Spirograph vs Wild Gears Comparison
An excellent video by Wayne Schmidt comparing Spirograph and Wild Gears side-by-side.
Conclusion: Spirograph is fun, but it’s a toy. Wild Gears is more expensive, and somewhat more difficult to use, but it’s a more serious drawing tool.
Clear concise overview, just what I needed. Thanks. Trying to adapt such gears for experimental physics
exercise (not art patterns). Therefore, was looking for Wild-wheel and teeth dimensions in mm’s so as to first produce CAD drawings before ordering custom WildGears. This hands-on description has encouraged me to look deeper into the Wild product.
Great. Aaron Bleackley could answer your technical questions about Wild Gears.
I wanted to give the basic set of Wild Gears to my granddaughter 9 years old. Given the fact that there is no instruction manual and intro to patterns I have second thoughts. Will Wild gear consider creating a pattern catalog similar to the instructional of the Kenner?
You would have to talk with Aaron who produces Wild Gears – find him at http://www.wildgears.com.
As far as the basic how-to, when I was that age and got my first Spirograph (technically, it was my sister’s, ha ha), there were no videos; we just helped each other figure it out. The patterns in the booklet gave us a starting point for experimentation. Some people are more experimental than others. Some people like paint-by-numbers, others produce original paintings. But the former do get a great deal of satisfaction out of it, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
Wild Gears has been a product for the experimenters. Aaron has produced a number of videos, and so have I and other people. There are so many different Wild Gears now, and so many more combinations than Spirograph has. I can see the potential for videos that give general ideas for experimentation, to inspire those who need encouragement to try different things. I don’t know if he has considered creating a booklet.