 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.