If You Can't Lick Them

Martin is stressed out because neighborhood kid, Horace, won't leave him alone to work on his spaceship. The stress has caused Martin's antennae to be stuck in its up position which in addition causes him to lose his Martian powers. With Horace fast approaching, Martin has nowhere to hide, so fashions a pair of antennae for Tim to wear. As such, Horace will think they're just playing. Horace also wants to play Martian and goes out and buys a pair of antennae. This starts a nation-wide fad of boys playing Martian wearing antennae. A newsmagazine wants to interview Martin, its inventor, and Mr. Barnaby, the person who manufactured Horace's antennae, wants to patent the toy. This publicity will cause problems for Martin in hiding his identity. He solves his first problem, the stuck antennae, with a simple hiccup, which reconnects his short circuit. To solve the publicity problem, Martin figures he has to create a new fad to replace the antennae craze, one that is unpatentable. He does when he designs the nose-mobile, which is made simply of a clothespin, elastic band and some propellers. As with the antennae, Horace thinks the nose-mobile is a toy worth playing with and the new fad is started.