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Friday 4 February 2011

Dexterity


Little puzzles where you have to roll ball-bearings around until they drop into the holes seem to be called 'dexterity puzzles', on eBay at least.
      I have a very few of these. My favourite is probably the cowboy above, for the mild colours and his staring empty eye sockets (not improved by the fitting of his steel eyeballs).
This one is great too, as it features a telly, my favourite miniature collectible.
     The puzzles are similar to cracker toys, in that one can only wonder at anyone going to such trouble to design and make them. Imagine being a dexterity puzzle designer; it would play havoc with your mind. 'Why am I doing this?'
Another much loved theme seems to crop up frequently in the puzzles -- hideous clowns. My worlds are colliding! Cowboys, tellies, clowns, space race, puzzles -- my collections are merging and overlapping like crazy Venn diagrams.
Monsters and nasty-looking little girls.Your uncle Peter dressed up as a Red Indian at a party.

All with bits of their faces missing.
On eBay there are splendid old versions of the puzzles -- very covetable, but also rather expensive. I particularly covet these ones:
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5 comments:

  1. Suzanna Scott4 February 2011 at 23:45

    These are really great!! Trying to pick a fav is hard but I'm thinking I really like the one with the monster/devilish face. No, I can't imagine being a dexterity puzzle designer--but now that you mention it... :)

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  2. Makeminemidcentury5 February 2011 at 00:07

    I think if you could do all those dexterous puzzles one after the other, you could handle anything.

    We have a 'contemporary' one which is a ball, about the size of a smallish-basketball and there's a ballbearing inside and a labyrinth of 'tracks' that you need to roll the ball bearing along and around ... it's impossible to complete and is often thrown across the room.

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  3. Kitsch and Curious5 February 2011 at 21:50

    I love these! Funnily enough, I thought about making one a while back. Perhaps I should resurrect that idea...

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  4. menopausalmusing6 February 2011 at 10:35

    Aren't those wonderful? Love the top and bottom ones................

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  5. Unknown8 February 2011 at 14:27

    This collection is phantastic, I specially like the one with the big wheel! And what you said on my post about making a video of the area I life. I really never thought about doing a music video, but I have to admit that your idea now stucks in my head.Maybe..... - if so, you'll realize by my posts.

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