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Classic Toys For Christmas?
waterwheel asks: "Christmas is coming, and it's time to start planning our online shopping list for future Slashdot readers. This year I'm having a look at some of the more classic toys - and am finding that not only are some of the classic toys still around - but they are still educational and fun. Two good examples of this are the Rubik's Cube and the time honored gyroscope. The cube has been around for about 20 years, the gyroscope it seems for almost a 100. Both will be under the tree this year. Both of these toys are able to compete with video games - a true test of staying power. This begs the question - what other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?"
LightBright Pwns.
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This doesn't beg the question, it raises the question. See here.
Because, at least with my kids, the end in the huge box along with the other sets and are re-used with their own creations.
I've always just bought the packaged sets. I kinda wish they had those when I was a kid.
"The cube has been around for about 20 years"
Actually, the cube has been around exactly 30 years (this year)...i have one sitting in my cube (no pun intended) as we speak...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Treat yourself to a brand new one straight from http://www.rubikshop.com/!
In Europe, of course, the plural of Lego is Lego. Like sheep.
:-)
But they are, I agree, an absolute must for kids of all ages, in order to instil a properly reductionist mindset
Sean Ellis
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And not just for kids either... this has been seen on slashdot before, but the things people can do with Lego Mindstorms is simply amazing. An expensive set to be sure, but it's a toy that will scale up as the child grows older, and it's probably the most user friendly robotics set ever created. Of course, for $179.99 US (MSRP) you might want to just get one for yourself and ignore the kids altogether.
If you like Legos, this would be a good year to include Lego on your shoppng list. Sales for Lego have fallen over 25% in the last two years and the company is looking at a record setting loss for this year.
Anyone else remember Simon, the (highly addictive)electronic game where you have to repeat the beeping light tone sequences? Fun, great for toddlers to get into memory games and build ... ya know, character I guess. I loved it, and not only can you find it on Ebay but they apparently still sell it (albeit smaller now, and with a transparent plastic body to jive it up for the 90's...)
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77 77 77 2e 6d 65 6c 76 69 6e 73 2e 63 6f 6d
Along that line of the "Technics" legos -- how about the old Erector sets (or the equivelant Meccano sets)?
I used to play with those a lot -- mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, gear/pulley ratios, etc. Although Techics Legos are cool, I think that Erector sets are much more time tested.
I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), and I think that they are the coolist thing ever. Check out some of the more interesting LEGO sites on the net:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/recent.cgi A massive gallery of uber cool models made by AFOLs. There are some really amazing models posted here.
http://www.brickset.com/ A lego set refrence that has just about every lego set ever made. Want to get a list of every classic space set made in 1978? This is the place.
http://www.bricklink.com/ Want 150 tan 1x3 bricks? Buy them individually from fellow collectors all over the world.
http://www.lugnet.com/ LUGNET is the Lego User Group. It has an interface to all all of the Lego USENET groups, and is an easy way to keep on top of all the relevant lego news.
http://shop.lego.com/ Of course there is LEGOs homepage. Online shopping, and all sorts of other interesting stuff. They just released a program on the lego site that allows you to build virtual lego models. That isn't really amazing, since LEGO cad programs have existed for years. However, they seem to be ramping up to allow people to build virtual models, and then order the parts to build them online! Every lego fan's dream come true...
There is much more, but that is a quick rundown of some of the major sites. Indulge yourself, you know you want to....
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Lego is actually listening to people like you. They released the Designer series that has a lot of great basic bricks. You tend to get more bricks for the buck, and less hyper-specialized pieces.
There alot of people in the Adult Fan Community that have been saying this for yeats, and lego is paying attention.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Kids these days would probably just visit a cube solver webpage like http://www.wrongway.org/cube/solve.html instead of peeling stickers.
Speaking of stickers - anyone remember sticker collecting. Do kids today even know about stickers?
Maybe I'm missing your point
There is no direct correlation between the internals and the faces -- other than the stickers are attached to the faces and preserve their relative placement on the pieces.
It's just got the nice sane starting point of each face is all one colour when it's complete. By definition once you've made all of the faces a solid colour, the internals of the cube will be consistent with that arrangement of faces.
If I take all of the stickers off of a rubiks cube, the faces don't know that. Heck, remove all of the stickers and re-surface each face in its entirety in one colour like a brand new cube. That will give you a fully working rubiks cube which appears to have been solved. Thereafter it will work exactly like all other cubes do.
Now, if you arbitrarily move stickers, you're in for a world of hurt. But most anyone moving the stickers to cheat isn't going to put them on randomly. If you're doing it to drive someone insane it would probably work, 'cus as you pointed out, a whole lot more permutations.
But I most decidedly saw a lot of people in the 80's just re-do the stickers to get a finished cube.
It might change wether blue and green are on opposite or adjacent faces and the like, but it is a rather effective way to get a cube 'finished'.
But you'd be really incorrect to think that if you made all of the faces each with one solid colour that the cube would cease to function. It's built in such a way as to guarantee it will continue to work.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.