Mikhail here, everyone’s favorite guest poster on the bava. No one does hospitaliano like the bava, no one. — We have a two-fer today, the Twist aka Rubik’s Snake and the perennial favorite, the Sit n’ Spin. I chose the snake, Mrs. Mikhail chose the Sit n’ Spin.
Man, did I love my Rubik’s snake. The one I got as a gift in 4th grade may have been a Chinese knock-off of the Rubik branded original, but I didn’t care. (I probably cared more that my slip-on Vans were a Kinney Shoes approximation.) Unlike the more famous Rubik’s Cube, the Snake was not a puzzle that had one sanctioned solution but offered what seemed like infinite possibilities. The challenge, at least for me, was to think up of an object or a figure and then try to bend and shape the snake into something that resembled that shape or figure as much as possible. Fun too was to create some an unusual, practically random shape and then imagine within it something recognizable — kind of like looking for shapes in passing clouds.
Jennie says: The sit ‘n spin was my ideal toy as an only child. I spent hours spinning and have memories of playing in my room during 70’s dinner parties making myself dizzy and attempting to open my bedroom door without falling down. No intellectual challenges or complex puzzles. Just a pure, unadulterated childhood high.
Image credit: Wishbook’s “1976.xx.xx JCPenney Christmas Catalog P366”
I have the rubix snake in my car as we speak (it entertains me while driving and talking on the phone). I pride myself on the ability to create the deadly cobra. It took a guest poster to finally bring a toy of true worth to the game.
Once I discovered how easy it was to create various kinds of pistols using the Rubik’s snake, I don’t think I ever made anything else again. Also, my kids still play with a Sit-‘n-Spin that we found on the side of the road somewheres.
That’s all.
The Sit-‘n-Spin is still around. Now it takes batteries so that it can either play music or play a version of Simon Says that involves telling the kid to ‘spin faster’ or ‘stop’ or whatever.
According to my mother-in-law (a brilliant, fabulous early childhood educator) spinning has proven to calm kids down when they are out of control. Having watched my daughter with her Sit-‘n-Spin I believe it.
@Tom,
I may not have written the post about the Rubik’s Snake—which only a contortionist would be fascinated with by the way—but I will still strangle you with it!
In my opinion the best thing about the sit ‘n spin was going so fast that you caused the whole thing to fall over
I wish there were adult-sized Sit-and-Spins….
@Jeff Your comment made me laugh, I wish they did too.
Just need to find a swivel chair that is really swivel-ey and then we can have some fun!
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Though the whole make-anything-your-heart-can-imagine angle certainly sold a couple thousand Rubik’s Snakes at my school, apparently the only things that our collective hearts could imagine were:
* cobra
* sphere
* gun
* cross/sword
* plus sign
* braidy thing
@Jeff & @Shannon — Christmas is but 90 days away: http://www.marshalltrue.com/sitnspin.html
I was just telling my co-workers that I was a child model that did an advertisment for sit n spin, and one of them suggested that I google it. Low and behold, I find this blog with my old ad. Thanks!
Harold, what year did you do the ad? I just bought this type of sit n spin and I’m trying to figure out when it was made. The new ones don’t spin fast (or really even spin at all).
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