Category: Pop Culture

Thee Legendary Lucky Cicada Keychain from Cicada Mania on Vimeo.

Update (5/2011): I finally found one of these keychains, but I’m going to keep looking for more. Plus we have, Cicada Keychain Parts, Packaging scans from Ben, Packages and images found by Roy, and a scan from an Archie McPhee catalog from Suzanne M.

Once or twice a year someone e-mails Cicada Mania asking if we know where to
find the cicada keychain — you know, “the one that buzzes”. Although there
are many keychains which feature
cicadas (e.g. trapped in amber),
I’ve never found the cicada keychain online.

I haven’t found these in stores since Clinton was in office. Back in the day,
you could find them in mall stores like “The Nature Company”, “The Science Nook”
and “The Planet Store”. Once, in the late 90’s I asked the manager of one of these
stores about the these
keychains and she said: “we don’t carry them any more, the last batch was defective”.
She seemed angry that I even asked her about them. I wish I knew more. Maybe these
stores lost so much money because of these defective key chains that they all went
out of business? Or maybe they didn’t sell enough whale song CDs, glow-in-the-dark
moon stickers, or mystical crystals to pay the rent?

I’ve spent way too much time looking for these keychain online, and I’ve
pretty much given up hope.

• I’ve searched numerous online stores that specialize in novelties and keychains.
• I’ve e-mailed these stores requesting that they stock these keychains — but I get no response.
• I’ve searched ebay.
• I’ve spend hours doing Google searches.

There are two problems with searching for stuff like this online:

1. Search engines have a hard time indexing online stores (for technical reasons
   I won’t waste your time with), and…
2. Who knows how people would describe these things?
   Are they keychains, key chains, keyrings, or key rings? Are they cicadas, locusts,
   insects or bugs? Do they buzz, chirp, scream, or beep?

While searching for cicada keychain:

• Apparently
  one is hidden as a prize in a “Geocaching” scavenger hunt.
• The wrong cicada
  keychain.
• Here’s a story that mentions
  the cicada keychain.

Online stores I’ve searched include:

• Archee McPhee
• Oriental Trading Company
• and many more…

Update: I recently tried to get the CEO of Archie McPhee to reintroduce this product:

@cicadamania As we are synced with Nature as well, we can only offer the singing cicada keyring every 17 years.

— Mark Pahlow (@mcpheeceo) May 13, 2014