Epic Win: Pin Art
Submitted by S Fonseca
Pin Art is the name of an executive toy pinscreen, a boxed surface made of a crowded array of pins that are free to slide back and forth independently in a screen to create a three-dimensional relief. Other similar product names are “PinPressions” and “Pinhead”. Pinscreens were previously applied as animation in films.
Pin Art toys were once made of metal pins. Because the metal pins bent easily, newer Pin Art toys are generally made of plastic pins. The plastic pins are thicker and do not move as easily as the metal pins, causing the toy to create a somewhat less detailed relief of an object.
My grandma had one of these… one of those oh so awesome toys at grandma’s house.
Absolutely fascinating, I could play with that thing for hours on end. ^_^
Shouldn’t this be “giving the finger” instead of “peace sign”? If any of you say you never made an impression of the bird being flipped and left it proudly displayed on the store shelf, you’re a big, fat liar!
I know. I can’t count high enough to cover the number of ‘birdies’ I have seen on store shelves.
I used to kick people out of the Spencer Gifts store I worked at for doing that. Heh.
Haha, anyone gotten in trouble for putting on of these babies to your face? ‘Cause I have…
So many times…
Yup…
I am not a crook?
Nixon, right?
I was just playing with the crappy plastic one yesterday at Target! *sigh* I miss the nice metals ones.
I have a metal one, it’s sitting on my dresser right now.
You can still find them, it’s just a bit more of a challenge than the plastic ones. And the metal is cold on my face. X3
Can still get the good ones here among other places… home of the original pin screen. http://store.exploratorium.edu/browse.cfm/4,2687.html
You can find them here…http://store.exploratorium.edu/browse.cfm/4,2687.html
This is the home of the pin screen. A really great science museum in San Francisco. Not only do they sell them but if you go there they have a GIANT table size version.
There were several in the “Journey Into the Imagination” exhibit at Disney’s EPCOT Center. You could run your hand across the pins underneath and it created a pretty cool wave effect…
Spencer’s gifts still have metal ones
I loved these
I also distinctly remember the scene from Toy Story where Buzz flattens himself into one and his pose of failure showed up.
LOL i loved that, that was hilarious
I have one of these sitting up here in my room! (metal pins) ^_^
They also felt really weird and funny when you put them on your face! XD
Everyone did one of two things with these, maybe three, Flipping da bird, face print, and maybe the occasional genitalia.
Oh, I will definitely avoid the ones at Spencer’s Gifts now that you mentioned that last part.
Nice! I loved these. I always put my face in it….
After the death of my father, I found one of these with his face on the top of his shelf. I preserved it with a glue gun, and it’s been a memento ever since.
How did you keep from wrecking it? Did you dribble the glue down from the top?
Awesome tribute at any rate.
*walks off thinking about the Mask of Agamemnon*
I have a metal one, but half of the pins are all stuck and bent. There was a huge one at a museum near my house that always had imprints of screaming faces and obscene gestures… Could have been an art exhibit.
xDDD My pins are all bent and to reduce the number, I’ve gotten a few out of there. But I don’t care anymore. It’s amazing fun =3
Not completely out of style, this was actually the centerpiece of the Nine Inch Nails video “Only” put out last year, I think.
Oh man that video was AWESOME.
I just gave one of these to my neice for her birthday last week. They’re plastic now, wtf?
Shiloh!???!
I once went to a science museum or something on a school trip and saw one of those.
Was it COSI?
cosi was AWESOME
Cosi should be on nostalgic win, if only because the new one NEVER COMPARES! Even if it would be only like an Ohio thing… And the lock-ins with the girlscouts… ahh fun times, fun times.
And it was a whole FREAKING WALL! I had fun doing that.
Remember that flash still shadow thing? That was fun to make gestures and other poses in. Scared the dickens out of me the first time when I was about 5-ish.
I’ve got two of the metal ones in my room right now. Anyone wanna buy it?
when i was in kindergarten this handicapped kid flipped out and smashed his on the floor. there were nails scattered all over the hallway.
My friend put his wang in mine
…
erm…
ok?
I love them! I used to press my face into them. It’s great as long as you don’t open your eyes!
At COSI, there is a huge one of these. Once while on a field trip, we had half the class flatten their bodies into it as if they were trying to jump through. It looked like one of those cartoon scenes where someone tries to run through a big metal wall.
Toledo cosi or Columbus cosi? The old columbus cosi had one, I haven’t been to the new one yet.
I got one of these as a gift at my 14th birthday party. My friend cut her finger on it and had to leave the party to go get stitches! She came back after the trip to the ER.
The first time I did LSD I played with one of these for too long and saw everything as pin art for the rest of the trip… I even felt like I was walking on pin art…
LOL! I have one of these! It was like, my sixth birthday present. xD
I would put parts of my face in it. These days, I don’t use it as much =(
I had one of these when I was a kid. They were awesome!
I actually just bought one for my kids !
I never had one. Some of my friends had them and the pins were always bent.
I still have one of those!
i have a metal one on my desk its so cool
I always wanted one of those made of metal, I always like to play with them, making different shapes etc.
I also found they’re great in the summer (the metal ones) to cool off with
now we just have pixel art…
Yep, I put one on my face.
sitting in a room drunken a few months back, my inhebriated mind thought it was the perfect timing to confuse the other drunken masses around me. wearing toe socks (yes, i do.) i alerted them that they couldn’t have all their toes showing on one of these things as i could with socks on. with the others in their stupor, they did take a long while attempting. the story while i was younger is less interesting. i’d just slam my face into it to get a facial impression.