Exclusive Fun Products By Mail

Similar to Johnson And Smith Co., the inscrutable Regency Mail Order in Niagra Falls, NY offered a diverse selection of perplexingly pointless products. These aren't your obviously deceptive results that claimed you could hypnotize your parents into giving you money but were instead honest with the fact their products were intended mostly for novelty purposes. Some of their catalog advertised in various comic books did contain somewhat legit choices like working miniature radios and cameras, or a beginner's guide to jiu-jitsu and ventriloquism, even the bike speedometer seems genuine, although the offering of "1001 things for free" for only fifty cents does sound sublimely sketchy. Most of the joke offerings you could find in any old magic shop with the fly in an ice cube that wouldn't be funny if anyone was so thirsty that they actually attempted to swallow the plastic thing, while the rubber spider ring would seem fake. Speaking of rings, you could live your dreams as The Phantom if you got the silver skull ring with red eyes that Regency states as looking really impressive. Mostly harmless offerings like the loud nose blower, prankster whistle, x-ray spex, and joy buzzer are standard joke toys, but then we start getting into items like pepper gum which would piss off anyone who was dumb enough to try chewing one just randomly offered to them. The trick baseball declares that it's impossible to catch as it curves and dips, which might anger some little leaguers who were just trying to play a decent game. One of the worst is the trick black soap which turns the person's skin black that could be viewed as involuntary blackface if applied at the wrong time. The big mystery was the offering to grow a pair of live monsters in full color and described as having green hair is particularly dubious, especially since it comes with an accessory kit that includes a space astronorium that was made up specifically for this pitch of simply growing grass. Regency Mail Order filled out the ad space in various Silver Age comics which normally go for pimping breakfast cereal, even though you can bet that these products caused some practical jokers to get a broken nose after trying to be mirthful at a party that desperately needing a buffoon with their bag of mail order tricks.