Gak

Gak was probably Nickelodeon and Mattel's most popular compound - the idea having been taken from the Nicklodeon show Double Dare. The original edition of Gak was manufactured in 1992, and then re-issued in 1994 for the Nickelodeon Deluxe Gift Set, which included one canister of Nickelodeon Gak and two canisters of Nickelodeon Foam. It was marketed on the fact that, unlike most of the compounds, like Play-Doh for example, this genius product had the power to made a 'fart' noise when squeezed into its clear, star-shaped container. The perfect mixture, then, of slime, silly putty and whoopee cushion! It was a good job too, because, in truth, there was really very little else you could do with Gak, other than sit around making fart noises. It dried out awfully quickly and had a hideous smell to it, which meant hand-to-Gak contact was preferably limited - plus like all great toys, it had the ability to completely ruin most of the living room furnishings, thus not putting you in mum and dad's good books.

Luckily, just as attention for the Gak was waning in child circles, Mattel brought out a range of Gak-related products with more play potential than the standard Gak Splats (star-shaped plastic containers) it came in originally.

The Gak Inflator was one of these products, which did exactly what it said on the can - put the Gak into the pump and inflate until a bubble inside the Gak makes it explode. The Gak Vac did the opposite, in that it would suck up pieces of Gak and spit them out like a bullet of reformed Gak - usually at your sister's nearest unsuspecting Barbie. The Gak Copier was for the more artistic, sensitive types, who got great satisfaction seeing their drawings imprinted onto a layer of rubbery Gak via the Copier device clamp-like device. The actual Gak stuff itself also evolved (too righty) to encompass glow-in-the-dark Gak, scented Gak (finally!) and various Gak sets. On all of these, Gak fans may well remember the warning label that came with them - especially the line your mum would read to you over and over again: Dry cleaning will not remove Gak. Oops!