The Original Wooly Willy Magnetic Toy
by Staff - 2008-05-21
A piece of cardboard with a blister of plastic containing iron filings on top of a picture of a smiling bald guys face with another small blister of plastic that contains a plastic stick with a magnet in the tip — that's really all this is. But is that really all this is? No. The simplicity of this toy is one of the things that makes it so cool. The only thing you have is a picture, some hairy iron filings and a magnet to move them with, and what you are supposed to do is to convert the simple face into something more interesting. Even a fairly young child can add a bit of the hair to the head or chin to make it look different in only a few moments, and yet even a talented adult can spend a long time fine tuning and fiddling with the filings to position them just right in an attempt to achieve something a bit more interesting to them than the last time. There is no undo button, no way to make a backup copy or save your work before making a change. Whatever you are going to do you have to use the delicate motions of your own fingers and take into account the strange way the filings move depending on how close you are to them, or which directions you pull them.
