#Desk Toy

2 items

A pin-art pinscreen board holding the 3D impressions of two faces pressed into its pins
Toys 1987–present

Pin Art

The boxed grid of thousands of sliding metal pins — press your hand, or your whole face, into one side and a shiny 3D relief pops out the other. The desk toy that lived on every science-museum gift-shop shelf and dared you not to make an impression of your face.

A plasma ball with pink-purple filaments reaching toward a hand touching the glass
Toys 1980s–present

Plasma Ball

The glass sphere full of purple-pink lightning that reached out to follow your hand across the glass — half science exhibit, half bedroom mood light. A fixture of Spencer's Gifts, museum shops, and every desk that wanted to look a little bit like a mad scientist's.