Tumbling Acrobatic Automaton

History:

Back in the 18th century, wealthy collectors in Europe sought out mechanical toys and automata which moved by the use of bellows, clockwork and other ingenious mechanisms. In about 1850 an acrobatic tumbling man appeared in a book about collectors items. This acrobat tumbled down steps backwards, and the mechanism inside involved mercury flowing from one end of a tube to the other. This changed the centre of gravity, and was the reason that the little tumbling man could perform his somersaults. However by about 1900 this toy was discontinued, partly because of the cost of mercury, and partly because it is poisonous. However more recently a professional toy maker in Germany decided to revive this particular mechanical toy. It has a system of internal weights and levers, which allow it to recreate the original action as it tumbles down the steps with a series of backwards somersaults. However in this version no mercury is used!

Gymnastics Flip Book!

Santa Handstand Toy

$11 at Daiso.




I admit this will wear its welcome out really fast if you let it play on and on.  But for those first few moments?  Charming and delightful.  After those first moments....step away.  Or turn it off.  It gets older, quicker than compulsory season floor music.

Hasbro now selling Daisharin Tetsubo-kun Horizontal Bar Gymnast Game

Wow. Check it out.

It looks like Hasbro has obtained the rights to produce this for sale. I bought two off eBay for $70 and $30. But it looks like you can order them from Toys Я Us for $15.99 (or $19.99)!

Has a slightly different look:

Daisharin Tetsubo-kun Horizontal Bar Gymnast Game tested

This can get slightly addicting.  You don't want to give up until you get the dismount stick (velcro mat).  I've made it happen a couple of times.

I've pulled this out during bars rotation a couple of times for my 3/4s.  If they make a correction on my set of bars, they get to go have a 60 sec turn with this toy.  I'm thinking maybe I should offer a prize for anyone who makes the gymnast stick a landing.  So additional incentive to get more turns on the toy....which means making more corrections/better performance each time they come back around to my set of bars for testing.

Daisharin Tetsubo-kun Horizontal Bar Gymnast Game

Greg Roe linked to this Japanese gymnastics toy.  (If you care to spend over $70, click here; or check the website).

 Ok, I couldn't resist and bought one with my PayPal credit.  You can find more videos of this toy linked on YouTube.  Examples:




Also on eBay, found this:

This kinetic motion one looks pretty cool.

Rainbow Loom Gymnasts II

4-14-2014

In the video description:

This GYMNAST - GABBY DOUGLAS uses
30 BLACK Rubber LOOM Bands
46 BROWN Rubber LOOM Bands
26 RED Rubber LOOM Bands
11 BLUE Rubber LOOM Bands
14 WHITE Rubber LOOM Bands
Or you can you any colors of your choice.

Previous post here.

So Girlie!

Okay, I'm masculine enough to admit it:  I made these over the weekend:

So yes, I invested in a loom and lots of colored rubber bands.  Skin tone colors and brown are difficult to find (just ordered some online directly).

Anyway, I think it might be too long and difficult of a project for summer camp; but I'm thinking I can give these out as reward incentives.

My Hot Shots already have a reward system (idea inspired by Coach Robyn) where I give stickers throughout workout (good behavior, showing improvement, winning a contest, meeting a challenge, etc.).  The gymnasts then put them on index cards, bookmarks, and flexagons.  When there are 20 stickers on a card, I sign off on it (the gymnast then gets to take it home) and convert it into dollars- $2/20 stickers, using garage sale stickers.  They take that $2 sticker and put it onto another index card.  They then save up dollars to purchase from my "store".

 I also have skill cards and record strength gains onto cards, which all gets stored and filed behind their names in an index card box.

A tetraflexagon

Rainbow Loom Gymnasts

Two loom bracelets made for me by two of my gymnasts (No, I don't normally wear them)

I don't know when nor how exactly this hobby got started; but I noticed it around summer of last year when kids at the gym were bringing in their looms and obsessing over making bracelets during snack and lunch break at camps- so much so it was hard to get them back out onto the floor for practice.

I don't know how I ended up here (finding the Youtube video by accidentally clicking down the sidebar link trail), but by chance discovered something that I am sure will get kids at my gym excited.  I don't know if they even are aware that making gymnasts are possible (I had no idea there were even figurines or things other than bracelet making).  The following are original designs:

 Apparently the above designer plans to create some of the other event apparatus as well, like the uneven bars (according to one response I read in her comments section).

Another original designer for rhythmic gymnasts:


Read more »

Zoetrope Gymnast

Here is another one (embed disabled).

Zoetrope.org website:

Zoetrope is an an animated vintage toy that was originally developed in 1830s. The Zoetrope has recently been a major feature in the film, “The Woman In Black” starring Daniel Radcliffe.

This is a modern replica of a traditional Zoetrope. A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures.

The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Just insert an animation strip, spin the drum and look through the slots. The pictures instantly spring to life! Eagles flap, Orcas dive, frogs jump and more! Change the 18 included picture strips at will. Then, try sketching on the six included Draw-Your-Own strips. Anyone can be an animator! Our Zoetrope’s compact elegance and smooth performance remains unmatched in the world of animation toys. Originally designed by Fred DaMert and Bill Hanlon in 1992 and sold by the DaMert Company, this timeless favorite has been off the market for years. Now, with Fred’s blessing, we’ve proudly brought it back. Not only did we use the original tooling to make this durable plastic toy, we’ve faithfully reproduced and included the original twelve picture strips designed by celebrated animator Ruth Hayes. And that’s not all. We’ve added six NEW picture strips and six “Draw-Your-Own strips!” The included instruction booklet provides a history of this classic invention, explains how it works, and tells you how to bring your own drawings to life.

It doesn't appear to be on the market any longer.  If you're a decent illustrator and like craft projects, perhaps you could make your own?

More from Wikipedia:

A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words ζωή zoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "live turning" or "animation".

~~~

The earliest known zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the inventor Ting Huan (丁緩). Ting Huan's device, driven by convection, hung over a lamp and was called chao hua chich kuan (the pipe which makes fantasies appear).^[1] The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which translucent paper or mica panels hung. When the device was spun at the right speed, pictures painted on the panels would appear to move.^[2][3]
The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833^[4] by British mathematician William George Horner. He called it the "daedalum", most likely as a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus, though it was popularly referred to as "the wheel of the devil". The daedalum failed to become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by both English and American makers, including Milton Bradley. The American developer William F. Lincoln named his toy the "zoetrope", meaning "wheel of life".^[5] Almost simultaneously, similar inventions were made independently in Belgium by Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (the phenakistoscope) and in Austria by Simon von Stampfer (the stroboscope).
The zoetrope worked on the same principles as the phenakistoscope, but the pictures were drawn on a strip which could be set around the bottom third of a metal drum, with the slits now cut in the upper section of the drum.^{[clarification needed]} The drum was mounted on a spindle and spun; viewers looking through the slits would see the cartoon strip form a moving image. The faster the drum was spun, the smoother the animation appeared.
The earliest projected moving images were displayed using a magic lantern zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s.
The praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the 19th century,^[6] displacing the zoetrope for practical uses; a magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.
For displaying moving images, zoetropes were displaced by more advanced technology, notably film and later television. However, in the early 1970s, Sega used a mechanism similar to an ancient zoetrope in order to create electro-mechanical arcade games that would resemble later first-person video games.^[7]
Since the late 20th century, zoetropes have seen occasional use for artwork, entertainment, and other media use, notably as linear zoetropes on subway lines, and from the early 21st century some 3D zoetropes.

Acrobatic Tumbling Toy

They're sold out, at almost $400.  Apparently, only a few are made each year:

This is a beautiful hand-made, hand-painted wooden toy, made in Germany. The little wooden figure performs a series of back-flips as he descends down the steps.

Automata like this have a history going back over 200 years, when mechanical toys were collected by rich and famous people.

Two somersaulting chinese jugglers were shown in a catalogue from 1803, while a book of collector's items published in 1850 shows a figure virtually the same as this. The internal mechanism used mercury, which flowed and so changed the centre of gravity, allowing the toy to 'tumble'. However the high cost of mercury and the fact that it was poisonous meant that production ceased around 1900.

Recently, a traditional German toymaker has re-invented the toy, with a different, patented, mechanism that uses weights and levers, instead of mercury.

The toy comes in an elegant wooden box, which opens to form the steps down which the automaton tumbles. Only a few of these are made each year.