Thingmaker is an arts and crafts toy from Mattel that kids use to make bug creatures and other designs. The toy consists of diecast metal molds shaped like bugs that kids would pour multi-colored liquid “Pasti-Goop” into, which was then heated in a hot plate oven. The result was a brightly colored rubbery creepy crawler.

The Thingmaker was conceived as a part of Mattel’s Vac-U-Maker set in 1963, but its potential was obvious, and it was pulled from the Vac-U-Maker set to be its own toy as the Creepy Crawlers line. Mattel then packaged the molds as the Every Thingmaker, the Super Thingmaker, and Triple Thingmaker.

Once the Creepy Crawlers line took off, it expanded in the late ‘60s with a variety of other options targeted at both girls and boys. They introduced the mini-soldiers called Fighting Men, the decorative Fun Flowers, the Fright Factory with fake eyeballs and scars, the artist beads and mosaic tiles in Picadoos, the Hot Wheels Factory, DollyMaker, and the Super Cartoon Maker featured Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Lucy from the Peanuts gang.

The Thingmaker toys faced scrutiny when the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created in ’73. The organization developed new safety regulations, and because the Thingmaker used heat, it was deemed to be unsafe, and the line was discontinued. Mattel attempted to restructure the toy using safer methods, but it didn’t work as well and the Plasti-Goop took longer to heat. In the end, they only produced new Creepy Crawlers and Flower Fun sets before scrapping the project.

After more than a decade out of production, ToyMax revived the Creepy Crawlers line. Adhering to new safety regulations, this version heated the Plasti-Goop in a “Magic Maker” heater with a door that would stay closed until the mold was properly cooled. ToyMax’s line continued through 2001, then Jakks Pacific took over in the mid-2000s. They released the Pokémon line, a Star Wars: Clone Wars line, and more Creepy Crawlers lines through 2012.