Anyone else had SeaMonkey's for pets.

[jjohnwm]

Yep, I had 'em...and mine too were ordered from one of the zillions of mini-ads in the back of DC comics, along with such staples of boys' gear as X-ray glasses, Jivaro blowguns, pistol crossbows (those last two would result in jail time in today's Canuckistan), decoder rings, miniature secret agent cameras and many other irresistible wonders of that bygone age. As long as I paid for these trifles with money I earned myself...mostly by mowing lawns, collecting nightcrawlers, shoveling snow and also from bounties paid by some local farmers on feral pigeons...I had carte blanche to buy whatever I wanted, although everything was vetted by my father once it arrived before I was turned loose to terrorize the neighbourhood with it.

Sea Monkeys were just brine shrimp, weren't they? They were okay, and may have been the very first living creatures I kept that weren't self-collected...but they led to plans to order a critter from an adjacent ad in those same comic books: a Squirrel Monkey, straight from the jungles of the Amazon to your home by mail! I can actually recall the dawning horror on my mother's face when I gleefully explained to her that this wasn't just another "jar of bugs", but rather a real, live monkey; what an idiot I was for telling her! That very night, my father informed me that going forward, I would be clearing all purchases with him before sending any money, rather than just having mysterious boxes appear in the mail for him to inspect. This new ruling delayed the acquisition of my first Boa Constrictor by a number of years. Dang!

Don't even get me started on Triops...

 

[tlindsey]

Sea Monkeys were just brine shrimp, weren't they?

Yes

 

[tlindsey]

what an idiot I was for telling her!

No you weren't a idiot. You were just honest at that age. It would have gone bad if your mom or dad smelled the package once it arrived.

 

[Ogertron3000]

Did you order them from the back page of a comic book or a MAD magazine?

We couldn’t order from American comics here but I used to read them and always wondered what sea monkeys actually were.
Lots of god stuff in those ads that I couldn’t get my hands on which was very annoying.
It was worse when I was a bit older and used to buy karate magazines then was outraged and jealous to discover you Americans could mail order shurikens, butterfly knives and other oriental weapons.
I have since hatched many brine shrimp but they were all destined to be food.

 

[krichardson]

Yep, I had 'em...and mine too were ordered from one of the zillions of mini-ads in the back of DC comics, along with such staples of boys' gear as X-ray glasses, Jivaro blowguns, pistol crossbows (those last two would result in jail time in today's Canuckistan), decoder rings, miniature secret agent cameras and many other irresistible wonders of that btmygone age.

All those goodies could be ordered from the good old Johnson and Smith catalog.I wanted nearly everything they had in there lol!

 

[troublesum]

Wow! i thought those ads in the back of my superman comic book was a scam!
I have a spare 20 gallon tank can you still order those Sea Monkeys? (aka baby brine shrimp)

 

[phreeflow]

I remember them. I thought they were cool when I was young.

So did I and I’d watch them all the time as a kid. Best part were those tiny built in magnifying glasses where I could get a close look as they swam by.

 

[krichardson]

We couldn’t order from American comics here but I used to read them and always wondered what sea monkeys actually were.
Lots of god stuff in those ads that I couldn’t get my hands on which was very annoying.
It was worse when I was a bit older and used to buy karate magazines then was outraged and jealous to discover you Americans could mail order shurikens, butterfly knives and other oriental weapons.
I have since hatched many brine shrimp but they were all destined to be food.

Oh yeah....one prominent supplier of such weaponry was Asian World of Martial Arts,located right here in Philadelphia and is still going strong today!

 

[DawnMichele]

So did I and I’d watch them all the time as a kid. Best part were those tiny built in magnifying glasses where I could get a close look as they swam by.

I remember seeing the ads for them in comic books.

 

[Ogertron3000]

Oh yeah....one prominent supplier of such weaponry was Asian World of Martial Arts,located right here in Philadelphia and is still going strong today!

Stuff like this, blew my mind as a 12 year old in the suburbs of australia that american kids were out throwing ninja stars around and trapping their neighbours in nets while wearing kill bill tracksuits. We used to spend hours looking at these ads and making imaginary orders then plotting our revenge on the grumpy old man who lived across the road from the park.
Generally our plan was to wear black ninja suits, knock on his door at night then hide in a bush, when he opened the door the blow pipes and shurikens would come flying at him then we would silently finish him off with our nunchucks and swords and melt away into the night like the true ninjas we imagined we were.
As a final insult we planned on taking his wife flowers the next day to help her deal with her grief because ninjas were apparently devious and cruel.