I love American Science and Surplus, the Chicago retailer of magnets, science gear, and just plain weird stuff. If you ever get a chance to visit their showroom, do it — it’s a treat, and the brick and mortar location has all the charm of their print catalog, with its witty copy and hand-drawn product photos.
I bring this up because today’s new product announcement is a reissue of one of my favorite toys as a kid, the Spirograph. Originally marketed in the 60s and 70s by Kenner, Spirograph was a set of gears with holes in them that let you draw elaborate geometric patterns.
AmSci is offering a die-cast set, with metal gear pieces instead of the original plastic parts. Now, if they also have good pens to use, that will be even better — the cheap pens that came with the original set dried out quickly, but you needed a pen with a certain length to the ballpoint nib to fit into the gear holes — a Bic wouldn’t work. I had good luck with the 4-in-1 ballpoint pens, though.
I doubt this offer will last long, so don’t dally.