Westminster Electronic Perpetual Motion Toy

I was skeptical to buy because of all the reviews, but I bought anyway and I am glad I did. Obviously it is not the most durable high quality toy on the market, but it is 7 dollars, what do you expect. I do not know if I just got lucky, but mine works just as intended and looks great. It is perfect for a desk. It is also bigger than I originally thought it would be. Lastly, I was told it runs on 9V batteries in some reviews, but it actually runs on AA batteries. Overall would recommend, great price for a solid toy.

Beware - the Orion Perpetual Motion desk gyro is not made to the highest quality standards. For the price I paid ($10.47), I wasn't expecting it to be really nice. However... I did hope it would come with instructions, and actually work.There were no instructions, so I had to tinker with it to figure out how the various parts went together. (That isn't a huge deal, but I'm just letting potential customers know.) Until I noticed a couple tiny holes that allowed two half circle shaped pieces together, I was afraid it was broken. FYI, Amazon's box was packed with the usual air bags for cushioning, but the small box that the Orion came in was not - the various pieces were just tumbling around in there against one another.Most of the parts are cheap plastic. If you look closely, you can see where the plastic leaked out of the molds. You will want to be very careful with it, because the silver painted plastic arms seem especially fragile. My 6 year old would break this thing in less than 3 seconds, even if he was trying to be careful.Probably the bigger complaint is that it doesn't work. The unit I received must be different than what others have received, because the base has room for four (4) AA batteries rather than the 9 volt battery others have said it uses. But that doesn't matter, because the batteries do not affect the behavior of the device. I've tested it with and without the batteries, and it is the same either way. (And yes, the batteries are brand new, and I double-checked to make sure they were correctly oriented.) The only way this thing moves is if I flick it with my fingers. The magnets bring it to a sharp stop at the bottom, but the inner rings will move for a couple rotations before they stop.I probably should send it back, but it didn't come with a return slip or anything. I didn't expect it to be great, but it definitely was a waste of $10.

Once you get this out together it’s pretty cool. My son really likes it. Unfortunately it comes with no instructions, which is disappointing as a gift for kids. I like to have my kids read through the instructions on toys like this and work through it with me. You definitely get what you pay for from a sturdiness perspective, but it’s honestly a cool gift for a low price.

I saw these in the window of a tourist shop and I liked them. They were priced at $39.95. So I searched on Amazon and found several "perpetual motion" devices for around $12. I checked and the ones in the store and they didn't make a lot of noise. When I put mine together it made some noise... squeaking, clicking, etc. If you have a scientific mind like I do, you look at it as a challenge. How can I make this quiet? First I lubricated some of the joints I thought were squeaking. I didn't have any 3-in-1 oil or anything, so I just used vegetable oil. That quieted the squeaking, now for the clickity clacking. The cheap plastic ball in the center has holes where the metal rod goes through, and there is a lot of play. The holes are larger than the rods. What to do... ok, two things came to mind. Glue, and gum. I tried a little Elmer's glue in one, but then I thought it would be better to use gum. I didn't have any chewing gum, but I had some of this Scotch mounting putty. It's used for mounting artwork to a wall but being easily removed. It's like chewing gum. I took a small piece of it and rolled it around to soften it and stuffed it into the hole along with the rod so that there was no more play. Clickity clack gone. Yay, Science wins again. =)

Many, many years ago when these kinetic sculpture desk toys were a hot item, I used to go into the store and stand there playing with all the different models. I was fascinated by them. At the time I didn't know they were supposed to have batteries. (Either the store didn't put them in or they had run down.) I would hit the things with my finger to get them moving and hit them again when they would slow down.The lack of an on-off switch is a problem. It is noisy and I don't want to leave the battery in all the time. On the other hand, I don't want to keep taking the battery in and out as it uses a 9-volt battery and those connectors break easily. So I finally settled for leaving the battery out and just doing what I did all those years ago --- I just hit it with my finger whenever I get the urge to play with it. (That's fine by me. A Newton's cradle only works when you manually start the balls.) Honestly, the noise of this would drive me crazy if I had to listen to it all the time.This is the exact same quality as I recall from the store. No, it's not a heavy duty toy. The three rings are metal as is the one top ball. The large central ball and the two black balls are plastic as is the stand.But it's as mesmerizing to watch and to play with as it was all those years ago.