Space Pets

Space Pets were a line of pneumatic-powered toys designed, manufactured and marketed by TOMY (Takara) for the American market in the early 1980s.

Design

The basic principle was to use a small air tank to capture, compress and controllably release air power and convert it into mechanical motion. Each Space Pet shipped with a "Tomy air pump" that was used to recharge the air tank. The air pump resembled a bicycle pump, although smaller. The flagship model was the "High Hoppin' Hoomdorm", which was something of a mechanical grasshopper that would hop furiously (and somewhat erratically) across the room. Other models included the "Stretch Legged Stoomdorm" which propelled itself in an accordion-like fashion, the "Fleet Footed Floomdorm" which sort of shuffled along on pie-shaped feet and the "Lurch Along Loomdorm" which raises up by means of scissor action, then fell forward and retracted its feet. There were four models in total.

Hoomdorms, in particular, were manufactured in two places: Singapore for distribution in Australia, and Japan for the United States. There are very slight differences in the product between the two places of origin.

Contrary to logic it is the frenetic hopping Hoomdorms which seem to have the greatest "survival rate" and are still working after over 25 years. Many Stoomdorms, Floomdorms and Loomdorms have simply stopped functioning properly, if at all.

Variations of Space Pets were sold under other names outside of the USA. For example, the "High Hoppin' Hoomdorm" was packaged and sold as the "Sky Hopper" in the United Kingdom. Likewise, "Lunar Legs" was an alias for the "Stretch Legged Stoomdorm".

The entire Space Pets line was closely related to TOMY Air Powered Vehicle line.

The original TV commercial for Space Pets takes place on an alien ship and the alien kid wanted a pet. At the end, the kid asks his mother if he could keep them and the mother said something like "Wait till you father comes home." The kid says "Aw darn!". (unconfirmed)

It is believed that one of the major failures to Space Pets success was the odd choice of names like "Hoomdorm" and "Floomdorm". One of the most powerful arguments for this theory is the astounding lack of information available on the internet regarding these fascinating toys, as if they were simply forgotten.

External links

* http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8410/hoomdorm.html

* http://www.jeffbots.com/stoomdorm.html