The ThingMaker

Mattel's Vac-U-Maker (1964) was a toy for kids that involved a hotplate. That's right - a hotplate. The Vac-U-Maker, later became known as the ThingMaker. The box came with a hotplate, a selection of aluminum molds of creepy looking bugs, and Plastgoop. Plastigoop came in many different colors and the bottle looked much like an Elmer's Glue bottle. The hotplate though was a lot of fun even without the goop and molds. It was fun to do scientific experiments - melting plastic items around the house.
I believe I got my Fighting Men ThingMaker as a birthday gift. The FightingMen molds were double sided molds and I could make my own little green army men. Unlike the regular Creepy Crawly bugs package, you could put wires inside the body and appendages of the soldier molds so that the fighting men could be fully posable. I don't remember playing with the little guys that much because their appendages would fall off too easy. It was easier to play with little plastic green army men rather than the self made FightingMen figures. Their little dismembered body parts however did make for a more realistic battleground when playing. Little green arms, legs, and trunks scattered here and there gave the livingroom floor that Saving Private Ryan look. Nothing says war like scattered appendages.FightingMen, like all other cool toys of war were pulled because of the anit-war sentiment during the Vietnam War. I remember the toy departments weren't as fun to brouse through because of that sentiment - all the plastic weapons of war disappeared.