The man behind Sea Monkeys has died

From the Telegraph:

Harold von Braunhut, who died on November 28 aged 77, made a fortune by developing novelty mail-order gifts such as X-Ray Spex, Invisible Goldfish, Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters and, most famously, Sea Monkeys - microscopic dehydrated brine shrimps which "come to life" when added to water... Sea Monkeys sold in their billions, becoming a consumer craze. There are now web sites for Sea Monkey fans; CBS briefly had a Sea Monkey television series; 400 million of them went into space with John Glenn in 1998, and there is even a Sea Monkey video game which allows a player to care for a "virtual" cybermonkey colony. But Sea Monkeys were always less a toy than a test of childhood faith. The creatures may have lived dazzlingly heroic or romantic lives in the minds of their owners, but the physical evidence was always a bit disappointing. The biggest Artemia nyos ever grows is a tenth of an inch and the most interesting thing it does is follow a beam of light up and down its tank. Mostly it does nothing at all.

Ah, memories. I don't know how many millions of us were gullible enough to send away our money and wait by the mailbox everyday for our colony to arrive. If it's in a comic book, is has to be true, right? Right?

Comments

[hamo]

I bought some... think I was 10!

[ed]

I come from Africa, Sea what? I didn't know about them till I was in my twenties, and by then I wasn't enticed, but curious still...

[Kim]

I bought some too when i was a kid. I also bought the x-ray glasses to check out this guy on our school football team but they didn't work.

[chad]

Yes, I bought some, too. I was disappointed that they didn't look like the pictures -- smiling faces and such. Good childhood memories, though. In fact, a few years back I bought a Sea Monkeys t-shirt.