Monday, July 12, 2010

50th anniversay of Etch A Sketch

Did you ever have an Etch A Sketch Magic Screen? It was one of my favorite toys as a kid and today Etch A Sketch turns 50! The Telegraph has some amazing artwork here.

Anyone else love playing with this toy as a kid or even now?

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19 Comments:

Blogger Topher said...

Etch a Sketch was the first evidence of my spectacular lack of visual arts ability.

2:17 PM, July 12, 2010  
Blogger TMink said...

I got to where, after decades of practice, I could draw a respectable stick figure with it. The examples at the link are really impressive.

Trey

5:20 PM, July 12, 2010  
Blogger Thom said...

They obviously have achieved much finer control of the stylus than I ever could. My kids have a mini one today, which they do occasionally play with--mostly to draw grids.

9:52 PM, July 12, 2010  
Blogger tomcal said...

Topher expressed my sentiments more eloquently than I could ever hope.

1:08 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Doom said...

How much time would it take to learn to draw that well with a... gadget meant to make it so you cannot draw? Wow, is all I can say. I think my World of Warcraft play has somehow been vindicated.

Still, to each their own. And, for my part, happily. Maybe a bit jealously, but I bet I can kick his horde butt. :p

1:19 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Casey said...

I was always a Spirograph geek, myself... :)

1:48 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Ern said...

I could never draw much of anything on it. I amused myself by drawing parallel lines sufficiently close together to clear the entire screen.

8:12 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger DADvocate said...

I always found the Etch a Sketch quite frustrating as it was next to impossible to draw a diagonal line, a curve or a circle. Plus, there was no permanency. You couldn't hang your creation on the refrigerator.

9:04 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger TMink said...

Doom, try Everquest II.

Fewer teens.

Trey

9:09 AM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger José M. Guardia said...

I loved, loved the concept. But my execution was just terrible...

1:48 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Samuel C. Lucchesi said...

I attended UTK nearly a decade ago. This is one of the etch-a-sketch pieces I made for my thesis show: http://smriasmn.blogspot.com/2008/04/twenty-eight-etch-sketch-toys-on-canvas.html

Thanks for the link Dr. Helen!

2:23 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Quasimodo said...

Do we have a report from Cham or Jimbimbo about the number of minorities using the Etch-a-Sketch or the traffic violations they have collected for such use?

2:37 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger RebeccaH said...

Egad, do I feel really old now. Before Etch-a-Sketch, there was a precursor toy (and I forget what it was called) that was a piece of transparent waxed paper attached to a black-covered cardboard backing. You drew on the waxed paper with a wooden stylus, and your lines stuck to the black background. Once you were done, you could simply lift the paper, and poof, the drawing was gone and you could do it all over again (at least until the waxed paper wore out).

I also remember when all jack-o-lanterns were made out of painted papier mache instead of plastic.

2:59 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Quasimodo said...

RebeccaH,
As I recall the wax was on the black card board and the "paper" was more like a plastic sheet. Also, I thought Jack-o-Lanterns were made of pumpkins

???

3:24 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Jack-o-Lanterns were made of pumpkins

Surely you jest.

4:07 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Quasimodo said...

No jest:
A jack-o'-lantern (sometimes also spelled Jack O'Lantern) is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday Halloween, and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o'-lantern.

if I can't trust the Wiki, what can I trust?

4:16 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger DADvocate said...

Wow! Next thing you know, they'll be making wreathes out of the limbs of evergreen trees!!

4:55 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Topher said...

"Wow! Next thing you know, they'll be making wreathes out of the limbs of evergreen trees!!"

We landed on the moon!!!

11:44 PM, July 13, 2010  
Blogger Unknown said...

Our family used Etch-A-Sketch to set up and run timed slalom races.

11:48 PM, July 13, 2010  

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