Balloons that you want but can't have
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
I'm actually not even sure these actually existed!
When I was REALLY young - like 12-13 - I worked up the nerve to buy my first packs of balloons at the local grocery story. The H.E.B. chain in Texas carried Unique balloons - you can imagine my astonishment when I got into the looner community almost 20 years later and found out that this was still a popular brand!
Anyway, after I had bought about 3-4 packs, I THINK I got a package of 20" Uniques. It's entirely possible I am mis-remembering this. But I really do have the 20" thing stuck in my mind from back then. All I remember is that they were absolutely freaking huge and gorgeous and the turn-on of a lifetime.
So was I hallucinating? Surely someone on this forum will remember if in the early 1980s Unique made a 20" round?Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
I cannot confirm this, but I suspect that these may be soft: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLV78JM..._VoowCbQ26KVE1Last edited by BYGavia; 05-02-2019, 01:29.Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
Around sometime in August last year thirtythreerooms uploaded a video in which a model wears a specially designed balloon/suit, I'll do my best to describe it it was a purple 72 inch balloon with 6 extra slightly smaller balloon necks 2 for feet, 2 for inflating, 2 for arms, and the regular neck for the 72 inch balloon. In the description there was a listing on eBay for the balloon suit in the video, but unfortunately for me I had stumbled across the video a couple weeks after it was originally uploaded and someone had already bought it. I've been searching up and down everywhere on where I could find another one of these balloons. https://thirtythreerooms.com/rooms/r...-backup-dress/ (here's a link to the vid I'm talking about)Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
From one of the earlier posts about trepidation regarding cashiers, A simple reason comes quite easily nowadays.
However, going back a year or thirty (almost, fuck I’m getting old), I was new in town and found a store with some interesting balloons (bought an obviously prestretched peacock ballon which got a huge neck and Tilco 20 inch, and 16 and occasional 36 inch).
Then I went in one day and asked if they had anything a little bigger.
The store owner, a very much older woman, produced a yellow 6 footer, no idea what brand- out of my price range at the time and said “Oh yeah, still playing with balloons, eh”.
Complete, total, utter mortification.
And I was gone like a hare.
Though I did go back over the years, and prior to the huge selection now available online was able to get 17” tuftex, 6 foot banners, 36 inch hearts, and 4 foot Qualatex (I missed the 5 foot stock, apparently).
The more I think about it the more I am pretty sure that the store owner knew exactly what was going on -though I tried to avoid her after that, nowadays I wish I had asked her what she felt about it.Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
Anything out of my immediate price or delivery range, which at this point isn't much, since I live in a populated area with a lot of shopping and mailing options. Last summer I ordered from Looners United for the first time, and I STILL have those balloons. They've barely aged, though this is partly because I know how to keep them fresh. That being said, even if I wanted to pop them, I'm VERY nervous about doing so. Most of them are huge, 36 inches or bigger, and I already learned the hard way how loud they go off when I accidentally popped the giant Rifco caterpillar I brought trying to inflate it the first time. Yeah, I'm not all that great with my hand eye coordination, way too hard to inflate it. Was really disappointed cause I really wanted that one, but I scared the living daylights out of dad with it. He thought a gun went off on the street, I had to stop him from calling 911. He still doesn't know it was me though.
Been thinking about taking the train down to the city this summer to visit one of those emporiums in Manhattan, because you can buy practically anything there. There are only 2 things stopping me from doing this. 1. is the fact that NYC is currently a raging dumpster fire, and I'm not gonna get hospitalized, or worse, killed over balloons. 2. is the fact that political hangups nonwithstanding, I would literally be the kid in the candy store. I wouldn't know where to start! I think the 8 year old in me would come out full force and I'd just go wild. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing I guess, cause it'd be pretty exciting and I don't exactly have to worry about my reputation in NYC of all places.Sometimes I feel like Freud would have a bloody field day with me...
Writer, future teacher, gamer, nerd, lover, looner, stoner, unapologetic nutcaseComment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
Someone mentioned CTI punchballs... I remember when punchball balloons first appeared on general sale. They were much thicker than the ones you find now and had a knobble on the end for the elastic, not a loop. It was also possible to roll the neck up and push it into the balloon and it would stay for ages. Most of the current ones, it pops out again too easily.
The CTI 22" are great too but the latex is thinner than the vintage punch balloons.Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
YES! The punch balls made by Bluebird before they were bought by Qualatex are the ones you are probably referring to. Very thick, had an amazing smell, sometimes came printed with a Smurf or He-Man. No lip on the end of the neck. Usually sold individually either in the plastic package or sold loose hanging by the rubber band on the hook in the toy aisle. Sometimes with one blown up.
I have several that are over 30 years old that still blow up almost to full size. When they pop, they sound like a rifle crack. For a non-popper like me, it's a brave venture blowing one up.
Those were the punchballs of my childhood. I miss them being readily sold in department stores.Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
PBK Wow, you still have some of those! I think they were the reason I started counting when inflating. On first inflation they use to get tight around 50. With repeated inflation they would inflate to 80 (about 24+ inches). I use to push a few up to 100 but that was dangerous as many would pop at that size (I am a non-popper as well). If you have one pop, please save the parts as I can repair it. attached is a picture of a repaired soccer bladder re-inflated to full size.Attached FilesComment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
Cool pic Patcher, but that seems like an awful lot of effort. Is that as true as it would seem? (er...SEAM? LOL)
I remember those punch balls, yes. Actually, I always thought their quality was rather crummy, because they would pop after not many uses at all, and even before full inflation.
My guess is that, well, I had dodgy hygiene back in those days, I might not even shower every week back then. I'm thinking of college years 1968-1969, then some time after. My guess is that the issue was that I didn't WASH THEM after use, and my body oils were absorbed and degraded the RUBBER and that would give them short lives.
I say "rubber" because they weren't actually LATEX, right?? (I always thought that latex is rubber, but after some additional processing - or are they actually different things?)
I did NOT like those, for that reason. I definitely liked that you could push the neck in, though, and it would stay. Don't get me wrong...some of the boinks that I had with those, were classic!!!
PBK, what era are you talking about? You say "over 30 years old" but that's 15 to 20 years after the ones I'm talking about, so were they changed by the late 1970s? I had moved on to regular balloons, even though finding any over 11-12 inches was a challange, by 1972 or 1973.
I'm surprised you can still use them decades later. I'm surprised the rubber hasn't become entirely stiff and not very pliable. You must keep them stored in their outer bags, or in the freezer, or something.People who don't know the difference between BURRO and BURROW, can't tell their ass from a hole in the ground.
There's been a lot of thefts of helium-filled balloons recently. More so than in the past, so they're going up. I think inflation is to blame.
"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking." - The Scarecrow, WIZARD OF OZ, 1939Comment
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Re: Balloons that you want but can't have
Hi Frankfrank
The old punch balloons are latex but probably no softner added.
Most current balloon latex is much softer and stretchier because of additives to change the properties of the latex - I think. It is very possible to have 30Y old balloons that still inflate. Vintage latex balloons http://www.esnarf.com/5150k.htm - I bought some of these. There were lots from 1986,1989,1992,1996 some of the balloons are inflatable - most were hard and/or sticky. With some extra treatment I was able to get about 1/2 to inflate.
Frank,I agree repairing balloons does not make sense but it is a lot of pleasure for me.Comment
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