Wacky WallWalker
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Wacky WallWalker
The Wacky WallWalker was a toy molded out of a sticky elastomer. It was shaped similar to a spider, and when thrown against a wall would "walk" its way down. It was a hugely popular toy in the early 1980s. Before its introduction in the United States, Ken Hakuta received in the mail several sticky octopus-like toys from his mother, who lived in Japan. They were intended for his children, but Hakuta found himself fascinated with the toy, which was called ''Tako'' in Japan. He realized their marketing potential, and after purchasing rights to the product in 1983 for $5,000, he began to market them locally in Washington, D.C., dubbing them "''Wacky WallWalkers''". Their popularity was mediocre, until Nina Hyde of ''The Washington Post'' wrote a feature story on them. This created a buzz, and people in the Washington area flooded local stores to purchase them. As the fad began to decline, over 240 million Wacky WallWalkers had been sold, raking in about 80 million dollars. The popular ...
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Wacky Wallwalker
The Wacky WallWalker was a toy molded out of a sticky elastomer. It was shaped similar to a spider, and when thrown against a wall would "walk" its way down. It was a hugely popular toy in the early 1980s. Before its introduction in the United States, Ken Hakuta received in the mail several sticky octopus-like toys from his mother, who lived in Japan. They were intended for his children, but Hakuta found himself fascinated with the toy, which was called ''Tako'' in Japan. He realized their marketing potential, and after purchasing rights to the product in 1983 for $5,000, he began to market them locally in Washington, D.C., dubbing them "''Wacky WallWalkers''". Their popularity was mediocre, until Nina Hyde of ''The Washington Post'' wrote a feature story on them. This created a buzz, and people in the Washington area flooded local stores to purchase them. As the fad began to decline, over 240 million Wacky WallWalkers had been sold, raking in about 80 million dollars. The popular ...
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Deck The Halls With Wacky Walls
''Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls'' is an American television Christmas special that aired on NBC on December 11, 1983. The special is inspired by the Wacky WallWalker toys that were imported from Japan and merchandised by Ken Hakuta in 1982. The toys are small plastic octopus-like figures molded out of a sticky elastomer; when thrown against a wall, the figures slowly "walk" down as the appendages briefly adhere to the surface. More than 200 million of the toys were sold in the early 1980s. Hakuta set up the TV deal with NBC, and said that the young boy in the special bore a "distinct resemblance to Mr. Hakuta's 4-year-old son, Kenzo." In the special, the WallWalkers are extraterrestrial octopoids from the planet Kling-Kling, sent to Earth to discover the true meaning of Christmas. The team of aliens — Wacky, Big Blue, Springette, Stickum, Crazy Legs and Bouncing Baby Boo — disguise themselves as Santa Claus, but they're discovered by a spoiled human boy, Darryl, who needs a ...
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1980s Toys
__NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 198 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire *January 28 **Publius Septimius Geta, son of Septimius Severus, receives the title of Caesar. **Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, is given the title of Augustus. China *Winter – Battle of Xiapi: The allied armies led by Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeat Lü Bu; afterward Cao Cao has him executed. By topic Religion * Marcus I succeeds Olympianus as Patriarch of Constantinople (until 211). Births * Lu Kai (or Jingfeng), Chinese official and general (d. 269) * Quan Cong, Chinese general and advisor (d. ...
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Products Introduced In 1983
Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Product (mathematics) Algebra * Direct product Set theory * Cartesian product of sets Group theory * Direct product of groups * Semidirect product * Product of group subsets * Wreath product * Free product * Zappa–Szép product (or knit product), a generalization of the direct and semidirect products Ring theory * Product of rings * Ideal operations, for product of ideals Linear algebra * Scalar multiplication * Matrix multiplication * Inner product, on an inner product space * Exterior product or wedge product * Multiplication of vectors: ** Dot product ** Cross product ** Seven-dimensional cross product ** Triple product, in vector calculus * Tensor product Topology * Product topology Algebraic topology * Cap product * Cup product * ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Marvin Kaplan
Marvin Wilbur Kaplan (January 24, 1927 – August 25, 2016) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Best known as Henry Beesmeyer in '' Alice'' (1978–1985). Early years Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Dr. I.E. Kaplan and his wife. He attended Public School 16, and Junior High School 50 and graduated from Eastern District High School in 1943. He graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor's degree in English in 1947 and later took classes in theater at the University of Southern California. Television Kaplan is probably best known for his recurring role on the sitcom '' Alice'' where he portrayed a phone lineman named Henry Beesmeyer who frequented Mel's diner. He was with the cast from 1977 until the series ended in 1985. In addition, the actor was the voice of Choo-Choo on the cartoon series ''Top Cat'' (1961–62). He played an electronics expert, Ensign Kwasniak, on McHale's Navy episode 104 (season 3 episode 32) ...
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Tress MacNeille
Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series ''Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwrench on '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'', and Daisy Duck in various Disney media since 1999. She has also worked on animated series such as ''The Simpsons'', ''Futurama'', ''Rugrats'', and ''Hey Arnold!'' Early life MacNeille loved cartoons as a child and wanted to be a voice actress from the age of eight, but instead chose a "practical" career, feeling she would never be able to realise her ambition. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended broadcasting school, becoming a disc jockey. Career MacNeille worked in numerous jobs and had many minor voiceover roles before becoming a regular on an animated TV show. In her words: "I'd been doing radio spots, some TV, demos, sound-alikes, industrial narrations—an ...
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Daws Butler
Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company where he originated the voices of many familiar characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, Auggie Doggie, Loopy De Loop, Wally Gator, Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, Snooper and Blabber, Hokey Wolf, Elroy Jetson, Peter Potamus, The Funky Phantom and Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, Hair Bear. Early life and career Butler was born on November 16, 1916, in Toledo, Ohio, the only child of Charles Allen Butler and Ruth Butler. The family later moved from Ohio to Oak Park, Illinois, where Butler became interested in impersonating people. In 1935, the future voice master started as an Impressionist (entertainment), impressionist, entering multiple amateur contests and winning most of them. He had entered them not with the intention of showing his talent, but as a personal challeng ...
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Feature Story
A feature story is a piece of non-fiction writing about news. A feature story is a type of soft news. The main sub-types are the ''news feature'' and the ''human-interest story''. A feature story is distinguished from other types of non-news by the quality of the writing. Stories should be memorable for their reporting, crafting, creativity, and economy of expression. Style A feature story, as contrasted with straight news reporting, normally presents newsworthy events and information through a narrative story, complete with a plot and story characters. It differs from a short story primarily in that the content is not fictional. Like literature, the feature story relies upon creativity and subjectivity to make an emotional connection with the readers and may highlight some universal aspect of human nature. Unlike straight news, the feature story serves the purpose of entertaining the readers, in addition to informing them. Although truthful and based on good facts, they ...
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Elastomer
An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elastic polymer'', is often used interchangeably with rubber, although the latter is preferred when referring to vulcanisates. Each of the monomers which link to form the polymer is usually a compound of several elements among carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and silicon. Elastomers are amorphous polymers maintained above their glass transition temperature, so that considerable molecular reconformation is feasible without breaking of covalent bonds. At ambient temperatures, such rubbers are thus relatively compliant ( E ≈ 3 M Pa) and deformable. Their primary uses are for seals, adhesives and molded flexible parts. Application areas for different types of rubber are manifold and cover segments as diverse as tires, soles for shoes, and damping and ...
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The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal ...
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Nina Hyde
Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq * Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, no asset, a mortgage lending concept *"No Irish need apply", an anti-Irish racism phrase found in some 19th-century employment ads in the United States Geography *Nina, Estonia, a village in Alatskivi Parish, Tartu County, Estonia * Nina, Mozambique, a village in the Ancuabe District of Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique United States * Nina, West Virginia, an unincorporated area in Doddridge County, West Virginia *Nina, Texas, a census-designated place (CDP) in Starr County, Texas * Nina Station, Louisiana, an unincorporated community in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana * Ninaview, Colorado, an unincorporated area in Bent County, Colorado Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Nina'' (1956 film), a 1956 West German film * ''Ni ...
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