The Koosh Kins were a variation on the popular Koosh ball, featuring faces and hands. They were originally created as a set of six characters, then released with variant colors. The characters were featured in a four-part

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

mini-series A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

released by

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.coloring books A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media. ...

. In that series, they lived on the

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

Koosh, a large Koosh ball

planetoid According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

that, in lieu of a proper

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

, bounced against other planets to travel across the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...

. While exploring a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

, the Koosh Kins were flung into space, where they landed on Earth, in the company of downtrodden

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

Zak Taylor. Predictably, hilarity ensued, with the Koosh Kins aiding Zak in his acquisition of a girlfriend, and the aliens discovering a taste for hip hop and

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

Koosh Kins characters

*T.K. - the stereotypical cool character, this toy's molded face sported perpetual

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names below) are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can s ...

. In the comic, he often abbreviated his long strings of

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

into a series of letters standing for each word. His colors were a light blue face and hands paired with a darker blue body. *Scopes - the only character without a

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...

face, Scopes had two

periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

-style eyes, similar to cartoon depictions of a

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

, rising from the top of the Koosh ball. In the comics, he never spoke, but featured word balloons with question marks from time to time. His eyestalks and hands were dark blue, and his ball was green. *Grinby - all yellow (hands and faces), Grinby was the down-to-earth but physically strong character. *Slats - almost the

Reggie Mantle Reginald "Reggie" Mantle is a fictional teenager in stories published by Archie Comics; he is introduced by writer-artist Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in ''Jackpot Comics'' #5 (cover-dated Spring 1942). He also appears in CW's '' Riverdale' ...

of the group, Slats was portrayed as sly. His colors were green for face and hands, and purple for his ball. He is shown in the comics as sweet on Gee Gee. *Gee Gee - the female of the group, she featured a predictable pink hue on her ball, with darker pink hands and face. In the comics, she's displayed as sweet and long-suffering. *Boingo - with a predilection for parties and pizza, Boingo was the stereotypical wacky member of the group, always ready to explode into feverish energy. His coloring was red.

External links

* Article in Time Magazine Archives Toy brands {{Toy-stub