually going to bank for a money order for 99 cents(plus shipping).
Dont forget the spider monkeys !
I had the Crazy Eyes and wearing them made your ears hurt really bad!
I loved those Johnson Smith catalogs back in the 70's
+tycoon345
There was something spe cial about them. Maybe it was the mystique of mystery. Almost everything was a drawing in comic style with the over use of adjectives in the descriptions.
If you weren't a kid, you'll never understand.
Thanks for watching!!!
Anyone remember the full page ads for fishing tackle and another for tools? Being a Midwest country boy I always wanted to order those, but never did. Always wondered what you really got.
I bought the magic rocks, sea monkeys and xray glasses.
You were trying to look at naked girls, weren't you....lol. Thanks so much for watching!!!
I bought half of those at least!
I bought Sea Monkeys. Dumbest thing ever. Krill or whatever they were wiggled around for about 5 minutes and that was it
Inside the Marvel comic books. I ordered things for the bidding magician in me. Where did he go?
I remember the Johnson catalogs from the sixties were great tomes... One inch thick and magazine size... Tons of gags, tons of magic stuff, tons of beautiful useless shit... Then in the seventies the catalogs started shrinking down... Great memories.
They still sell some of this stuff in novelty shops.
Some of these things still exost in places like Spencers gifts and on Ebay and Wish
Good thing I never had any money as a kid........I would have spent it on this stuff , and been super pissed off. Great video. Peace , be free.
For a moment there it was 1977! Thank you!
Guess they were around for quite a while, my comments are from my experience around 1952. Too bad they didn't last longer. Don't know how long they were there before my age group.
I'm sure some of these things were available from the 50's through 70's. Only, they were probably made better in the 50's.
I definitely agree with that. I've seen toys re-introduced that were metal in my day and thin plastic today. If it were high density impact plastic it might be comparable in quality. Not only that, but toys that came in cereal boxes like the Sub and Frogman that were powered by baking soda are now available in mail order catalogues for around 10 dollars a piece. Including the pair of black and white Scotty Dogs with the magnets on the bottom.
The stuff dreams are made of😎
Sadly, the Johnson Smith Co. closed for good at the end of 2019
Yes. Amazon really made it obsolete. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. Getting those JS catalogs in the mail was a treat for a kid.
steelheadstalker I've a Johnson Smith catalog from 1951!
The smoking monkey was worth every penny my brother spent on it.
LOL beginning of the video: Oldest kid in the world> Reminds me of that old book titled: The boy who would not go to school.
I ordered a Venus Fly Trap from them in 1960. Still waiting for it.
When I was little, my father and I tried ordering a few things from the back of a comic, but it never came.
I ordered The Revolutionary War set thinking something along the lines of the CW Giant Play=set by Marx. I got small pressed out two-dimensional pressed plastic figures and cannon. Should have known when the mailer showed up about the size of 3 bars of soap.
Thank you thank you..it sure did brings back memories..oh i wish to have them all but all i have own was the vertoloquist puppet.where you can throw your voice into that puppet
I always wanted a box of army men for 1.00.
The "foot locker" would be the size of a matchbox and all the soldiers are little pieces of paper.
@@haweater1555 hobbylark.com/collecting/100-pieces-Toy-Soldier-Set-with-A-Toy-Storage-Footlocker-Box-Lucky-Products-Inc
You forgot the "House Size Giant Balloon".
An early episode of The Simpsons when Bart ordered a spy camera having to wait six months for the package. It actually works and ends up taking a photo of Homer dancing with a belly dancer.
Mr. Z here - the only reason I was not the victim of hoax was the absence of money!
That was a good one!!
Old kid in the world did you ever find out about the Build your own Monster Robot plans? I would love to see those.
No, I haven't. Still interested, though.
I always wanted to know about the Super Ring that if you got you could control forces with a magnetic field
I bought the itching powder (powdered fiberglass) My brother wasn't pleased when I put some in his underwear....
Anybody know what brand the Johnson Smith computer watch was?
I had one and wanna find it on eBay but it's impossible.
It wasn't really a computer watch....it was a slide rule with stop watch. Red and black in color.
I saw a few of these ads in the comic books I used to read when I was a kid. Some of the ones in this video were also mentioned in another recent film on UA-cam.
I used to order from Johnson and smith all the time as a kid, the good ole days, and I would've bought the monkey from the back of a comic book
I loved the Johnson Smith catalog. I think I even ordered a thing or two from it back in the late 70s or early 80s, and kept a few things circled. However, the majority of my hypothetical money was spent circling things from the Estes and Centuri model rocket catalogs, and the Sears Wish Book, oh, and the Radio Shack catalogs for the TRS-80 and Color Computer stuff.
@@nowthatsjustducky Ahh the TRS80 or trash 80 as it was known to me, my school had a few labs of those. Blue monochrome screen crappy grey cabinet.... Basic Programming...
I had a snake lighter
When life was good. Save all your pocket money.fill in the coupon and wait for what you ordered to be a big disappointment
Ain't that the truth!!
Looks like the Johnson Smith Co. is closed for good as of Dec 31st.
That's a sad, sad thing.
I saw that myself the other day, and was sad to read it. Great childhood memories of their catalogs.
STILL better than Spencer gifts!!! Ha ha ha 😂😆😜!
Song? Thank you in advance for any info you can provide regarding which song this is.
That @#×☆♧ "Polaris submaring"...😠
Made me so mad I misspelled "submarine"...😠
Why 88cents (6:05) surely 99 ?!
Inflation
Anyone buy the remote helicopter with the stupid attached heavy remote cord that was about 20" long? I remember being so excited in the car throwing the 4 C-batteries into the hand controller, and wondering how it was supposed to fly as the attached wire was much heavier that the dinky plastic helicopter itself..and the fraction of a second i pushed the start button, it came right at me and wacked me on the side of the temple with it's blade & welt showing immediately..if that blade would have hit me in the eye !!
what an AWFUL, stupid & POWERFUL dangerous 'toy'.
If you want to kind of know what it looked like, the toy @1:54 was much like it.
Hello dia
So basically worthless crap you would find in a $ store