In addition to the patterns on the color envelope, which have instructions, the black and white instruction sheet has 70 “mystery patterns” without final illustrations, for people to try and discover.

If you want to print off one of the images below, clicking it will open the full-resolution image in a new tab, and you can print from there.

The cover envelope mentions two non-super Spirograph Refill Kits, No. 402 and 404. I assume the one we have at the above link is No. 402, so if anyone has a different one and wants to share, feel free to contact me.

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There’s a link at the bottom to download it as a PDF if you prefer.

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A good toy store may carry the new Spirograph sets made by Kahootz. You can also find them on Amazon. There are many different sets available now, so decide what you want.

All links are affiliate links, meaning I may get a small commission if you buy something.

The most complete set is the Super Spirograph.

There’s also the regular (non-super) Spirograph deluxe set:

Some of the new sets have come with artwork borrowed by the old sets from the 1970s. Don’t be fooled; these are newly manufactured.

Kahootz also uses words like “Original Spirograph” to describe its product. This isn’t wrong at all, as the design is more or less the same as those made in the 1970s. The pieces are compatible, and the sets are mostly the same.

But the new sets are newly manufactured in China, and the injection moulding processes and materials used are not quite as good as they were back in the day. The pieces bend a bit and they are built with less precision in hole placement. The old ones were made in the UK, Canada, the US and perhaps elsewhere (if you know, please tell me in the comments).

There are even cheaper knockoff versions findable online, often pared down to a small number of components. I have not tried any of these sets.

Buying vintage

Real vintage Spirograph sets are better quality. You can look for them on eBay and Etsy. They often have a few pieces missing.

If you don’t live in the US, use eBay for your country or a country near you and search for “vintage spirograph”. For example, if you live in Portugal, try eBay.es (the Spanish version). Today when I search Spanish eBay.es for “vintage spirograph”, I see several sets available, mostly from the UK, but a few from France or Germany. There are also spare parts available if you’re missing a few pieces.

Do not worry about the pens! The old pens will have dried out anyway, and they really weren’t very good. There are so many great pens available now that work much better than the old pens and come in more and better colours.

Do not worry about the pins or the pieces of corrugated cardboard that came with the old sets. They aren’t necessary. If you do want to use pins, you can cut up an old cardboard box, or even better, use a cork bulletin board. But you don’t have to use pins. You can get poster putty, which is exactly the same as the “Spiro Putty” sold with the new sets, for a dollar or two at any office supply store. Blu Tack works too.

If you really want to buy the right pins, look for “map pins“. They are short and stubby, and will hold the ring to the paper properly.

Do not worry about the paper! You can use any paper. I usually use cheap photocopy paper for playing around. But when I want to make something nice, I use fancy paper, card stock, or even watercolour paper that I’ve sponge-painted.

Buying Wild Gears

Wild Gears is a different product. I’ve written a lot about it on this website. It is not compatible with Spirograph. It is much more expensive too, as it is not mass produced. But it’s fantastic. To purchase, go to WildGears.com.

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Are you missing a Spirograph wheel or gear? Did a key piece get broken? Did you buy an old second-hand set that’s short a few pieces? Are you wishing for more Super Spirograph parts to make different shapes?

Kahootz Toys, the makers of the new Spirograph, have set up a shop where you can order single Spirograph replacement parts.

Screenshot from Kahootz Toy’s former shop on Shopify, no longer operating.

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Two rack setup with pins

Ready for a Spirograph challenge?

I didn’t get into the two-rack designs as a kid. Maybe I tried it once and found it too difficult; I don’t remember. But a request for some videos about them prompted me to sit down and give it a try.

The result is four videos (below), each one dealing with a different design.

Page 7 of the old Kenner Super Spirograph manual

I followed the instructions in my old Super Spirograph manual (image right). I have prepared PDFs of this page that you can download and print. Choose 8.5 x 11 (North America) or A4 (elsewhere).

The first video shows me first attaching the racks with “Spiro putty” (poster putty). Normally I prefer the putty, but I decided to use pins in this case as they make it easier to position the racks correctly. Note that I’m using a corkboard with the pins.

Not all the new sets (by Kahootz Toys) come with two racks. The Deluxe set has only one; the Tin set has one; the Die-cast set has none. However, the new Super Spirograph has two racks, as do the old Kenner Spirograph and Super Spirograph. See a detailed chart of what’s included in some of the sets here.

These designs are more complex and require a lot of concentration. However, I am now quite curious about experimenting with this method and creating some new designs!

If you try this technique yourself, feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

I’ve put my four videos in a playlist so you can watch them all together.

The post Designs with Two Racks: Instructions & Videos appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

It’s 39 pages of vintage goodness, including many patterns you can make with the non-super Spirograph. Plus it has ideas for taking them further into artistic creations of your own.

Many of the designs are familiar, but there are some that I don’t remember from any English-language manuals. Perhaps they were part of some of the earlier Denys Fisher versions out of England.

Even if you don’t read any of the languages, illustrations and the color-coded text can guide you in creating the designs yourself.

A particular charm is that the patterns are obviously hand-drawn, complete with misalignments and splotches.

Apparently Spirograph was distributed in Europe by Meccano France S.A., as shown by the trademark at the bottom of the document.

The post Vintage Super Spirograph Booklet appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Wheel 80, holes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 using Inkjoy pens.

The Super Spirograph curvy diamond layout sits on an 8.5″ x 11″ paper with enough room to make an epitrochoid around the outside if you keep to a smaller wheel – below 40 or so.

(If you’re in a country that uses A4 paper, you’ll be more limited.)

There are 304 teeth around the outside, and 256 on the inside. See Super Spirograph by the Numbers for details, and how you can predict the number of points your design will have.

Or you can just wing it, as I usually do. Pick a wheel and let it surprise you!

The layout goes D-B-C-C-B-D-B-C-C-B, with all the B pieces turned so that the convex side faces inwards.  Be sure to use lots of putty – at least one for each piece. If you’re using pins, don’t skimp!

There are some beautiful tulip-like or lily-like effects with some wheels, and interesting geometric patterns with others. Here are some of my results.

[UPDATED Feb. 7, 2020 to correct the layout sequence. Correct: D-B-C-C-B-D-B-C-C-B. Wrong: D-D-B-C-C-B-D-D-B-C-C-B.] Thanks to reader MonaMarieRosmary for pointing out the problem!]

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How to know in advance how many points a given wheel will make in any Super Spirograph layout. 

Super Spirograph comes with the same rings and wheels as the regular Spirograph plus the “super” parts shown in the picture, which you snap together to make a big layout.

If you want to predict the number of points that a certain wheel will give you in a particular layout, you need to know the number of teeth in the layout.

You can then use the table on this page to predict the number of points the design will have.

Chart: Number of teeth on the different super parts

Note that the curves have more teeth on the convex side than the concave side. Some layouts have a combination of concave and convex curves on the inside.

Sample calculations

Rectangles:

A rectangle with a straight piece F on the shorter side and an F plus E on the long side, plus a curve C at each corner: would have:

4 x C (concave) plus 4 x F plus 2 x E = 4×24 + 4×56 + 2×20
(Remember your grade school math and multiply each group before you add!)
= 96 + 224 + 40 = 360 teeth on the inside

A smaller rectangle allows you to draw designs outside as well as inside on letter-sized paper. This one has one long F piece on each long side, and a short E piece on each short side.

Inside: 4 x C plus 2 x F plus 2 x E = 4×24 + 2×56 + 2×20 =
96 + 112 + 40 = 248 teeth on the inside

Outside: Note that only the curves are different lengths on the outside.
4 x C plus 2 x F plus 2 x E = 4×36 + 2×56 + 2×20 =
144 + 112 + 40 = 296 teeth on the outside

See some Super Spirograph designs drawn with these two rectangles.

Cloverleaf

The cloverleaf is a very curvaceous layout. It is formed from the curved pieces laid out D-B-C-D-B-C-D-B-C-D-B-C, with the C pieces turned in the other direction from the D-B units. To count the number of teeth, use the concave number for D and B, and the convex number for C.

4 x D (concave) plus 4 x B (concave) plus 4 x C (convex)
= 4×32 + 4×16 + 4×36 = 336 teeth on the inside.

See some Super Spirograph patterns made with the cloverleaf layout.

Curvy diamond

My old Super Spirograph booklet doesn’t even have a name for this layout, it just says “try this”. So I’m calling it the curvy diamond, and I like it a lot. It’s small enough that you can draw designs on the outside on letter-sized paper, as well as on the curvy inside.

The east and west wings are two C curves. The north and south wings are a single D curve. The four wings are joined together with B curves faced the other way.

Inside: 4 x C (concave) plus 2 x D (concave) plus 4 x B (convex) = 4×24 + 2×32 + 4×24 = 256 teeth on the inside.

Outside: 4 x C (convex) plus 2 x D (convex) plus 4 x B (concave) = 4×36 + 2×48 + 4×16 = 144 + 96 + 64 = 304 teeth on the outside.

I know the number of teeth. So now what?

Now go to the big chart and match your wheel numbers (rows) with your layout numbers (columns) and find the number of points your pattern will have.

The post Super Spirograph by the Numbers appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

I needed to make a certificate recently, so used Super Spirograph to make a fancy border, then sized it up a bit in Photoshop, and produced a credible, official-looking document!

What else could you do with rectangular shapes? How about a picture frame, or a matte to fit between the picture and the frame? Use colors that complement the subject of the picture.

Scrapbooking idea alert! (That’s baby me on the left.) I’ve written another post about using Spirograph designs for frames, whether physical or digital.

Rectangle setup with a long straight unit F on each short side, and F plus E on each long side. Use curve C for right-angle corners.

With the two lengths of straight super parts available, you can make several sizes of squares and rectangles. Use the four C curves for the corners, as they form a 90-degree angle.

You could make different sizes of rectangle by changing out the straight pieces. A shorter rectangle could allow you to make a design around the outside (an epitrochoid) as well as on the inside (a hypotrochoid) on standard letter-size paper, as in some of my designs below.

The post Super Spirograph: Rectangles and Squares appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Wheel 75, hole 1, in the Super Spirograph cloverleaf arrangement. There are 336 teeth on the inside.

The cloverleaf is my favorite Super Spirograph arrangement because it is so curvy. The larger wheels do very interesting things as they go from concave to convex to concave again.

To make it fit on a regular piece of paper, you have to lay it sideways as shown in the picture, not in a vertical cross formation.

The design is formed from the curved pieces laid out D-B-C-D-B-C-D-B-C-D-B-C, with the C pieces turned in the other direction from the D-B units. HINT: Join each D piece with a B piece, then connect the 4 resulting units with the C pieces turned the other way.

The total number of teeth inside the pattern is 336.

A variation on the most stunning Spirograph design of all. Wheel 84, hole 1, drawn 60 times, moving one tooth to the right each time. I changed colors after every 12 patterns.

Use lots of putty – at least one per piece. If you’re using pins, use lots of pins. If the frame gets loose and wiggles as you go by, you’ll lose precision. I learned this the hard way.

Drawing the design can sometimes be tricky when you’re bringing the pen to a point at a convex part of the frame. Watch carefully how the wheel is moving. You may need to guide it with your other hand at those spots. Patience and practice!

At left is a variation on the most amazing red pattern in the instruction book that came with my old Super Spirograph. What’s different about this one is that I used Hole 1 instead of Hole 12 as instructed, and I changed colors so I could see better how it works. Just amazing.

Wheel 84 makes 4 revolutions, producing 4 points, as it goes around the cloverleaf’s 336 teeth. (84 times 4 = 336.) As you move the hole to the right one tooth at a time, the shape of the pattern changes a little bit, resulting in this mind-boggling design.

Here are some more beautiful designs using the cloverleaf arrangement. Click to enlarge.

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