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Help identifying a 70's toy

bucephalusbucephalus
edited July 2017 in Chit chat
This popped into my head tonight and I can't recall a lot about it. Can anyone enlighten?

It was a pen where at the non-nib end there were wheels you turned - could be a few like the picture below or maybe six or so. I can't even recall if it was letters or numbers on it. If letters, did you just spell out a name; if numbers, was it a code or did it act as a type of calculator?

Z0AfQr3.png
Post edited by hackersanon on

Comments

  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    I recognise it but quite remember what it's called.

    I'm sure the wife has one quite similar somewhere...
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • guesserguesser
    a snapped bike lock
    My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
  • hitm4nhitm4n
    I think it may have been a pen with an integrated puzzle, similar to these images180643651966.jpg

    il_340x270.1248047453_b4q4.jpg

    I recall something like this too.
  • IvanzxIvanzx
    WoS Updates? :-?
    <a href="http://rincondelspectrum.blogspot.de/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://rincondelspectrum.blogspot.de/</a>;
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    Ivanzx wrote: »
    WoS Updates? :-?

    I don't understand how you think that's the answer to bucephalus's question.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • LunyLuny
    rich_chandler wrote: »
    Ivanzx wrote: »
    WoS Updates? :-?

    I don't understand how you think that's the answer to bucephalus's question.

    But I bet your wife has one though!?!
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • bucephalusbucephalus
    rich_chandler wrote: »
    Ivanzx wrote: »
    WoS Updates? :-?

    I don't understand how you think that's the answer to bucephalus's question.

    My fault - he means I've posted my question in WOS updates rather than chit-chat. I've only replied to a thread before, never started a new one, so I've gone wrong.

    I did click on the sub-forum before starting a new thread but there's clearly more to it. I'd be grateful if an admin could move to avoid confusion. Sorry for the hiccup!
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    bucephalus wrote: »
    rich_chandler wrote: »
    Ivanzx wrote: »
    WoS Updates? :-?

    I don't understand how you think that's the answer to bucephalus's question.

    My fault - he means I've posted my question in WOS updates rather than chit-chat. I've only replied to a thread before, never started a new one, so I've gone wrong.

    I did click on the sub-forum before starting a new thread but there's clearly more to it. I'd be grateful if an admin could move to avoid confusion. Sorry for the hiccup!
    lol, ok. Good I'm not admin...

    Erm.. hang on.

    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • F_ClowderF_Clowder
    edited July 2017
    It's a cryptex, and I remember a colorful coinbox made out of plastic being like that. From around that time. Don't remember if it was numbers or letters.
    Post edited by F_Clowder on
    What now?
  • VampyreVampyre
    I had one of those pens with a picture of a clothed woman that when you turned them it made her buck-naked. I think that image is burned into my retinas...
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • Maroc's Other ProjectionMaroc's Other Projection
    Vampyre wrote: »
    I had one of those pens with a picture of a clothed woman that when you turned them it made her buck-naked. I think that image is burned into my retinas...
    Haha :) That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this topic!

    Cheeky Funster (53)
  • joefishjoefish
    I had a sort of Boggle-on-a-stick game that was a maybe 25cm long dark blue plastic bar with wheels around it with random yellow letters on. You took the end off, slid all the wheels off, mixed them up, then slid them all back onto the bar. Then the game was to rotate the wheels to make as many, or the longest, words you could. Not sure it ever got played properly.
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
  • The_BertThe_Bert
    I am probably wrong, but it seems to me that for a pen to have wheels with all the letters of the alphabet, either the pen would have to be rather huge, or the letters very small...
    Author of BertoMenus, soon to become BertoBASIC +3 ;)
    Feel free to help yourself to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3 Manual.pdf
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    The artists impression doesn't look like a toy to me....Or at least not a toy for children anyway ;)
    Every night is curry night!
  • joefishjoefish
    edited July 2017
    Well the toy I had had maybe 10 or 12 letters on each wheel, and each wheel had a different distribution of letters. I'm not sure if there was any statistical validity to their distribution, but there were more 'E's than 'Z's, for example. You were lucky to get a 'U' to the right of a 'Q' but there was no way to claim more points for using rarer letters as there is with scrabble.
    Post edited by joefish on
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    The artists impression doesn't look like a toy to me....Or at least not a toy for children anyway ;)
    It looks more like a password protected bratwurst to me.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    The artists impression doesn't look like a toy to me....Or at least not a toy for children anyway ;)
    It looks more like a password protected bratwurst to me.
    No. It looks more like a password protected scuba tank.
  • ASH-IIASH-II
    90964d1362188054-cryptex-comp-fountain-pen-j3.jpg
  • bucephalusbucephalus
    Thanks for the replies so far.

    Don't think it was a cryptex as I can't remember securing anything with it and don't think you could set a password (like you would with a bike chain) in order to open it up or release something.

    As for the image above, it was a much cheaper version of that - it was just disposable plastic rubbish. My memory is that the wheels with data were much smaller than the ones in the photo and took up only a bit of the space - perhaps from the PR wheel to the LB one.

    Again, thanks to folk for taking the time to think about this. If no-one has twigged by now then it probably won't come to anything, but I'll update the thread if I ever get to the bottom of this.
  • Scottie_ukScottie_uk
    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/88/f8/0f/88f80fc91386ea2b592265acba655e39.png
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    Haha! Wordy!
    Every night is curry night!
  • LunyLuny
    and the boy from outerspace!
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • joefishjoefish
    So, you never realised it needed a code to open a secret compartment containing a map to millions in buried pirate treasure? =))
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
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