Another cool toy of the 60's was Mattel's Strange Change Machine. The box read: "Featuring the Lost World". I heard there were supposed to be more sets like this in the line, but probably ended up disappearing like the Thingmaker, because of safety regulations. The Strange Change is another favorite of Thingmaker collectors because of it's similar nature: It used an oven, had little creatures you could squish and grow over and over, and was basically just a really neat toy.

The fantastic box artwork, and the mountain base. Hard to find without any cracks in it. There were 16 creatures that came with the set. Usually 4 of each color. The set also came with blue tongs. They are also hard to find, because that was probably the first thing that got lost.

Here's the map of the Lost World. This was to be used as a play mat for the creatures. On the reverse side, was the instructions.

There were actually 2 different versions. One was called "Strange Change", and the other was called "Time Machine". Besides the ovens being named different, the words on the box and map were also different, to match which version you got.

Mattel made two accessory paks, which contained four additional creatures each. What's odd, is that there are 2 variations of the cards. The 4th creature was expanded on the first, and on the second, it was compressed.

Click to meet the: Astropods

Click to meet the: Creaturelings

This is the rare paper artwork that was packaged around the plastic dome of the Strange Change Machine.

Click on the pic for a close-up, and re-print your own.