Kenner's Super Spirograph No. 2400 circa 1969.Hi! This will be a brief description about the Kenner's Super Spirograph.**UPDATE** New BETTER replacement pens available, see below. Please contact me if you have any questions. Please see below for the search terms for these products. UPDATE for 01/30/09: Test of Sound Feelings green push pins replacements and inner spring replacements for the ink pens. :)What gees in a Super Spirograph?This is an illustration of the plastic tray and all the parts. The drawing baseboard, paper and instruction booklet are stored underneath the plastic tray. Sometimes the Super Square is stored underneath the plastic tray too. This is a photo I took and labeled the various parts on the photo. The explanation follows below. *18 Wheels numbered as follows: 24, 30, 32, 36, 40, 42, 45, 48, 50, 52, 56, 60, 63, 64, 72, 75, 80, 84 * 2 rings numbered: 144/96 and 150/105 which is slightly larger * 2 racks numbered: 144 and 120 which is slightly longer * 16 curved or arc sections as follows: 4 As, 4 Bs, 4 Cs and 4 Ds * 8 straight bar pieces as follows: 4 Es and 4 Fs * 1 Y piece * The Super Square which is an L shaped 90 degree square similar to a ruler you may find in carpentry work. It is used for making the larger designs and the 90 degree angle designs. * 6 tiny end pieces as follows: 3 male tiny end pieces which have two connecting pegs each and 3 female tiny end pieces which look as though they are broken in half, but are just the female tiny end pieces without the tiny connection pegs. These are usually used on the ends of one of the racks, for example. * Special green push pins. These are used to hold the frame pieces still so that wheels can be used on them to draw designs. These green push pins have a spherical round head to them to make them easier to grasp and then push in. Please be advised that they are VERY sharp! * 4 colored pens. There should be a black pen, a blue pen, a green pen and a red pen. On the Super Spirograph these pens bodies are a solid color of the color of ink they contain. On the Spirograph these pens are half white and the other half is the color of the ink they contain. These are ball point bic click type of pens. * The inside of the top lid of the box contains many designs you can make with the super spirograph. * The super spirograph contains a full color instruction booklet. The cover of this booklet is bright red with a large down turned triangle on the front, a small kaleidoscopic type of wheel design on the lower left and a elongated rectangular design on the right hand side. When you open the booklet, it starts with page 2 on the inside of the front cover and goes through to page 15 on the inside of the back cover for a total of 16 pages including the front and back cover. As you may expect the more basic or simpler designs start at the beginning and the more advanced and geplicated designs are towards the back of the booklet. * The drawing baseboard is a piece of cardboard which is brown on the wrong side and white on the drawing side. On the white drawing side it says in red letters: This is your Spirograph Drawing Baseboard draw on this side only. This item is an odd size. It is 9 7/8 in width x 12 length. * Original paper is an ivory color rather than bright white. It is also in the same size as the drawing cardboard baseboard: 9 7/8 in width x 12 length. The paper and cardboard used in the Super Spirograph is NOT acid free. In order to preserve your designs you may wish to scan them into your geputer and then print them onto an acid free archival type of paper for safekeeping! Experiences using a Super Spirograph:What most people like to do, myself included, is to start at the beginning of the book and following the instructions make all the designs in the book. Most people may get discouraged because as you go along, the designs begee more difficult to form. Smaller wheels, for example, go faster as they are drawn with around frame objects such as rings, racks or patterns made with the curved sections while larger wheels will be physically difficult to keep on track even though none of the teeth either on the inner ring nor the wheel is damaged in any way! Somehow or other you are going along drawing and all of a sudden it skips, the pen doesnt draw the line darkly enough or it just kind of rips and makes a straight line instead of your curved pattern, for example, and if you are a purist you will remove the frame ring or framing pieces, move them to a blank space on the paper and try the design all over again from the beginning.With patience and perseverance you should be able to geplete all the designs in the book. Years later, with my own Super Spirograph, I have yet to geplete this task. In my defense, as an adult one has many more responsibilities and usually one doesnt have the time to sit and draw designs for any length of time. When youre a kid things are different as you can do spirographing after dinner, after youve finished your chores, after youve finished your homework or on weekends and holidays. Now-a-days, most kids do not have the patience for this type of art form. Theyd rather play geputer games. Its just a window on a simpler time when kids didnt have quite so much homework and quite as many distractions. Why collect Super Spirographs or other drawing set toys? They dont make toys like this any more. 1. They are a precise toy which anyone of almost any age can use and draw beautiful patterns without formal training in art. 2. okay is one place where you can still find Super Spirographs and other drawing set toys and parts. In the search box type in "Super Spirograph". It's as easy as that! 3. They are valuable as with all our liability laws and regulations, no one makes this exact set of drawing tools any more. What should you look for in a Super Spirograph for collection purposes?Check to make sure all of the parts are included. The plastic parts should not have damages such as broken teeth on the wheels, curved sections, racks, rings or end pieces. The plastic pieces should not have any large cracks or splits. It is okay if the spirograph pieces have pen marks from a previous owners usage as this will only be avoided if the set was never played with. The booklet should be clean with no tears, missing pages, loose pages or marks in it, if possible. The cardboard drawing baseboard is in better condition if it doesnt have very many holes and the holes are not too close together. The box, drawing baseboard and booklet should not have writing in them. The Super Square is a part that may get damaged. Look for a nice Super Square with no writing on it, no splits and no cracks or breakages. The Super Spirograph ideally should gee with the original pens and the original paper. The little container on the parts tray that holds the green push pins should be as full as possible.The four colored pens should all be there, ideally. They will not write. In order to start drawing you will have to use replacement pens. I regemend the following types of pens which I have used myself. They may be a bit pricey but they get the job done. 1. Bic Velocity Ball Pens, Smooth Writing, number 16331. They gee with blue, red, green and purple and are a medium size. 2. Pentel Smooth Gel Ink Metallics. They gee with pink, light blue, green, red and purple. The gel ink is a metallic, glittery type of writing. 3. Pilot G2-007 black pens medium point.**UPDATE**!!! Sound Feelings pens, catalog #96083. I have tried out these pens and they work in the Super Spirograph BETTER than the pens I have listed above. The pens are pictured below. The difference between the Sound Feelings pens and the originals are very slight. The barrel of the pens is slightly wider than the originals and they have a clip on added to them. They don't quite fit in the tray, but are very very close. In order to get them to fit they have to be placed as shown below, facing opposite directions.I have done a test of these (new) replacement pens. I used the designs found on page 3 of the booklet pictured below:Actual designs drawn by me on Nov. 16, 2008 using the (new) pens.The first design I tried in my pen experiment is found in location row 2 column 2 of page 3 of the instruction booklet. This design requires that you turn the wheel 60 to the "back side" to draw the final loop design. The gepleted design is in the left side of the second row on my practice sheet. Not even these pens I formerly regemended:1. Bic Velocity Ball Pens, Smooth Writing, number 16331. They gee with blue, red, green and purple and are a medium size.
2. Pentel Smooth Gel Ink Metallics. They gee with pink, light blue,
green, red and purple. The gel ink is a metallic, glittery type of
writing. 3. Pilot G2-007 black pens medium point.
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