Difference between revisions of "2049: Unfulfilling Toys"

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{{comic
 
{{comic
−
| number    = 1606
+
| number    = 2049
−
| date      = ??? ???, ???
+
| date      = September 21, 2018
−
| title    = FDF
+
| title    = Unfulfilling Toys
−
| image    = five_day_forecast.png
+
| image    = unfulfilling_toys.png
−
| titletext = ???
+
| titletext = We were going to do a falling-apart Rubik's cube that was just 27 independent blocks stuck together with magnets, but then we realized it was actually really cool and even kind of worked, so we cut that one.
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
−
{{w|Weather forecasting}} is an extremely difficult task, even if it is only for five days. In numerical models, extremely small errors in initial values double roughly every five days for variables such as temperature and wind velocity. So most {{w|Meteorology#Meteorologists|meteorologists}} provide us with only a five-day forecast.
+
This comic lists and illustrates six different classic toys that are missing a key piece or attribute that makes them work and/or that makes them unique or fun.
  
−
In this comic [[Randall]] takes this to the extreme by first showing a '''Five-Day Forecast''' and then progressing to five-month, year, million, billion and finally trillion-year forecasts, leading to {{tvtropes|WeirdWeather|weather patterns that we don't regularly see.}}
+
====Rigid Slap Bracelet====
 +
{{w|Slap bracelet}}s are flexible curved strips of spring steel that roll up and become a bracelet when you slap them against your wrist. This function operates on the same principle and basic design as the rolled band of metal inside a tape measure. A rigid one would not twist and would be deeply frustrating and potentially painful.
  
−
Since the first weather symbol is the same in all six rows, we can assume it indicates the weather today and not tomorrow, in a trillion years, etc. It is only in the second panel of each row that time has passed per the row's label. Consequently, the last column gives the predictions for four days, four months, ...,  four trillion years from today.
+
====Sealed Stomp Rocket====
 +
A {{w|stomp rocket}} has a rubber pouch full of air, connected via a hose to a vertical cylinder contained snugly within the base of an air-propelled rocket.  By stomping on the pouch, the air is forced out the top end of the cylinder, launching the rocket into the air. By sealing the air channel, the rocket would stay on the cylinder and the person would just be bounced into the air by the pouch — acting like the world's smallest bouncy house — or the pouch will burst, rendering the toy even more useless.
  
−
When moving past the five-day prediction, the forecast is just a qualified guess based on the time of year. In a month it is Christmas as shown in the second panel of the second row. Then it is January and February so snow is likely, but certainly not something that happens on all days of a winter month.
+
====Pump-only Supersoaker====
 +
A {{w|Super Soaker}}™ is a brand of water gun that works by first pumping air into the gun, thereby introducing pressurized air above the water, then releasing the water using the gun's trigger – the extra pressure from the pumped air makes the water go much further than a traditional water gun which relies upon the pressure generated from a single pump of the trigger itself. In [[Randall]]'s version, the water cannot be released, so the fun part of the water gun – getting to spray your friends{{citation needed}} – isn't available.
  
−
Looking at the five-year forecast, guesses are made as to what the weather will be like at the same time of year. For these first three predictions the weather symbols are all of the same three types: Sun, clouds and some kind of {{w|precipitation}}, rain or snow, with the temperature ranging from 21 to 44 °F (-6.1 to 6.6 °C) - winter temperatures.
+
====Glass Glow Stick====
  
−
Then we go into the far future, jumping a million years from panel to panel. But still the weather symbols stay the same. In 3 million years, however, aliens (or advanced humans) attack with energy beams from {{w|flying saucers}}. They are gone a million years later. The temperature range remains the same across the panels except that it rises to 52 °F (11 °C), a possible reference to global warming, in one panel, and while the attack is going on it rises to 275 °F (135 °C).
+
In a classic {{w|glow stick}}, made of flexible plastic, one must first bend it enough to break the glass cylinder inside. This allows the chemicals inside to mix and begin glowing within the plastic tube. If the entire tube were made of actual glass, however, it would not only shatter into many sharp glass pieces but would also cover the hands of the unfortunate user with a mixture of mild but not harmless chemicals. Also, depending on this contraption's construction and/or luck, the chemicals either won't mix and not glow at all, defeating the purpose of the glow stick, or stain your hands, clothes, and surroundings with a glowing liquid, which would be rather unfortunate.
  
−
Once we get to the billion-year mark it actually becomes more meaningful to try to predict the "weather", because now we reach the times when the {{w|Sun}} begins to change. Although the Sun will continue to burn hydrogen for about 5 billion years yet (while in its {{w|Sun#Main sequence|main sequence|}}), it will grow in diameter as it begins to exhaust its supply of fuel. The core will contract to increase the temperature, and the outer layer will then compensate by expanding slightly. This is what is indicated in panels two and three, where the color of the Sun changes towards red as the surface becomes cooler as it expands away from the center of the Sun. The temperature will rise on Earth as indicated in the panels (105 °F = 40.5 °C and 371 °F = 188 °C). The temperature will get hot enough in about [http://phys.org/news/2015-02-sun-wont-die-billion-years.html a billion years] that the Earth's oceans will boil away.
+
====Wingless Sky Dancer====
  
−
Once it {{w|Sun#After core hydrogen exhaustion|no longer has enough hydrogen}}, the Sun will expand into a {{w|red giant}}. This should not happen until around {{w|Sun#Composition|five billion years from now}}, but in the forecast it is indicated to happen in only three. Maybe this is Randall taking liberties to show what happens during this phase, which would not fit into a four-billion-year forecast. Alternatively it just indicates how uncertain these kinds of forecasts are, or a statement that we may not know for certain that it will take five not three billion years.
+
In the {{w|Sky Dancers|original toy}}, a doll or figure with folded-up wings sits on top of a hand-held device with a wrapped string or other mechanism that lets it spin the doll very fast. As the doll spins, [[123|centrifugal]] force causes the wings to unfold and provide lift, and the doll rises up in the air and flies, spinning, sometimes going quite high. Without the wings, the doll will spin but otherwise remain flightless.
  
−
In any case, the fourth panel shows the temperature at Earth's position inside the red giant Sun. The color of the panel indicates that we are inside the Sun. The temperature is 71,488,106 degrees Fahrenheit (39,715,597 degrees Celsius). The current temperature of the center of the Sun is "only" 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius), and although that may rise by a factor of ten during {{w|Stellar nucleosynthesis|helium fusion}}, that will only be at the very core and not out in the solar atmosphere reaching out to Earth. Here the temperature would only be of the order of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, since the Sun's outer temperature decreases as it increases its diameter. So this panel's temperature also makes little sense. It may involve some ambiguities regarding what the forecast means; the edge of the red giant Sun is predicted to be somewhere near the current orbit of Earth, but the position of the Earth could change. The most likely prediction at the moment is for Earth to move outward, but if the planet is engulfed by the Sun, it would spiral inward, and at some point fall apart. So in some sense "here" for the forecast could become a position deep inside the Sun, where core temperatures could reach 100 million Kelvin. The temperatures shown are unreasonably precise; they probably should have only two or at most three significant figures.
+
====No-strings-attached Yo-yo====
 +
In a traditional {{w|yo-yo}}, one attaches a string to their finger and the other end of the string is looped around the shaft of the yo-yo, in such a way that it will hold the yo-yo but the yo-yo can still spin. In this case, the string is presumably included but not attached to the yo-yo, so when the yo-yo reaches the end of its string it will fall off, instead of coming back to the person or spinning at the end of the string.
  
−
The red giant phase lasts only half a million years, so a billion years after the Sun has been a red giant its outer atmosphere will definitely have disappeared, leaving only a dim, cool {{w|white dwarf}} to cool down. Given Randall's version of this time schedule, then it will have had about a billion years to cool down, but would still likely be the brightest object in the sky as seen from where the Earth once was. It is not shown in the last panel, where we just see other stars of the Galaxy. The temperature is down to that of the {{w|Cosmic microwave background|background radiation}}. Today this radiation has a temperature of 2.72548 kelvin = -270.4245 °C = -454.7641 °F. That is a few degrees F colder than what is shown in the comic, which states the temperature is -452 °F = 4.26 kelvin. This higher temperature may have been chosen to reflect that even the light from other stars would increase the actual temperature.
+
Nonetheless {{w|Yo-yo#Off-string (4A)|off-string}} yo-yoing technique exists that has been a division of the {{w|World Yo-Yo Contest}} since 2003. The division specifies that the string is tied to one finger but not the yo-yo. It was popularized by yo-yo player Jon Gates. It differs from the manipulation of a {{w|Diabolo}} because the string is tied to one finger instead of being tied to two sticks. The return is accomplished with a twist of the string called a bind. Diabolos don't return. A good example is here at [https://youtube.com/watch?v=tVpuh5aMhTQ this video titled "Crazy Stringless Yoyo Tricks!"].
  
−
In the last panel with trillions of years, we jump right past the Sun's red giant phase to a panel looking much like the one after five billion years with only other stars. Over the next three trillion years the stars become fewer and fewer and dimmer and dimmer as they run out of fuel and fewer new stars form. After four trillion years the background temperature decreases one degree to -453 °F as the universe keeps expanding and the wavelength of the radiation does the same, thus decreasing its temperature.
+
Note that the phrase "no strings attached" is an {{w|idiom}} and usually refers to something being available without special conditions or restrictions, a favor being done with nothing expected in return, or a relationship intended to be very casual. In this case, it is literal rather than an idiom, in that the string that is normally attached to the yo-yo is literally not attached.
  
−
The title text is a play on comments referring to fast-changing weather on a more ordinary human timescale, such as Mark Twain's quip, "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."
+
====Title-text: Falling-Apart Rubik's cube====
 +
In order to build the magnetic {{w|Rubik's Cube}}, you would need to embed magnets in the inward-facing sides of each cube. This actually can be achieved by using a checkered pattern for the polarity of each piece, a single piece uses the same polarity at all its connecting sides while the immediate neighbor is configured in the opposite. This [https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xb8ENlS-5Go video] shows the principle and even a working 5x5x5 magnetic cube.
  
−
A ten-day forecast was used in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]. In [[1379: 4.5 Degrees]], Randall looked at the weather over long periods of time as well. in [[1643: Degrees]] he addressed Celsius vs. Fahrenheit for measuring temperature.
+
Because such a cube doesn't fall apart Randall had to remove it from his "deeply unfulfilling versions of classic toys."
  
−
===Image using Celsius===
+
It is also worth noting that although Randall said that there were 27 small magnetic cubes, only 26 small 'cubes' (or 'cubelets') appear in a traditional Rubik's cube, of three main types. There is no center block in a traditional Rubik's cube, instead there is a pivoting armature connecting the six face-centers (with just a single flat face) together while allowing their individual rotation, each of which can keep the 12 edge-centers (two externally-flat faces) rotatably-anchored to at least one face at a time by a form of dovetailed tab on those edge pieces and, similarly, those hold the eight corners (with three outer faces) in place even as they follow a single face's rotation primarily held by the two most currently relevant of the adjacent edges.
  
−
There is a different user-made version for the picture, using [[3001|Celsius]] instead of Fahrenheit, [[:File:five_day_forecast_Celsius.png|in this image link]].
+
It might also refer to various square-shaped neodymium magnet-based toys, like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j0KRK2MZic this one], which although they can be taken easily apart, they are successful and very fulfilling products on their own.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
−
:[A grid with six rows of five columns, where each row is labeled to the left. For each of the 30 squares a temperature is given in Fahrenheit at the top left. The rest of the square represents the weather as in a weather forecast (or some other relevant items for the comic), mainly in bright colors. Below are the six labels given above each of their five weather symbols with temperature given below these symbols description.]
+
:[The comic presents toys in six different frames.]
  
−
:'''Your 5-day forecast'''
+
:[Cueball slaps his wrist with a strap-like item in his hand.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:''Smack''
−
:38°F
+
:Rigid slap bracelet
−
:[A grey cloud.]
 
−
:41°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops below.]
 
−
:36°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
 
−
:40°F
 
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
 
−
:44°F
 
  
−
:'''Your 5-month forecast'''
+
:[Cueball jumps on top of a pouch full of air connected via a hose to an air propelled rocket. The pouch does not budge and the rocket remains connected to its base.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:Sealed stomp rocket
−
:38°F
 
−
:[A green Christmas tree with red presents beneath it.]
 
−
:29°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
 
−
:21°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud with four snowflakes below.]
 
−
:24°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud.]
 
−
:35°F
 
  
−
:'''Your 5-year forecast'''
+
:[Ponytail holds a water gun and makes use of its hand-operated pump system.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:''Pump pump pump''
−
:38°F
+
:''Pump''
−
:[A grey cloud.]
+
:''Click''
−
:25°F
+
:Pump-only SuperSoaker
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
 
−
:36°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud with six lines of blue raindrops  below.]
 
−
:37°F
 
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
 
−
:41°F
 
  
−
:'''Your 5-million-year forecast'''
+
:[Megan pulls an item apart between her hands. The middle section breaks into many pieces on the ground and liquid is falling from the end parts.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:''Pop''
−
:38°F
+
:Glass glow stick
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
 
−
:52°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud.]
 
−
:40°F
 
−
:[Two red flying saucers (with bright domes) are shooting energy beams downwards. One of the beams seems to impact with something at the bottom of the panel, which then explodes. Two plumes of smoke rises up from below, drifting to the right.]
 
−
:275°F
 
−
:[A grey cloud in front of a yellow sun.]
 
−
:40°F
 
  
−
:'''Your 5-billion-year forecast'''
+
:[Cueball holds a figurine sitting on top of a hand-held device and pulls a string connected to it.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:''Spin''
−
:38°F
+
:Wingless sky dancer
−
:[A larger orange sun.]
 
−
:105°F
 
−
:[A very large red sun.]
 
−
:371°F
 
−
:[A pale yellow panel with no drawing.]
 
−
:71,488,106°F
 
−
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
 
−
:-452°F
 
  
−
:'''Your 5-trillion-year forecast'''
+
:[Megan holds a yo-yo until the yo-yo falls from the string and starts rolling on the ground.]
−
:[A bright yellow sun.]
+
:''Roll''
−
:38°F
+
:No-strings-attached yo-yo
−
:[A night sky with many bright stars.]
+
 
−
:-452°F
+
:[Caption below the frames:]
−
:[A night sky with many stars.]
+
:My least successful product line was probably "deeply unfulfilling versions of classic toys."
−
:-452°F
 
−
:[A night sky with fewer not so bright stars.]
 
−
:-452°F
 
−
:[A night sky with few dim stars.]
 
−
:-453°F
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
  
−
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
+
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
−
[[Category:Comics with color]]
+
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
−
[[Category:Science]]
+
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
−
[[Category:Space]]
 
−
[[Category:Astronomy]]
 
−
[[Category:Weather]]
 
−
[[Category:Aliens]]
 

Latest revision as of 10:16, 31 December 2025

Unfulfilling Toys
We were going to do a falling-apart Rubik's cube that was just 27 independent blocks stuck together with magnets, but then we realized it was actually really cool and even kind of worked, so we cut that one.
Title text: We were going to do a falling-apart Rubik's cube that was just 27 independent blocks stuck together with magnets, but then we realized it was actually really cool and even kind of worked, so we cut that one.

    Explanation[edit]

    This comic lists and illustrates six different classic toys that are missing a key piece or attribute that makes them work and/or that makes them unique or fun.

    Rigid Slap Bracelet[edit]

    Slap bracelets are flexible curved strips of spring steel that roll up and become a bracelet when you slap them against your wrist. This function operates on the same principle and basic design as the rolled band of metal inside a tape measure. A rigid one would not twist and would be deeply frustrating and potentially painful.

    Sealed Stomp Rocket[edit]

    A stomp rocket has a rubber pouch full of air, connected via a hose to a vertical cylinder contained snugly within the base of an air-propelled rocket. By stomping on the pouch, the air is forced out the top end of the cylinder, launching the rocket into the air. By sealing the air channel, the rocket would stay on the cylinder and the person would just be bounced into the air by the pouch — acting like the world's smallest bouncy house — or the pouch will burst, rendering the toy even more useless.

    Pump-only Supersoaker[edit]

    A Super Soaker™ is a brand of water gun that works by first pumping air into the gun, thereby introducing pressurized air above the water, then releasing the water using the gun's trigger – the extra pressure from the pumped air makes the water go much further than a traditional water gun which relies upon the pressure generated from a single pump of the trigger itself. In Randall's version, the water cannot be released, so the fun part of the water gun – getting to spray your friends[citation needed] – isn't available.

    Glass Glow Stick[edit]

    In a classic glow stick, made of flexible plastic, one must first bend it enough to break the glass cylinder inside. This allows the chemicals inside to mix and begin glowing within the plastic tube. If the entire tube were made of actual glass, however, it would not only shatter into many sharp glass pieces but would also cover the hands of the unfortunate user with a mixture of mild but not harmless chemicals. Also, depending on this contraption's construction and/or luck, the chemicals either won't mix and not glow at all, defeating the purpose of the glow stick, or stain your hands, clothes, and surroundings with a glowing liquid, which would be rather unfortunate.

    Wingless Sky Dancer[edit]

    In the original toy, a doll or figure with folded-up wings sits on top of a hand-held device with a wrapped string or other mechanism that lets it spin the doll very fast. As the doll spins, centrifugal force causes the wings to unfold and provide lift, and the doll rises up in the air and flies, spinning, sometimes going quite high. Without the wings, the doll will spin but otherwise remain flightless.

    No-strings-attached Yo-yo[edit]

    In a traditional yo-yo, one attaches a string to their finger and the other end of the string is looped around the shaft of the yo-yo, in such a way that it will hold the yo-yo but the yo-yo can still spin. In this case, the string is presumably included but not attached to the yo-yo, so when the yo-yo reaches the end of its string it will fall off, instead of coming back to the person or spinning at the end of the string.

    Nonetheless off-string yo-yoing technique exists that has been a division of the World Yo-Yo Contest since 2003. The division specifies that the string is tied to one finger but not the yo-yo. It was popularized by yo-yo player Jon Gates. It differs from the manipulation of a Diabolo because the string is tied to one finger instead of being tied to two sticks. The return is accomplished with a twist of the string called a bind. Diabolos don't return. A good example is here at this video titled "Crazy Stringless Yoyo Tricks!".

    Note that the phrase "no strings attached" is an idiom and usually refers to something being available without special conditions or restrictions, a favor being done with nothing expected in return, or a relationship intended to be very casual. In this case, it is literal rather than an idiom, in that the string that is normally attached to the yo-yo is literally not attached.

    Title-text: Falling-Apart Rubik's cube[edit]

    In order to build the magnetic Rubik's Cube, you would need to embed magnets in the inward-facing sides of each cube. This actually can be achieved by using a checkered pattern for the polarity of each piece, a single piece uses the same polarity at all its connecting sides while the immediate neighbor is configured in the opposite. This video shows the principle and even a working 5x5x5 magnetic cube.

    Because such a cube doesn't fall apart Randall had to remove it from his "deeply unfulfilling versions of classic toys."

    It is also worth noting that although Randall said that there were 27 small magnetic cubes, only 26 small 'cubes' (or 'cubelets') appear in a traditional Rubik's cube, of three main types. There is no center block in a traditional Rubik's cube, instead there is a pivoting armature connecting the six face-centers (with just a single flat face) together while allowing their individual rotation, each of which can keep the 12 edge-centers (two externally-flat faces) rotatably-anchored to at least one face at a time by a form of dovetailed tab on those edge pieces and, similarly, those hold the eight corners (with three outer faces) in place even as they follow a single face's rotation primarily held by the two most currently relevant of the adjacent edges.

    It might also refer to various square-shaped neodymium magnet-based toys, like this one, which although they can be taken easily apart, they are successful and very fulfilling products on their own.

    Transcript[edit]

    [The comic presents toys in six different frames.]
    [Cueball slaps his wrist with a strap-like item in his hand.]
    Smack
    Rigid slap bracelet
    [Cueball jumps on top of a pouch full of air connected via a hose to an air propelled rocket. The pouch does not budge and the rocket remains connected to its base.]
    Sealed stomp rocket
    [Ponytail holds a water gun and makes use of its hand-operated pump system.]
    Pump pump pump
    Pump
    Click
    Pump-only SuperSoaker
    [Megan pulls an item apart between her hands. The middle section breaks into many pieces on the ground and liquid is falling from the end parts.]
    Pop
    Glass glow stick
    [Cueball holds a figurine sitting on top of a hand-held device and pulls a string connected to it.]
    Spin
    Wingless sky dancer
    [Megan holds a yo-yo until the yo-yo falls from the string and starts rolling on the ground.]
    Roll
    No-strings-attached yo-yo
    [Caption below the frames:]
    My least successful product line was probably "deeply unfulfilling versions of classic toys."

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    Discussion

    The no string attached yo-yo exists and works rather well for those who know how to yo-yo 108.162.229.214 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

    Blinking heck, my Lord. I thought you meant one of those yo-yos with a loop at the end, but I've now seen people yo-ing into the air with detached strings and catching them again by whipping the spinning beast. 162.158.155.158 16:55, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

    Pondy contributed a video for: "This also exists, is rather functional, and is the only way to make fun Rubik's cube shapes such as 1x5x5. See this video for a good example of this."

    But this doesn't appear to be a good example at all. Those cubes are most definitely attached and you can see the presenter has to use quite a bit of force at some points to rotate. Can someone find a better example if it exists? -boB (talk) 16:51, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

    The cubes are only attached magnetically. It takes a lot of force to break a lot of magnetic connections at once. Some of the cubes they actually take apart and you can see it’s just magnets. The video might be longer than ideal, but it does demonstrate the concept. 172.68.141.94 11:17, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
    It is theoretically possible to build a cube with arbitrary dimensions without using magnets, though the mechanism required for certain shapes is much more complicated than a standard cube. Probably not Douglas Hofstadter (talk) 04:40, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

    Isn't a wingless sky dancer just an upside down beyblade? 172.69.55.166 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

    I sometimes find myself smacking my wrist with a comb. I think it's stimming. There might be a market for rigid objects designed for the purpose.

    Broken toys

    Toys often don't have a long lifetime, in particular children tend to act not much carefully and sometimes they even destroy them deliberately as a part of their playing. Parents know what I'm talking about. It can be annoying how fast kids are able to destruct things. So literally Randall just sells toys in a state in which they always end up anyway. Worth for the explanation? --Dgbrt (talk) 13:59, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

    I'm sure I still have working toys somewhere that have survived my childhood. :) I think Randall just aims to deprive of the satisfaction of playing with them for children, thus the comic name "Unfulfilling Toys". -Asdf (talk) 14:47, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
    "toys ... have survived my childhood" emphases exactly that what I'm saying. Most of them didn't survive... And try to remember your own annoyance about all those broken ones, there's probably not much in your memory, you just threw them away. But your parents were annoyed about all that waste. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:33, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
    "Broken" != "Unfulfilling". Over this weekend, my son and I blitzed his dump, sorry, room. There were a large number of broken toys (especially those "Hero Mashers" action figures - lifetime measured in hours...) that I was not allowed to get rid of because he still plays with them. He has some perfectly intact items that are much more unfulfilling - racetracks where the track pieces don't quite match up leading to stuck cars (when new out of the box) being the one most guaranteed to create the disappointed face. 172.68.65.6 14:01, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

    Wanna nerd-snipe the next commenters? 162.158.78.130 20:41, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

    Glass glow-sticks? Isn't that the principle behind Mike Thompson's blood lamp. His design, in my opinion, is less fun than the design suggested in the current explanation. 162.158.75.22 23:41, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

    I think you might be able to pull this off if you market it as a prank gifts, for people to buy for their friends as a joke. Solomon (talk) 05:37, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

    A disappointing Rubik's Cube could just be a solid, non-twisting Cube with an unsolved cube painted onto it. Cheesesentience (talk) 16:29, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

    There is a (non-twisting, but pliable) Rubik's Cube-styled stress ball. Or possibly more than one, from the various links (mostly commercial/advertorial, so not bothering to repost here) that a quick check via an internet search engine reveals. It is(/they are) 'solved', which may not be disappointing in the same way... but it would probably frustrate me insofar as one couldn't mix it up (or do patterns, like "dot and ring" every face) and do anything more than scrunch it up and/or thrown it around the office without much more damage than knocking a few pencils off some desks. 172.69.194.139 23:31, 16 December 2024 (UTC)
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