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Madballs were a series of toy rubber balls with strange and disgusting faces created by AmToy, a subsidiary company of American Greetings in the mid-1980s. The toys incoporated gross-out humor in the vein of Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids. Each ball had a character synopsis and a strange name.

The toyline was later turned into a short-lived animated television series, a series of comics and a video game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Toys

The toys were high quality, foam rubber collectible bouncing balls; however, the toy sold very well for a passing fad. There were two series of the original round Madballs collectible toys, each series consisting of 8 balls each as well as a collection of Super Madballs, a larger version of the original Madballs, shaped like other sports balls, such as the American-football shaped "Touchdown Terror", and the soccer ball named "Goal Eater", and the basketball named "Foul shot". There were a total of 4 super Madballs in the larger series. There was also a short series of Head-Popping Madballs, where bodies were attached. Each of the heads on the Head-Popping Madballs were interchangeable, creating more possibilities for enjoyment. There were also two different vehicles made for the Madballs. The first was the "Madballs Rollercycle". The second was a Madballs tank with some sort of catapult device on it for shooting the madballs. There were countless other licensed Madballs items, such as stickers(non trading), shampoos, Valentine's cards, tableclothes, party favours, and more along those lines.

Original Madballs

Screamin Meemie : A baseball with a frightening face and large tongue
Slobulus : A drooling creature with one eye hanging out
Aargh : A one-eyed, blue Frankenstein's monster
Hornhead : A horned cyclops
Dustbrain : A mummy
Oculus Orbus : An eyeball
Skull Face : A skull
Crack Head : A head with an exposed brain. This Madball was later renamed 'Bash Brain,' due to the unpleasant connotations of 'crack head' as a slang term for a drug user.

Second Series Madballs

Snake Bait : A medusa
Freaky Fullback : A mutant football player
Splitting Headache : Unmatching left and right head sides stitched together
Bruise Brother : An ugly biker
Wolf Breath : A werewolf
Fist Face : A hand clutching an eyeball
Swine Sucker : An ugly pig
Lock Lips : A creature with its mouth locked shut and one eye covered by a rivited plate

Super Madballs

Touchdown Terror : A football with a manic grin and missile-like fins and tip
Goal Eater : A soccer ball with very large pointed teeth
Foul Shot : A basketball bursting open to reveal a face with worms crawling out of one eye socket

Television Show

The toys eventually spun into a Saturday morning cartoon beginning in September of 1987 created by Nelvana Limited.

In this show, the madballs perform humorous skits that are accompanied by a laugh track. Some of the animation is similar in style to animations created by Terry Gilliam from Monty Python's Flying Circus television series.

They had two direct to home videos. The first one was a full animated feature, lasting 30 minutes in 1987 called "Escape from Orb", which featured a female Madball named "Freakella". She was featured in the cartoon only and never made into an actual Madball toy. The second home video was a series of Jokes, and skits, more of comedy than anything else, in Monty Python animation style, called "Madballs-Gross Jokes"

Characters included in the TV Show

Screaming Meemie : A baseball with an eerie grin, voiced by Geoffrey Bowes
Hornhead : A cyclops face with a horn, voiced by Keith Hampshire
Aargh : A blue Frankenstein with one eye totally open & one totally shut, voiced by John Stocker
Skullface : A skeleton face with a smile, voiced by John Stocker
Dusty : Voiced by Jeri Craden
Freakella : Voiced by Cree Summer
Sandy : Voiced by Alyson Court
Slobulus : A drooling face with one eye hanging from the socket, voiced by Dan Hennessey
Bruise Brother : Looks like a biker with a German helmet, eye patch and beard, voiced by Dan Hennessey
Freaky Fallback : A purple monster wearing an orange football helmet, voiced by Dan Hennessey
Occulus Orbus : A giant eyeball, voiced by Len Carlson
Bash Brain : A normal face with its scalp ripped off to expose its brain, voiced by Len Carlson
Lock Lips: Voiced by John Stocker
Wolf Breath : The leader of the bad guys. He wears a brown uniform and has light brown skin. Voiced by Don Francks
Swine Sucker: A fat ugly pig, voiced by Len Carlson
Skip : Voiced by Christopher Ward

Episodes

1. Escape from Orb!
2. Gross Jokes
This list is incomplete

Comic Books

Marvel Comics, under their subsidiary children's comics division, Star Comics, created a comic book series based on the Madballs property. It began as a 3 issue mini-series in 1986 and continued at issue #4 as a bi-monthly comic book in 1987. The book was cancelled at issue #10. A Madballs Annual comic book was also produced in the UK, under Marvel Comics UK.

Modern Revival

In early 2006, toy company Art Asylum announced that it had partnered with original right holders American Greetings to revive the Madballs toys, with both classic characters and new designs. The new classic Madballs debuted in late 2007 alongside a newer "Madballs Sick" line.

References

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/toyfare/005777032.cfm http://www.techtimepc.com/main/content/view/222/2/ http://www.playthings.com/article/CA6344835.html

^ "Sinclair Infoseek − Madballs". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
^ "Madballs by Ocean Software". Cpczone. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
^ "Madballs". Lemon64. Retrieved 2007-09-10.

In early 2006, toy company Art Asylum announced that it had partnered with original right holders American Greetings to revive the Madballs toys, with both classic characters and new designs. Toy company Basic Fun Inc. has taken up the task of producing/selling the Art Asylum re-designed Madballs since then. As of November 2007, the toys have finally begun appearing in toy stores. Madballs Classics Series 1 consists of 5 re-designed Madballs characters (Screamin' Meemie, Skull Face, Bash Brain, Slobulus & Horn Head) & also the first new Madballs character since the toyline's demise in the mid/late 1980's, Repvile. Newly designed sculpts for 2 other Madballs, Dust Brain & Freaky Fullback, as well as Super Madball Touchdown Terror, were also shown at Toy Fair 2006, but have yet to appear in stores.

External links

[1] "Sinclair Infoseek − Madballs". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2007-09-10.

[2] "Madballs by Ocean Software". Cpczone. Retrieved 2007-09-10.

[3] "Madballs". Lemon64. Retrieved 2007-09-10.

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 http://www.techtimepc.com/main/content/view/222/2/
 http://www.playthings.com/article/CA6344835.html
+{{reflist}}
-<references/>
 In early 2006, toy company Art Asylum announced that it had partnered with original right holders American Greetings to revive the Madballs toys, with both classic characters and new designs. Toy company Basic Fun Inc. has taken up the task of producing/selling the Art Asylum re-designed Madballs since then. As of November 2007, the toys have finally begun appearing in toy stores. '''Madballs Classics Series 1''' consists of 5 re-designed Madballs characters (Screamin' Meemie, Skull Face, Bash Brain, Slobulus & Horn Head) & also the first new Madballs character since the toyline's demise in the mid/late 1980's, ''Repvile''. Newly designed sculpts for 2 other Madballs, Dust Brain & Freaky Fullback, as well as Super Madball Touchdown Terror, were also shown at Toy Fair 2006, but have yet to appear in stores.
 ==External links==
 * [http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0678/ Madballs Article @ X-Entertainment]
 * [http://www.x-entertainment.com/newxe/madballs.html Madballs Episode @ X-Entertainment]