The Maker Speaks
Slime
Anachronistic Now?
Anachronistic Now?
I will write something about Slime. Is it the small character of Dragon Quest? you may ask if you are kind of familiar with Japanese video games. No. I have never played the game, have recognized the character. I am going to describe something about slime as a toy.
The Slime Monument at Hyogo perfecture
Over the world, I suppose slime is well-known as the toy product manufactured by Mattel (US). It first appeared in February 1976. I was born in the middle of 1980's, have never been in the times at all. Anyway, they exported it to Japan right away, they say it was sold close to 10 million copies in 1977 Japan. And it is not difficult to produce slime as long as having materials and water enough. Its main components were nothing but the polyvinyl alcohol and Borax. I heard some of Japanese students had made slime for science classes in schools. So slime began to be sold by Tsukuda Original Company (Mega House Company at the present) in 1978.
I have played slime in my childhood. However, I guess present children will not do like I did. Why? As mentioned above, you need a lot of water for making a slime. Today water shortage is a great problem for many countries. The 21st century is the times of resource, it is said. Well, how many people will waste such an important thing to produce an unnecessary toy? I guess there must be few over the world. Slime must, in other words, be out-of-date.
The Slime Monument at Hyogo perfecture
File: Monument of Dragon Quest.jpg
from the Japanese Wikipedia
（Photoed on September 15, 2017）
Over the world, I suppose slime is well-known as the toy product manufactured by Mattel (US). It first appeared in February 1976. I was born in the middle of 1980's, have never been in the times at all. Anyway, they exported it to Japan right away, they say it was sold close to 10 million copies in 1977 Japan. And it is not difficult to produce slime as long as having materials and water enough. Its main components were nothing but the polyvinyl alcohol and Borax. I heard some of Japanese students had made slime for science classes in schools. So slime began to be sold by Tsukuda Original Company (Mega House Company at the present) in 1978.
I have played slime in my childhood. However, I guess present children will not do like I did. Why? As mentioned above, you need a lot of water for making a slime. Today water shortage is a great problem for many countries. The 21st century is the times of resource, it is said. Well, how many people will waste such an important thing to produce an unnecessary toy? I guess there must be few over the world. Slime must, in other words, be out-of-date.
