If you want to have your childhood ruined, then you've come to the right place.
Growing up in the '90s meant living on the edge of two worlds — half analogue, half dial-up. We climbed trees and scraped knees before settling in to watch The Fresh Prince or blow into a Nintendo cartridge. It was a decade where imagination ran wild, tethered only by the limits of your Tamagotchi's battery life.
With the abundance of toys at our disposal, Sea Monkeys were an ever-intriguing favorite.
But it turns out that they have quite a dark past.
Sea Monkeys, the nostalgic stars of countless childhoods, were first marketed in the U.S. in 1957 and became a phenomenon by the 1960s and 1970s, and into the 90s.
Sold with comic book ads and packaged in tiny kits containing a miniature tank, “water purifier,” “instant live eggs,” and food, Sea Monkeys were actually a type of brine shrimp known as Artemia NYOS.
They could survive for years in dry form and spring to life when added to water, captivating generations of kids. Some even lived up to a year in the right conditions.
In fact, they still have dedicated fan bases and creators on growing platforms such as TikTok.
But the man behind the Sea Monkeys empire has left many feeling deeply disturbed, per the Daily Mail.
Harold von Braunhut, the inventor and marketer of Sea Monkeys, wasn’t just a toy entrepreneur - he also had strong and well-documented ties to white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.
Despite being born Harold Nathan Braunhut and raised Jewish, he changed his name to sound more Germanic and distanced himself from his heritage.
According to The Washington Post, he even supplied weapons to KKK members and attended Aryan Nations conferences regularly.
“You know what side I’m on. I don’t make any bones about it,” von Braunhut once told The Seattle Times in 1988, reportedly after making a racist comment about a Korean shop owner’s eyes.
One Washington Post article revealed bizarre memorabilia found in his home after his death in 2003, including “a German war poster autographed in 1940 by Hermann Goering, an inscribed photograph of Benito Mussolini and a print of World War II German aircraft signed by the Luftwaffe’s top four aces.”
When asked about his Jewish background, von Braunhut said: “I will not make any statements whatsoever.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that von Braunhut had even pledged proceeds from one of his inventions - a spring-loaded self-defense weapon called the Kiyoga Agent M5 - to the legal defense of Aryan Nations leader Richard G. Butler.
He was also reportedly listed as one of the “outstanding Aryan nationalist leaders” at the 1984 Aryan Nations Congress in Idaho.
To make matters worse, von Braunhut’s marketing tactics have long been criticized as misleading.
The New York Times once reported that New York Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz filed a lawsuit against him in the 1970s, alleging Sea Monkeys were “fraudulent” because they were based on “fantasy.” It’s unclear if the legal action ever resulted in a ruling.
Von Braunhut didn’t stop at Sea Monkeys - he also created X-ray specs, Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters, and the infamous “Invisible Goldfish,” which came with a guarantee that the owner would never see them. Whether meant as a joke or a scam, not everyone was amused.
He was a man of many personas: a magician known as the Great Telepo, a motorcycle racer called the Green Hornet, and an inventor with 195 patents to his name.
But it’s his secret life as a neo-Nazi sympathizer that has retroactively darkened one of the most beloved kids' toys of the 20th century.
Understandably, this knowledge has made many rethink how they felt about their innocent childhood pets, tweeting: "Not the history of Sea Monkeys having ties to the KKK. What the hell?? I'm convinced everything in this country is racist."
A second added: "bro nothing f**ked me up more this year than learning that the dude that made sea monkeys was a big racist that supported the KKK?? like HUH."
Others added: "Today I learned that the inventor of sea monkeys was a white supremacist, childhood ruined once again."
While another said: "Today in another instalment of childhood ruined i found out that the guy who created sea monkeys was an extremely prolific neo nazi and he used all the profits from sea monkeys for his neo nazi organisations."