Jan 30, 2011

Spirograph




A few years ago, I was cruising the garage sales around town when I saw a solid collection of old games and toys- I looked through, and though most were in really good shape, I was really only interested in one thing- the spirograph. I took a peek inside and everything was there- all the wheels, two circular tracks, two straight tracks, and all the pieces needed to put together a custom track. One was limited only by imagination and the number of pins one could find to hold it all down. There were even the four original ball point pens (no longer working), a cardboard pad and a bunch of designs made by some previous owner. Awesome, given that the date on the box was 1969. Better still, I later realized that the set was manufactured in Toronto, at the former toy factory that now houses my good friends Joseph+Jaime.


When I bought it, I knew it would be a while before I got the chance to pull it out and show it to the kids- even leaving motor skills aside, drool on the paper tends to weaken it and make the ink run. But this morning, our time had come! Fisher went exploring in one of the storage closets for new distractions and we rediscovered the hypotrochoid goodness that is spirography.








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2 comments:

Maryrose said...

I bought that exact set last year and put it away until the time is right. Everything came with my set too. I could't believe the find. I have never seen a set in such good condition before.

Carlo Obillos said...

Nothing my kids use will look this good forty years after the fact. Or four months after. It even came with some blank sheet of paper from the spirograph paper pack.

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