The 80's ushered in an era of "gross out" toys. For some reason, gross sold and for us kids, the grosser the better. Madballs were self-proclaimed grossness and besides their appearance, I'm not sure why. They clearly could have oozed slime or smelled bad (Stinkor, I'm looking in your direction). But they didn't. I used to have the eyeball, as it was clearly the coolest one. I remember they didn't bounce because they were somewhat nerf-like, yet they weren't feather light. I tried to bounce mine one day by throwing it on the ground really hard. Somehow through some miscalculation, I hit my thumb on the window sill, causing the nail to bend back. It hurt like hell, and I developed a legitimate fear of these little spherical monsters.
I had the purple one with the pig snout and underbite fangs. Loved that thing. My fondest Madball memory: I attended this kid's birthday at the McDonald's just east of I-95 on Hollywood Blvd (I don't think it's there anymore) and I was the only kid who showed up. My mom (and I) got him the eye Madball. He wasn't bummed for long because we started chucking our Madballs against the far wall at the McDonald's as hard as we could. This was something our parents would've usually frowned upon, but his mom could see that he could use a pick-me-up. MADBALLS!
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