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?
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?
Labels: toys
posted by Helen at 1:49 PM
19 Comments:
Etch a Sketch was the first evidence of my spectacular lack of visual arts ability.
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
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.
Topher expressed my sentiments more eloquently than I could ever hope.
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
I was always a Spirograph geek, myself... :)
I could never draw much of anything on it. I amused myself by drawing parallel lines sufficiently close together to clear the entire screen.
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.
Doom, try Everquest II.
Fewer teens.
Trey
I loved, loved the concept. But my execution was just terrible...
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!
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?
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.
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
???
Jack-o-Lanterns were made of pumpkins
Surely you jest.
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?
Wow! Next thing you know, they'll be making wreathes out of the limbs of evergreen trees!!
"Wow! Next thing you know, they'll be making wreathes out of the limbs of evergreen trees!!"
We landed on the moon!!!
Our family used Etch-A-Sketch to set up and run timed slalom races.
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