Imperial Toys Loony Kookys (1974) aka Silly Sports jigglers

In 1974, Imperial Toys (Los Angeles, Ca) started another line of wacky humanoid, monster-esque jigglers: the Loony Kookys. They were similar in many ways to the ever-popular Spooky Kooky jiggler line, although the Loonys were lacking the inherent cruelty and evil of the "forgotten prisoners" concept. Perhaps that was intentional, given the 1971 "torture toys" controversy over Aurora's "Monster Scenes" model kits.

LOONY KOOKYS- ORIGINAL 1970's RUN:

Loony Kookys were small (about 4"), very flexible, rubbery oily jiggler humanoids marketed by the Imperial Toy Corporation. They are also known as "Silly Sports jigglers" by current collectors.

Like their Spooky Kooky brethren, there were a total of six different figures. They were sold in a countertop cardboard box for 39 cents each. They had "HONG KONG" stamped into various body parts. But unlike their imprisoned brothers, they had no trace of "BRABO" stamps anywhere. Instead, they had "IMPERIAL TOYS", along with the Imperial Toys crown logo, stamped into their bodies. This indicates that this series was intentionally designed and manufactured for Imperial Toys alone.

from 1975 Imperial Toys catalog. Photo courtesy of Plaid Stallions

The Rogues Gallery: the Loony Kooky Six 

[Loony Kooky #1] Waiter/Maitre d'. Based on his prominence on the box art, I'd consider him to be the "leader" of the Loonys. He's posed awkwardly, running sideways. He is carrying a tray with a wine bottle and wine glass all molded together with him.

Waiter/Maitre d'

[Loony Kooky #2] 3-Legged runner/relay racer. He's carrying a molded-on baton. What makes him monster-ish is the full size, third leg.

3-Legged runner/relay racer

[Loony Kooky #3] Siamese Twin boxer. Another nod to monsters. The boxer has a smaller co-joined twin coming out of his shorts. The smaller twin, apparently conscious and functional, has his own pair of tiny boxing gloves. It is unclear if the Siamese twin boxer is qualified for a solo match, or whether he's actually a tag-team.

Siamese Twin boxer

[Loony Kooky #4] Scuba diver. A relatively normal human being. He has a small, permanently-attached life preserver around his very tiny torso.

Scuba diver

[Loony Kooky #5] Crazy Tennis player. Another normal human being. He's carrying 3 tennis racquets, and, since all of them have tennis balls, I think it's implied that he hits 3 tennis balls with 3 racquets simultaneously. He can even hit balls with a racquet held in his mouth!

Crazy Tennis player

[Loony Kooky #6] Drum Majorette/Cheerleader. Sometimes mistaken for a "witch doctor". It's really easy to see the cause of the confusion, but when using a magnifying glass, what looks like "bones in her ears" are really "bows in her hair". And, the outfit does have a resemblance to a Napoleonic soldier's uniform, hence- she's a drum majorette and the only female among either of the Kooky lines.

Drum Majorette/Cheerleader

COLLECTABILITY AND PACKAGING

Loony Kookys are very collectable and considerably rarer and more expensive than Spooky Kookys. Based on the Imperial Toys catalogs, the shelf-life of the Loonys was very short- only 2 years (1974 and 1975) and then they were dropped from the catalogs (and presumably from retail store shelves). Shown below is a 2013 ebay auction where a mix of Spooky Kookys and Loony Kookys sold for $247.50. Since the Spooky Kookys in the lot were not particularly rare, the bid was obviously mainly for the Loonys.

Spooky Kooky and Loony Kooky lot (photo from ebay)

There are few examples of the box art. The only ones I could find were the small image from the Plaid Stallions website, and the homemade box that I had received my Loony Kooky set in.

Loony Kookys in repro mini box (photo from ebay)

The box art was not scanned or printed very well on my sample so I had to spend a lot of time cleaning up the old tape stains, tears, faded colors, writing on box, illegible lettering and incorrect aspect ratio. Here is my cleaned-up version which (hopefully) is a better representation of the original Loony Kooky box art:

cleaned-up version of repro Loony Kooky mini box

1990's REISSUES- THE SECOND GOLDEN AGE

Several years ago, I saw a set of Loony Kookys, in different colors for sale on ebay. I lost (or missed) the auction, and the jigglers went to a user going by the name Astronit. I asked Astronit few questions, and found out that they were stamped "Made in China", just like the mid-1990's Spooky Kooky reissues. I suspected that the Loony Kooky reissues were related, because the factory paint colors were so similar to the paint colors on mid-1990's Spooky Kooky reissues.

The new paint jobs are more complex than the original ones.I like them better. But, it would be very labor intensive and not-very-profitable to manufacture these on a large scale, even with slave labor in factories in China. This would probably explain why these reissue figures are so hard to find.

Loony Kooky reissues by Gigantor

I had recently obtained my own set of the Loony Kooky reissues. Upon close examination, I saw that the old "IMPERIAL TOYS" and crown stamps had been removed. Several of the jigglers had a very hard-to-see new logo on them: the familiar drawing of a mountain, with the letters "T" and "S" intertwined, all inside a circle, with the very faint word "GIGANTOR"! This fits the reissue Loonys nicely into Gigantor's mid-1990's resurgence, when many HONG KONG-era oily jigglers reappeared, but all stamped "MADE IN CHINA".

As for distribution, the reissued Loonys have an interesting story. Some had landed as prizes in arcades at the mall with key rings attached to them, circa 2000/2001!

 

MY CONCLUSIONS

If one were to consider the notion of integrating the Spooky Kookys with Loony Kookys, I have some bad news. The two lines are not truly compatible. The Loonys are smaller, lighter, skinnier and much more fragile. They are unable to sit down, stand up or even lean against a wall unassisted. Their head/body/limb proportions are entirely different (making the Spooky Kookys look downright robust). If the thinness of the limbs can be forgiven, the small and very flat torsos are the deal-breaker. They're more like 2½D instead of 3D.

Putting them side-by-side, Spooky Kookys and Loony Kookys are clearly from two different worlds and never the twain shall meet. There really is no way of making the two lines look good together.

size incompatibility between Spooky Kookys and Loony Kookys

They apparently were designed to dangle from a string (for example, from a car rear view mirror) and that's where they shine. The scuba diver may have some bathtub play value, but the others... well, I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with them.

Any kid in the 70's would quickly realize that you can't make clothes for them, or give them a MEGO rifle, or play Hogan's Heroes with them, or put them in a wrestling ring, or put them in a torture chamber with Aurora's Monster Scenes models, or play Planet of the Apes with them, or put them in toy jeeps or wagons, or even have them run hotels, stores or trading posts. Not to mention how easily they'd fall apart under normal play. I can see why the line only lasted for 2 years at retail.

RELATED PAGES:

Imperial Toys Spooky Kooky jigglers, Part 1
Imperial Toys Spooky Kooky jigglers, Part 2
Spooky Kooky Dungeon Dioramas

Got additional information, or corrections, or photos to share? Write to me and I will gladly incorporate any new information in this blog!