Floamageddon

Look! I found a recipe for make it yourself Floam:

Ingredients

2 tsp. borax (available in laundry aisle at your grocery store)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white glue (we used Elmer's)
1/4 cup water
food coloring (otherwise it will look like cottage cheese)
an air-tight plastic bag (for mixing and storage)
5/3 cups of polystyrene beads (we used 2/3 cups micro-beads and 1 cup bean bag filler)
Floam™ is made with polystyrene (aka Styrofoam™) beads ranging in size from about 1 mm to 1/8 inch in diameter. You can make an approximation of the beads at home by grating polystyrene cups, packing material etc., although we did not try this. We bought two different types of beads:

Micro-beads (about 1 mm in diameter), which we found at a Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts store. We had to call several stores before finding one that sold them. They can be ordered from Roseann's Dolls.
1/8" beads, sometimes called "milk bottle filler" or "bean bag filler", which we bought on eBay but you can also buy through Roseann's Dolls.
Instructions

Dissolve 2 tsp. borax completely in 1/2 cup (4 oz.) water. Set aside.
In a separate bowl mix 1/4 cup (2 oz.) white glue and 1/4 cup (2 oz.) water. Optionally add food coloring.
Pour the glue solution into the air-tight bag. Then add 3 tbsp. (9 tsp.) of the borax/water solution to the glue solution. Do not mix them yet. You will have some borax/water solution left for another batch.
Add the polystyrene beads.
Seal bag and knead by hand until thoroughly mixed. Let stand about 15 minutes, and then knead a few minutes more.
This should produce a hard clay well suited for sculpting; for a more malleable clay, use fewer beads and optionally less of the borax solution.

Notes

The polystyrene beads will get everywhere.
We read but did not try this tip: "If you have access to a chemical supply house, try a 4% solution of polyvinyl alcohol instead of glue for a less rubbery polymer. It will be more transparent & show off color better." Simon Quellen Field added: "Polyvinyl alcohol is easy to get: It's used in artificial tears (and of course, white glue). On that web site you will find a hundred or so synonyms -- looking them up will likely get you better prices."
You can read safety information about borax.
The main difference we could detect between this and Floam™ is that ours smells like glue, while theirs smells like stinky chemicals.
Do not eat or taunt.

Do not taunt the Floam.

I thought that was an odd intruction but I left it in because.... well.... I have had a Floam experience.

Trust me, it's like inviting a vampire in out of the rain, the poor dear.

LOL This made me laugh. I went to the evil site a time back hangs her head in shame for not warning others hehe. But be glad you only paid 7 dollars. i went to the site and was gonna buy it or did sort of. Got to the check out and it either did not give me the amount I was gonna pay or I missed it cause I hit submit and it siad 67 dollars would be put on my card. I said Ohhh no no noooo and I quickly sent them an e-mail to stop the order. I coudl not believe the price they were telling me. and I hear it smells icky to boot. I thought about getting it only cause it seemed like it had more texture and would be good to put on my daughters stuff so she can then feel it but not for that much

HAHAHAHA! I was sitting here snort-laughing at that. (Your first post too was a classic.) You are just excellent, Boom.

Anyway, yeah, that stuff's been around since I was a kid in the dark ages of the late eighties/early nineties. Hardly 21st century, tres passe, in fact. I may have to try the recipe, though. . .

Yeah, I think this is the stuff my brother put in my hair when I was 7. Many tears and a haircut later, my hair was still stained pink in places.

Sozlet went to the dentist recently and a "prize" (you know, the "getting through the appointment without screaming or making a nuisance of yourself" prize) was a little plastic egg filled with either Floam or something remarkably Floam-like. It was less evil than I expected. It was kind of cool.

So, when we went shopping today and there was a tub of the real-deal Floam sitting there for 75% off, I decided what the heck. Buy it, see if it's pure evil.

Question answered. It's pure evil.

Sozlet tried to do the stirring thing, and made a gigantic mess everywhere. But when you touched the stuff, the livid green sea monkey vomit stuck to your fingers and would NOT release its grip. (Has anyone seen that Spongebob episode about the crud? You touch someone, it immediately jumps on to them and spreads all over... that kind of thing. It was aggressive!.)

No amount of stirring seemed to change its composition from pure evil to slightly less evil, much less anywhere approaching cool.

So I banished it.

Sozlet didn't argue much, having just been locked in a pitched battle with the stuff for about half an hour. She knew it was not a battle she could win.

First, I had to try to rescue the spoons. As I was muttering about the evilness of Floam and trying to keep it from spreading itself all over me, my kitchen, my house, my neighborhood, the world, sozlet wrote the above.

We're in full agreement.

Evil.

Hehehe. I love that little girl!

She LOVED "Floam is made from maggot embryos and sea monkey vomit using a special formula developed by Satan." Once she stopped laughing her head off she agreed completely.

Have you tried moon sand?

Another product for my most hated toy list.

You know, I still SOOOOOO regret not buying a telephone (a proper working one) mad from Lego that I saw once. The body of the phone was, of course, permanently stuck together, but there was spare Lego in a little drawer that you could attach to the phone and build stuff with while you talked. It was sold when I galloped back to buy it....



Bugger playdoh.....I think mudpies are part of Ramen's plan for brain development....AND it has lots of germies so you build up your immune system AND you even get to get worms!!!! Cooool!!!! AND (if you are me) you get to eat dirt (worm casts are just delicious)....and YOU ARE OUTSIDE!@!!!!!



I have a kid I am seeing who needs to MAKE MESSEs right now.......she got the play doh and made some sort of weird and HUGE amoebum.....with lots of water and paper mixed in. It covered half the table top. It took me an hour to clean up after. I still can't look at play doh the same. Whatever that thing represented it wasn't good.