Help me think of the name of a toy I used to have as a child.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A friend and I were getting all nostalgic about our childhood toys. Granted, I’m only 19 so these were toys from the early 90s, but cool nonetheless.

He reminded me of a toy that I once had, and LOVED as a child, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. Bear with my description, please, it’s a bit fuzzy.

Basically it was like a tiny art table, and it came with a bunch of different sized gears and wheels. The gears had holes on them so when you stuck a pen in the holes and moved the gear around the art table (where obviously you had placed a piece of paper) it made really awesome swirly designs. The gears were all different shapes and sizes so you could pretty much make an infinite amount of cool drawings.

Okay, maybe this will help. Don’t laugh at my art skills, but I’ve tried to re-create this thing from my memory. HORRIBLE DRAWING OF SAID TOY.

Anyone remember these things?

2

Spirograph?

3

They were called Spirographs here.

4

[Here’s a pic.

I had the one called “401” :slight_smile:

5

I’m betting that’s it. I had one of those, too.

Here is a picture of a Deluxe Spirograph at Amazon.

6

Here’s a Java version.

7

Beat to the punch. Those are better pictures. :smiley:

(But hey! You can still buy them if you want to recapture your childhood!)

8

I think raz is referring to the Spirograph’s kid brother, the SpiroTot. It was a little easier to use than the Spirograph and didn’t require pushpins to hold the outer ring in place. I LOVED the spirograph!

9

That’s a toy? When I was a kid all our toys had “made in occupied Japan” on them. And we were glad to get them, let me tell you!

(and if I had kept them I could sell them for a bundle on e-Bay)

10

Definitely

11

Wow, Spirograph. (That’s all I came in here to say, in a thanks-for-the-memories kind of way.)

Time to go start a Colorforms thread.

12

Obligatory Simpsons reference:

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I had a SpiroTot as a kid. I was always envious of my sister’s Spirograph, but I guess my folks felt I was too lame for the big kids’ version.

I will now go weep from the pent up emotional trauma of it.

The Spirograph java applet is pretty neat, but it doesn’t compare to the fun (?) of moving the little geared plastic circles around yourself. Just clicking a button and having it already done takes all the anticipation out of it.

14

Just for you, another one with all the fun and suspense intact.

15

That’s exactly what I was talking about! Thanks, everyone! I’m so excited to see that they still make them. A new Spirograph is definitely on my wish list.

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Luxury.

17

Ooh! I know this!

Was it … Rosebud?

18

Spirograph sits right next to my “Light-Bright” and my Etch-O’-Sketch in my closet of childhood memories…

19

ok - here’s one for you baby boomers

it was called GUX - it was spongy stickx and blocks that you put together to build things - and because they were slightly sticky, they stayed together
the ad campaign had the tag “g-g-g-g-g-gux” going up a musical scale and down again

at a friend’s 7th b-day party, she received this as a gift, and her younger brother ate one or two pieces before their mom caught him at it

i know i’m not imagining it, but i’ve yet to find anyone else who remembers it