Do you remember Blurp Balls?

Oct 15, 2015

I grew up loving Madballs and didn’t think they could improve on the monster-faced ball genre of toys, but in 1992 they came out with Blurp Balls and things got very interesting.

Not only did the Blurp Ball have a spooky monster face, but it also had a ball that you shoved into its gaping mouth. When you squeezed the bigger ball…POP…the smaller ball went flying across the room.

If this is not clear, in this commercial you see an animation of how this is supposed to work:

Awesome, right? Now normally when you see a commercial like this and the effect is animated, you would think that the toy itself was not going to work as well. That is not the case with the Blurp Ball, these things backed a punch and those small balls could move.

The problem in my house was that the projectile ball was so small and so enticing that one of our many dogs scooped it up and ran off with it and I never saw it again. I figure that it was eaten. Which I think seems apt fate for a gross toy.

The Ball without it’s blurp still looked cool, but it was not very fun to play with.

Original released in 1992 by Ertl, each ball has a wonderful gross-out theme and cost $6.99 (that would be over $12 today). Unfortunately, like most of the “gross toys” of the Eighties and Nineties, the price for Blurp Balls has skyrocketed lately.

I have been able to track down all eight characters. So if you are looking to start a collection, you can use this as a handy checklist.