While walking toward the checkout lanes at Target on Saturday I just happened to see something that brought back some nice childhood memories.

I decided that it needed to join the other items in my basket.

We had a Spirograph design set when I was growing up. My older sister was really good at using the Spirograph and made some really neat designs.

This set is very small and has 15 pieces according to the packaging.  I would call this a nine piece set. The 15 pieces include the pens, putty, instruction manual, paper and the actual box that holds the set.

The metal box is pretty nice. I remember the well worn cardboard box that our Spirograph was in.

The Spirograph actually has a long history. The Spirograph was developed and patented by Polish engineer Bruno Abakanowicz in the late 1800’s. He used to it calculate area of geometric shapes.

In the mid 1960’s an engineer from the UK developed it as a toy. Denys Fisher first showed it at the 1965 Nuremburg International Toy Fair. Here in the US the Spirograph was distributed by Kenner.

Here are the contents of this small set.

One of the things that I noticed right away was the absence of pin holes. I remember using push pins to tack the circles or bar to the cardboard that was placed underneath the paper. Now there is spiro putty that is used to hold the items to the paper.

The set also comes with a design guide to help you determine which gears to use and how to make different designs.

I have not made any designs yet, but will probably take the time to experiment later this week.

For several years I have been keeping my eye out for an old Spirograph set whenever I visit a thrift or antique store. Now, I can just go on-line and buy one of the newer sets that are distributed by Kahootz Toys.

Did you have a Spirograph when you were growing up?

Steven