This is the 1969 Spirograph set I was able to buy for cheap off of ebay. It was produced by a toy company named Kenner. It's an extensive kit which includes many different shapes, pins to tack the pieces down onto a supplied rectangle of cardboard (so your drawing doesn't slip), and four ball point pens of different colors. I've been having a lot of fun playing around with this and it's already come in handy on a project or two.
Here's a sample of the instruction booklet that came in the box. It contains simple explanatory illustrations and some Spirograph drawings so complex they make me jealous. (More photos of the booklet pages can be seen on my flickr.) It's both lovely and intelligent.
This is the Deluxe Spirograph I bought last month at Target. It was because this set was so much junkier than the version I had as a kid that I even thought to pursue a Spirograph kit on ebay.
The instructions that come with this kit are so childish that it made me feel silly for wanting to play with a spirograph again. The shapes themselves aren't displayed as attractive abstract designs - instead it is explained that they should be made into something you can identify and recognize (a crab!) These instructions talk down to children and limit the creative possibilities.
Such a disappointment, especially given how far the toy's overall design has fallen.The little people of tomorrow deserve better!
3 comments:
dude, that's messed. up.
I wonder if the same thing happened with Legos: they don't look as complex now as they did when I was a kid; now it's all special pieces and shiny stickers. But it's probably just my own process of growing up...
I'd love to see what you can do with the old-school spirograph.
And - great title for the post.
For more Spirograph fun, check out this online applet:
http://www.wordsmith.org/~anu/java/spirograph.html
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