New little foam eyes!

Dagger Claws

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Today inbetween puppet shows, my boss and I were killing a little time in a very large train and hobby shop. After scanning the many aisles of model trains and tiny fake trees, I came across a rack of novelty toys. There was an array of toy guns that could shoot out foam objects, and one toy, called POP BALLZ came with three small foam balls it could fire. Right underneath were refills of extra foam balls, called BUCK SHOTZ. These little guys are the SAME as the yellow practice golf balls that you can find at WALMART, only SMALLER!!! The same kind that many puppeteers, such as Grey Seal and Nick Barone, use as eyes for their hand puppets.

The Walmart balls have the diameter (or how wide it is across, for those who are geometrically impared) of about an inch and a half, the size of a real golfball. The BUCK SHOTZ balls have the diameter of about a quarter. It was hard to measure how big these little guys are, but it looked like they were just under an inch across. They're made of the same kind of foam and have the same density of the larger practice balls from Walmart. So, same kinda foam ball, only SMALLER.

The BUCK SHOTZ came in packs of 6. I bought mine for $2.99 a pack. The one plus or draw back is that they are not all yellow. Two are yellow, two are red, and two are blue. This is a bit of a draw back because, personally, I like the look of the yellow as the eye color for the puppets I've built using these foam balls. And only two are packaged. BUT, that doesn't mean that the red or the blue couldn't make nice eyes. You could always paint over them, too. A creative person could even try his or her hand at making noses, nostrils, facial bumps, etc. with these smaller balls. In fact, you could cut down and combine the red or the blue with the larger yellow ball to make some neat eyes.

On the back of the packaging, there is contact information for the company that produced these guys. The head company is called The Toysmith Group. The division of the company that handles their foam toys and products is called Ozwest. And it looks like the division that is in charge of refills on foam balls, missles, and such is called Foam Mania (lots of branches, no?).

There website is: www.ozwest4fun.com And through their site you can order a catalogue of their products online, or by calling their toll free number.

and their email is: info@ozwest4fun.com

The company is located in Auburn, Washington, zip code 98001.

I was really excited about my find, and there are just so many possibilities with these little guys. I hope that this is all enough info to turn you guys onto them as well and to find some of your own to play with.

Take care,

Marc
 

Dagger Claws

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Just checking in.

So has anyone found these little foam balls and used them? What do you guys think?

Marc
 
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