Timeless Toys in Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble stores across the country have created a Timeless Toys display with the book and some wooden collector’s editions of Monopoly and Scrabble. VERY COOL!

Oooooo... It's Magic!

This picture is from the Magic 8 Ball chapter of The Playmakers. Yes, I sometimes went overboard in the collection of toys for the book, but hey, that’s one of the reasons people love it — 530 weird pictures like this.

The Magic 8 Ball has racked up more than its share of imitators over the years. There’s Madame Zelda’s Crystal Ball, The Orb, and even the Q Ball, which talks. The Sarcastic Ball answers, “YEAH, AND I’M THE POPE”; and the Sunshine Smiley Face responds with compliments like “YOUR BREATH IS SO MINTY! — The Playmakers

I’m selling off all these knock-off fortune telling balls and even a few original Magic 8 Balls in My Ebay Store.

It's National Chemistry WeeK

In honor of National Chemistry Week, (October 16 - 23rd), let’s look at the chemistry that makes…

Crayola waxy

It all started with Edwin Binney, and his cousin Harold Smith. They owned a booming school supplies company, which meant that thousands of boxes containing the company’s various products needed to be marked and inventoried using ink labeling markers, which were common at the time, but messy. Not necessarily looking to invent a new product, but more interested in solving an untidy problem, Binney and Smith developed a mess-free marking crayon by mixing carbon black with paraffin wax. To make the marker clean and easy to use they wrapped it in a paper sleeve.

The chemistry of the Crayola is one of the most guarded secrets in the toy industry – for it’s that exact mixture of colorant, talc, and paraffin wax that gives Crayola crayons their color, quality of line and, of course their distinctive aroma.

Silly Putty stretchy

Technically, it is a liquid containing long molecule chains called polymers which can slip and slide over one another and flow like a liquid. But wait! These polymers are linked and if rapid force is applied to them they will become tangled, catch on each other, resist force and act like an elastic solid. This why you can BOUNCE a wad of Silly Putty like a rubber ball. Extremely rapid force will cause the polymers to snag even more and break apart like a solid.

This is why a ball of Silly Putty will settle into a blob if left alone, spring back if bounced and shatter if struck with a hammer. That’s why when it first came out it was called “The Real Solid-Liquid.”

Super Ball bouncy

Chemist Norm Stingley took a synthetic rubber (polybutadiene), mixed it with natural rubber from rubber trees and then compressed it under 2,500 pounds per square inch with explosive results.

“The first ball I made blew up!” he told me. “I compressed it and as soon as I opened the mold this stuff immediately tried to get out and tore itself to pieces! I later got patents on the molding procedure because you had to do it correctly. You have to just barely fill the mold.”

The very first Super Balls would break apart due to the stress of all that bouncing. Over time the chemistry was altered even more by adding vulcanizing agents. These create chemical reactions that causde cross-linking of the polymer chains, increasing strength and resiliency.

Lionel Trains smoky

Realism is the magic behind model railroading and after World War II chemists working at Lionel figured out a way to make locomotives smoke like their real counterparts. Ammonium nitrate pellets were dropped down the engine’s stack and came to rest on a specially made 16–18-volt light bulb (which also doubled as the engine’s headlight). Once the pellet heated up, it liquefied and smoke billowed out with realism. The problem was that ammonium nitrate was found to be unstable. It is essentially a miniature fertilizer bomb! So chemists perfected new pellets that would vaporize with the use of a wire heating element inside of a bulb. Today, a liquid is used.

Nerf Ball spongy

It’s a solid, spongy cellular material produced by the reaction of polyester with a diisocyanate while carbon dioxide is liberated by the reaction of a carboxyl with the isocyanate. What? I thought the liberation from polyester was the death of disco or something?

To summarize, polyester resin reacts with a compound while simultaneously a gas (CO2) is released by another reaction. It is this gas that creates these open pockets within the polyurethane which in turn make the material soft and light. Yes, chemistry gave us the Nerf ball.

Now go play with some test tubes!

Maternal Instincts

Are you a Mom? Are you an inventor? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then you need to check out this site. Maybe you have an idea for the NBT (next big thing) in toys, like Soony Williams.

TriBond FAQ

How do you play TriBond?
TriBond is the question and answer game without any questions! Instead the game presents “Threezer Riddles” — which are a list of three things with something in common. Ready to play?

“WHAT DO THESE 3 HAVE IN COMMON?”
1) KING • QUEEN • TWIN Answer 1
2) A HOBBY SHOP • A FASHION SHOW • A CAR DEALERSHIP Answer 2
3) A CASINO • A SCREW • A PIGGY BANK Answer 3
4) KEATON • KILMER • CLOONEY Answer 4
5) HUMERUS • RADIUS • ULNA Answer 5

What versions of TriBond are available?
TriBond 2005
In this latest incarnation of the game, we created a ton of new content and New Contemporary Categories. This edition has 1,800 Threezer Riddles and is available online.

The Best of TriBond
In this board game, we collected 1,650 of the very best Threezer riddles from 10 editions over the past 10 years!

Bible TriBond
All Threezer riddles in the Bible TriBond board game are drawn from the Old and New Testaments of the NIV Bible and wholesome pop culture references.

Where can I buy a copy of TriBond?
Online you can find the TriBond board game at Toys ‘R’ Us, EToys, or KBToys. To hold a copy and feel it’s marvelous mass before you buy, go to your local Toys ‘R’ Us store. Call first though, as they sell out quickly.

Bible TriBond is available through Talicor, Covenant Games, and Faith Outlet.

When is a new version of the TriBond board game coming out?
Stay tuned! More information coming soon.

I lost my TriBond rules. Do you have downloadable versions available?
Yes. Right click on the version of TriBond you have below and download a text file of the rules you need.

TriBond Rules
Best of TriBond Rules
Three for All Rules
TriBond Kids Rules
TriBond Jr. Rules
3 for Me Rules

Additions to my Scrabble repertoire

After the chick-flick, I went to a restuarant with wi-fi so I could download the metadata I needed for my report on the Zaibatsu. I ordered the amuse-bouche and got right to work.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you need the latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Erector Auction

PR Newswire is reporting that legendary Chicago newsman John Drury will auction off his amazing collection of A.C. Gilbert Erector sets, Mysto Magic sets, and other Gilbert toys on October 9, 2005. If you can’t afford to buy these early, complete sets, some of which are estimated to go for $20,000 or more, you can spend $75 and go to the auction preview party.