18 Fantastic Products from SkyMall, America's Final Great Bastion of Innovation

Yahoo! Tech ^ | January 23, 2015 | Alyssa Bereznak

[Slings and Arrows]

On Thursday, the company behind the nearly ubiquitous in-flight catalog SkyMall filed for bankruptcy. As the Wall Street Journal put it, the institution was simply a “victim of evolving rules and technology that now lets airline passengers keep their smartphones and tablets powered up during flight.” 

For those who spent the majority of their early ’90s flights thumbing through the quarterly magazine, this is a tragedy. Like the mall staple Sharper Image, the catalog pushed the boundaries of absurdity in almost every category of domestic existence. Rather than attempt to fill the space of a practical retailer, the SkyMall catalog enticed you with overpriced items you never dreamed existed, items like hair-growing laser headsets or kitty litterboxes that resemble the Death Star.

They were all wildly expensive and impractical but all a tantalizing possibility when you were stuck on a delayed six-hour flight.

Below, we offer some of the more ingenious products the forlorn catalog brought us (some sourced from this wonderful Tumblr). Rest in peace, SkyMall, on your glorious and weird neck pillow in the sky.

[Slings and Arrows]

You need a sharkboat. You KNOW you need a sharkboat.

[Slings and Arrows]

'Nuff said.

---

[null and void]

Sharknado ping!

Oh yeah. 'Nuff said!

[mylife]

Good riddance.

[eyedigress]

The Darth Vader Toaster is kinda cool.

[mylife]

[left that other site]

Oh Noooooooooo!!!!!!!

After doing the crossword puzzle, it was all I had!

[eyedigress]

This one prepares your child for the leftist utopia that awaits them.

[mylife]

Whatever happened to the “Hamlacher & Schlamlacher” catalog?

[FourtySeven]

No wait, isn’t that the Republican idea for border security? I’m sure that was in the “Secure our Borders Act”.

[FourtySeven]

I’m pretty sure Hamlacher & Schlamlacher went belly up a while ago. Could be wrong.

[Caipirabob]

This from a man with a nose that makes the wicked witch look like “Betty Boop”.

[RegulatorCountry]

Haha, only $85,000 and made in the USA! Looks like fun:

http://youtu.be/13J-YaZPLBA

[mylife]

"I like fake butts, I can not lie"

[mylife]

Thanks.
Remember Co called Brookstone too

[Don W]

Hammacher-Schlemmer

Still going strong.

[Don W]

See my post above

[adaven]

I used to *love* getting the DAK Catalog in the mail! Made my day:

Fall 1984 DAK Catalog

[PetroniusMaximus]

http://m.hammacher.com/Default.aspx?

[mylife]

From Hammacher Schlammacher.