4. Wacky Wall Walker
This one made for a very slow ride to fame, as the Wacky Wall Walker did not start a craze among people, but it did end up something that a lot of people had and bought. They were even given as a toy with some cereal boxes at one point! They were toys made of a squishy elastic material that was shaped as an octopus and as kids we still remember having races with them: seeing which one got down the wall the fastest!
The inventor’s name is Ken Hakuta and it is estimated that he made up to $80 million dollars out of this tiny toy! What made his product famous was the fact that it was featured in a Washington Post article and after that, it was as if they walked off the shelves themselves. If nostalgia got you as it did with us, you can still find them on Amazon or other online resellers for about $6.
Maybe the youngsters in your family will appreciate it as much as we once did!
5. Big Mouth Billy Bass
This Billy, as opposed to the one that follows, is a very vocal one. I think all of us remember how in almost all houses there was one Big Mouth Billy Bass on one of the walls. This electric, singing fish residing in a frame became very popular in the early 2000s, and the fact that it started singing and dancing as people walked by added to the novelty! Together with the familiar tunes it played, it attracted all of us to it and it brought its inventor a lot of money.
This silly, albeit charming product, managed to entertain all age groups and a lot of people could not get enough of it! Its inventor, Joe Pellettieri came up with the idea in the early 1990s, but the products started being sold only in 1999. He probably had a bit of a hard time selling the idea, but after that, it became a hit and a bit of a staple. Joe made about $100 million from the first year of selling this singing fish, becoming a millionaire pretty easily.
Does not matter if the fish is not as popular today, he made a big profit out of it!
6. Billy Bob Teeth
Do you remember those big, yellow, ugly teeth that are present in all the party stores? A lot of people that have used them for pranks or for Halloween costumes have no idea just how lucrative this business of making fake, ugly teeth has actually been. The teeth are called Billy Bob Teeth and they were invented by Jonah White and Rich Bailey in 1993. They’ve been around for so long it sometimes seems like they were invented earlier.
Like a lot of the previous items described here, they are not an innovation in the world, yet they sold enough copies that according to the official website, up until now they have made a profit of about $40 million just from the fake teeth! Nowadays they are also selling a bigger variety and even feet and other funny items, so they are still making a fortune after already becoming millionaires.
