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Low Tech Toys?
hypertex asks: "Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through and see all patterns the crystals produced? I've been looking for a kaleidoscope (for my 3-yr old) and no brick and mortar retailer seems to carry them. Even finding an knowledgeable employee was difficult. Walmart, Toys R Us, Kay Bee, Discovery and Disney stores are just a few to 'just say no' or 'it's too low tech' How can something so simple fade into obscurity? What else is gone?" What are some of the toys that have such a universal appeal that they should never be removed from the shelves? What toys surprised you when they fell into obscurity and what items have shocked you by their ability to stay on the shelves?
I bet most people who read slashdot regularly have heard of Go. But when I was in New York over the summer, none of the big huge retail stores carried a board! Grrrr.
Crackpot theory:
The reason stores don't carry kaleidescopes anymore is that they're not under patent or copyright, and so no one can overprice them. If one company started selling it, another company would sell them for less, until you approached the cost of production. If toys started selling for $1 or $2 for something fun and lasting, stores would cannibalize their own sales. (And profit percentages.)
End crackpot theory.
Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through
Any cardboard tube that came from wrapping paper, paper towels, whatever, became a light saber. Too bad they broke so quickly.
Little yellow squares of construction paper glued to bigger red pieces of construction paper taped around our wrists so we could be Space Ghost.. that was great. I think I reached my creative peak there, probably because I became distracted by the glue.
Lawn darts (way before congress banned them). Now that I think of the games we played, it was probably good that those went...
Here in the Portland, OR area, there are OPB Knowledge stores, and Hobby stores, and a couple of "educational" toy stores that have kalidescopes, microscopes, telescopes, chem labs, those foam dinosaurs that you put in water, sea monkeys, etc. Just a thought... That's where you should be shopping for your kids anyway... KB is just one cheap plastic piece of crap after another... (except the new transformers, which are surprisingly hard...)
Not everything .. like used underwear, where am I supposed to buy used underwear? Seriously, the list of prohibited items is lengthy and at times somewhat disturbing. (I'd link to it but they javascripted their help -- look to eBay policy if interested.)
Why not make your own kaleidoscope? Get an empty toilet roll tube, tape up one end, fill it with pieces of coloured broken glass. Job done.
Make sure your kid looks down into it though rather than holding it up to the light.
...was always enough for me.
... they must be old-fashioned, they don't seem to have a website) and the like. Unfortunately, they have higher prices.
;-) But the best toys are the ones that "made it" -- my kids play with my old Brio train set, which is a wonder of simplicity, and free.
Yeah, my kids didn't believe me either.
Part of the fun of having kids is getting to regress. I love these old unstructured toys that don't break and don't trap you into ding the same thing over and over ad nauseum. Unfortunately I think many have fallen victim to higher labor costs and the demand for greater margins.
We've emphasized low tech toys (no batteries is ideal) and it hasn't been to hard too find them, especially as these toys have enjoyed a sort of yuppie renaissance. The main problem I have is with the expanding use of plastic and declining quality of the toys, like Lincoln Logs just aren't the same now.
So the higher end toy stores like Zany Brainy and Imaginarium (regional?) have a higher proportion of sturdy, imagination-driven toys like blocks and alphabet jigsaw puzzles (I like the Lights, Camera, Interaction! line available everywhere, even our Borders bookstore
Of course, you can always take refuge in the internet.... Hey, anyone know why they discontinued Weeble Wobbles?
What else is gone?
Gyroscopes! Simple, cheap, die-cast gyroscopes. There's not a store within 50 miles of my place that sells them. (And a few guys I talked to didn't even know what the hell they were)
Such amazing little widgets, too.
=Smidge=
I think they still sell that child-torture toy where you squeeze a dab of multicolored rubbery goo out of a toothpaste tube and put it on the end of a short red straw and are supposed to blow it up into a bubble.
Whenever I tried doing that as a kid, I would blow on that straw so hard, I'd get an earache, headache and feel dizzy from breathing in the fumes.
I never did get a bubble.
Goddamn, I still hate that friggin' toy.
Jesus saves....And takes 1/2 damage.
I typed in "erector set" in Google and naturally got dozens of hits for sexual dysfunction.
Check out Erector World. And for nostalgic toy types generally, there's Yesterday Land.
Awsome staying power for what is essentially a spring...
I've always had an urge to get a giant one and let it walk down a step pyramid or similar structure...
It's not that I'm Anti-American - I'm Pro-Freedom
If there is a children's museum or hands-on science museum near try that. I know they have some kaleidoscopes at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, for example.
Liberty uber alles.
Dude, it's /usr/lib/xscreensaver/kaleidescope.
.c to draw them in.
(Perhaps your locate.db is corrupt?) I give kudos to your low tech tastes; kaleidescope doesn't even -lgl --- a real antique! They don't make toys like they used to, do they?
I'm not sure I got what you meant about a paper tube and bits of crystal, but it's all OSS so I'm sure you can hack the
- undoware.ca
hat's nuts. If your three year old can't close just one eye, it's probably because no one has shown them how. If you make a game of it I'll bet they'll have it down in a week.
In other news, I managed to keep my kids busy for quite some time by betting them that they couldn't lick their elbow.