Revenge of the Cobweb Machine

Last year I wrote about my homemade cobweb machine, but unfortunately wasn't able to properly demonstrate what it could do since my can of ancient cobweb fluid had dried out. If you haven't read my original post you can click here to read it if you wish.

Surprisingly that little post of mine has turned into one of my most popular pages. So to kick off the Halloween season I thought I should revisit my machine, and hopefully really show what it can do.

Since professional cobweb fluid those big shot Hollywood types use is essentially thinned rubber cement, I had the idea why don't I try using plain old rubber cement in the cobweb machine.


I bought a 4 oz jar of regular and readily available rubber cement at Home Depot for $2.19. Poured about half of it into my web machine, and let the machine loose on a old garden lattice.

It worked great! As you can see from the above picture I got very good coverage, and even managed to bridge the gap between the garden lattice and the step ladders I used to support it.

At first glance the webs look almost perfect, but on closer inspection I found a minor flaw.

If you carefully examine the picture above you'll notice little drops of rubber cement throughout the web. Maybe most people wouldn't notice this, but I thought I could do better.


Another flaw I found was with my machine itself. You see that threaded rod sticking out almost four inches from the top. The webbing was getting caught on it, but that's nothing a few minutes with a hacksaw wouldn't fix. I sawed the rod off flush with the top of the wing nut.


Next I mixed the the remaining rubber cement with some thinner. I didn't measure at all, but I'd say I had about 40% thinner to 60% rubber cement mixture. Also if you're keeping an eye on cost, my 16 oz can of thinner was purchased years ago at Michels for $7.25.

Again, I filled my machine, and let it do it's thing. I got some very nice and delicate webs.

A wasn't able to rid the webs of droplets completely, but I do believe they were much smaller and less noticeable.

So the you have it. Both regular rubber cement and thinned rubber cement will make excellent realistic spider webs. Well, spider webs that look like they we made by spiders used in those famous drug experiments.



I checked online, and a pint of professional web fluid was going for around $20. If cost is a big concern you might be able to come out ahead my mixing your own fluid. But frankly, if I were you I think might just buy a can of the professional stuff to save me the chore of mixing my own.

More Ripley's Believe In Or Not Museum

Okay folks, prepare yourself for the "classic" souvenir postcard folder from the Ripley's Believe In Or Not Museum in St. Augustine, Florida...

Yeah it's pretty hit and miss if you ask me. It seems they could have picked a stronger selection of oddities. "End Of Trail," really?

Ripley's Belive It Or Not! Brochures

Believe it or not I'm back... (well I don't think I was missed very much)

Anyway to keep this blog from turning into a ghost blog I bring you some vintage brochures for the Ripley's Believe In Or Not Museums.

Here's one for the Museum in St. Augustine, Florida...

And here's one for the museum at Niagara Falls...

As you can see they both use virtually the same layouts. The use of the "Four-Eyed" man's eyes is certainly eye catching (no pun intended). But featuring the Lincoln Memorial and Lincoln's Log Cabin made of pennies so prominently on the covers was a mistake. I mean come on, they're just not that impressive, and almost looks like a rainy day craft project.

I visited the Ripley's museum in St. Augustine as a child. I don't really remember very much about it. But the image of the Four-Eyed Man from China is unforgettable. I remember thinking as a kid that he was some sort of monster. Just look at how they sculpted his wax figure...

Damn that's one scary-ass dude!

He looks so angry. But I'm sure living with an eye deformity like that was not very fun.

Summertime Reruns

Hey there faithful readers, this isn't much of a post, but thought I'd let you know I've updated a couple of posts.

My popular Magic Wold Brochure post has been updated with firsthand accounts from reader's comments. Thanks again to everyone who has left comments.

My much less popular Old Chicago Brochure post has been updated with a full scene from Brian De Palma's The Fury (1978) which was shot at Old Chicago.

The pic above is an ad for the 1991 NBC Saturday Morning lineup which was basically the last year NBC ran cartoons. I never watched the Chip and Pepper show, but I always assumed they were a couple of LA radio jocks who got a show because some desperate TV executive thought they'd relate to the young viewers. The real story according to the Wiki is surprising, but not too much different than what I thought.

Walt Disney World Bicentennial Brochure

Just in time for Independence Day I bring you the Walt Disney World Bicentennial Brochure.

The year was 1976, and every day at WDW was like the Fourth of July with their very patriotic and lavish "America On Parade" parade.



I don't know if you noticed, but back in 1976 Disney was still on the ticket system. A 2 day ticket book for one adult cost $15 in 1976. Today just parking your car at Disney costs about this much!

BONUS STUFF: Hey look, it's an official "America On Parade" drinking mug. It still has its price tag, and cost $1.25 back in the day. I wonder how much it would go for on Ebay?


Hey look again, it's the official guide to Walt Disney World from 1976. It's compliments of a company called GAF - whatever that was...

This guide is about 30 pages long. So I'm not planning to scan it for this blog any time soon.

Trog-Lo-Dytes LIVE!

Trog-Lo-Dytes were a circular piece of milk chocolate packaged in a cartoonish cardboard wrapper called an "Action Pack" (package patent pending) manufactured in the late 1970's by the Pangburn Candy Company of Fort Worth Texas.

The back of the Trog-Lo-Dyte. Say kids, it's only 23 cents!!

The gimmick of the action pack is when you gently pressed down on the top of the package the cardboard would slide, and usually reveal some sort of joke. Well instead of explaining it why don't I show you through the magic of GIF animation...















They're pretty funny, but that last one with the magician I don't get. Was there supposed to be some sort of joke there?

Groucho Cocktail Napkins

From 1954 here comes a sampling of "That's Me Groucho" cocktail napkins. The novelty of these novelty napkins is that each of the 36 napkins had a different one panel cartoon printed on them.

The box I have has less than half of the napkins remaining, but from what I seen the cartoons are pretty funny. All the cartoons show Groucho in some sort of riskque or sexual situation - usually with a hot girl.





Well that's it. If anyone reading this would like to see more just let me know.

UPDATE: There are more Groucho cocktail napkins here.