Spirograph

Maths can really be fun! That was the cry that went up across the land when the Spirograph was released in 1965 to the delight of parents everywhere. Possibly.

This amazing toy was nothing more than plastic circles and shapes with ridged edges (like gears) that created intricate designs when a pen traced the line of the plastic insert as it rolled round the outer guide.

Made for ages five and up, the Spirograph was a great unisex toy for all ages. Even the most hamfisted child could spend countless hours covering sheet after sheet of paper with unique patterns. The more adept they got, the more elaborate the patterns became. Once the Spirograph bug had bitten it wouldn't take long until whole houses could be decorated in pieces of paper covered in mad swirls and sweeps.

You didn’t have to be a junior scientist to get excited over the wizardry of the Spirograph. A handful of colored pens could keep you busy all day long, for at least as long as it took for vector, sine and cosine and quadratic equations to turn up and take all the fun out of Maths for good.