Spirographs (date unknown. 1970's?)

Not much about it, just Spirographs! Nobody is too old to enjoy one. The standard model sold here for $2.99. I never knew they made a motor one!

If I was eph-ewe rich, I would buy a Spirograph for every child in the world. It's gotta be a good thing, to learn that mathematical patterns are cool and fun.

103 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

errer@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 60d

ButWhatDoesItAllMean@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 60d

All it took was one slip of a gear 🤣 I loved my spirograph sets!

rekabis@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 60d (1 reply)

This is what we did before computer graphics.

That, and etch-a-sketch.

EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.ca · 1 pts · 60d

etch-a-sketch

Morgan Freeman Narrator Voice, "In a world without diagonal lines, one child grows up to imagine we could someday make them..."

WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 4 pts · 60d (1 reply)

I just bought a modern version, for just a few dollars, this year. The design was changed, there has been an attempt to replace the push pins that held the stationary gears in place with sticky tack. I didn't feel like that was going to work, so I got some push pins and some cardboard to do it the old fashioned way. That sort-of works, but it's tricky without the dedicated, perfectly sized anchor holes the old sets had.

I wasn't able to get my kid too interested, but I had some fun with it.

EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.ca · 0 pts · 59d

tricky without the dedicated, perfectly sized anchor holes

Oh that's too bad about the design change. I wonder if you could drill your own tiny anchor holes and restore the original method in its full effect.

I guess analog toys like this have a harder time competing for attention today than in the past.

hOrni@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 60d (1 reply)

Nr 5. An automated spirograph. So a toy, that does the playing for You. Sit down, press the button and watch the toy play itself. And they are saying that today's kids are lazy.

WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 3 pts · 60d

I am only imagining, here, but I'm imagining that the "play" would consist of attempting to use household objects to engineer a supplementary framework of braces and weights to prevent your $6 battery operated plastic toy from skittering off the desk and messing up.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 60d

It was always great when I got to visit friends with rich parents who had this kind of stuff.