Found out about this story from the lost media wiki forums and thought it was so interesting and funny. I am hoping toyblr can have more info on this toy.

In 2003, there was a toy recall at Walmart, but not for any of the expected reasons. The toy was a baby's sound machine, meant to soothe babies to bed. The toy was shaped like a tugboat, with some cute sea critters to top it all off.

The problem? Many parents listening to the ocean wave sounds heard a faint voice repeating "I hate you" over and over again. Whether the audio of a voice saying "I hate you" was actually in the sounds, or if it is a case of pareidolia is unknown, however interestingly in one news article*, Walmart did not chalk it up to the phenomenon, calling the noise parents were concerned about "beeps" instead.

The toy was very quickly recalled, no evidence of its existence is documented outside of photos and news articles from the time period. It is a miracle the high quality photo displayed above exists at all.

This is where I think toyblr could step in, if any of you guys have collected toys from 2003 or know someone who has, see if you have this toy and if its audio still works. It would be an incredible find for such a bizarre and somewhat funny search.

More important info:

This toy was under Walmart's "Kid Connections" brand and was presumably manufactured in China. However, the toy could have been manufactured anywhere outside of America as stated in a rant against the brand:

This toy was made as a cheaper alternative/competitor to Fisher Price's Ocean Wonders Aquarium toy. While there's similarities in design and function, Ocean Wonders Aquarium does not share the same audio as the recalled toy.

I would love for this to be found some day, for the novelty factor and curiosity if the audio really did include that "subliminal message".

*which I will not link to due to it coming from a very alt-right news source, however is linked in the lost media wiki post for those truly curious on the full story

Resolve to unused video game characters

Kindy Kip: I.T. for Tots (Lost Media)

I know I’ve been posting more about obscure stuff rather than bootlegs lately, but I want to share this since I’ve been thinking about it for a while. 

 When I was younger, I used to play a series of edutainment games called “Kindy Kip” by Kip McGrath. It features a yellow furry monster with human hands and legs called “Kipster” and a mouse called “Monty”. There’s also a white monster with glasses which is supposed to be Kipster’s grandfather.

Looking it up doesn’t reveal any images and there is hardly any info other than trademark information, two LinkedIn profiles for people who worked on the game, a brief mention of the game on Google Books, and a webpage showing the location of the company responsible for the game. Trademark Elite states the “Kindy Kip” trademark was filed on August 23, 2000.

The games were briefly mentioned in “Cyberlines 2.0: Languages and Cultures of the Internet” on Google Books:

“Some software developers such as Kindy Kip: I.T. for Tots have taken marketing right into childcare centres. The centres pass on promotional material to caregivers. Their purchase of the software earns the centre a commission.“

Even though it was used by childcare centers (according to the book), you could buy the games yourself from the official website. If you wanted the free trial version, you had to send an email to the company; it wasn’t up for download on the website.

I don’t remember how many games there were. The Wayback Machine only has two shockwave files saved. One shows you what the start menu for the games looks like and the other asks you if you’re a girl or a boy and to enter your name; the loading screen is continuous.

Aside from clicking on things the games would ask you to click on, there were coloring sheets and songs. Some coloring sheets were archived on the Wayback Machine, along with desktop wallpapers. The screenshots in this post and the picture of the computer also came from the archived website. There are more screenshots archived on the Wayback Machine.

The games were targeted toward kids from ages 2-5 and were sold in Australia. I don’t know if they were ever sold in New Zealand.

lost media enthusiasts when the 30 second version of a persian dub of a burger king commercial from 1993 is found

Somebody help identify this comic

It was the mid to late 90′s, I was a teen hanging out at our comic/gaming store sometime before I ever had a computer and internet, and I read a single issue of a beautifully painted comic book in which one of the main characters looked like this:

He was some sort of scientist or something who was constantly “evolving” towards some kind of “ultimate intelligence” and had become a telepathic slug. In the same issue he evolves further into a floating brain, and finally into a sentient single cell. I remember nothing else except possibly a main heroine with a beehive hairdo, or some kind of big hair.

It may have been a one-shot and the art style reminded me a little of The Maxx, or possibly Earthworm Jim.

It’s been four years since I first asked about this comic and it’s still never been identified. There was even a couple reddit threads at some point. A lot of suggestions are for comics with different slug creatures, who are always much cooler looking. An important fact to note is that my crude drawing up there is exactly how he looked. Same bulbous shape and big cartoon eyes. Same two dangly lip flaps and little dinky tail.

I’m afraid all suggestions are way, waaay off so far, but there are other details I remember vividly. I talked about them in another post once, but I can’t find it anymore, so here are other key aspects of this comic:

-NOT tied to any other superheroes, established universes or franchises. I am 100% certain it was completely self contained with its own universe and characters existing in only this miniseries or one shot.

-The artwork was extremely detailed with a watercolored/painted appearance. I’m not even sure if there was lineart. Very intense coloring.

-Another main character was like a sexy space heroine with big hair, and either blue skin or just frequently in blue lighting.

-A key scene had a bunch of googly-eyed human brains floating out of a dimensional portal.

-The final panel of the comic was after the slug guy evolved into a microorganism. We saw him as a little amoeba saying something like “remarkable! True intelligence can only occur in a single celled state!” and then another amoeba says “indubitably!” and that was the end of the entire comic/miniseries.

-And, again, this had to be mid-90′s, before I ever even heard of “the internet” and no one I knew owned a computer or a cellular phone.

Still no leads, except for other people saying they remember the same comic and ALSO don’t remember the name!