iTopSpin

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top  (Read 2115 times)

ta0

  • Administrator
  • Olympus member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14235
    • www.ta0.com
Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« on: March 16, 2020, 10:47:43 PM »

I got on Ebay something that was claimed to be a top:





Although I was very doubtful that it was a true top, I was curious and I guessed it could still be spun as one.
Because it only has graphics on the opposite side of the blue "handle", it's obvious that the handle has to point down. Anyway it does not spin at all with the graphics down. On the handle it can spin if you start it very fast, what I could do borrowing the starter from a humming top, but not by hand. I got up to a minute spin that way.
I was hoping it would whistle as it has a slot and the musical notes. But it doesn't. However, something that the description didn't mention was that it has a ball inside so it works like a rattle.

If it had different graphics, I would have guessed that it was part of a baby toy. But that blonde bikini girl on a cocktail somehow tells me that it's not.
Could it be used as a cocktail stirrer or floater? It looks too big (7.5 cm = 3 inches) wide for that.
Anybody knows what it really is? Any ideas?
Logged

Larry D.

  • Hyperhero member
  • ********
  • Posts: 1359
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2020, 11:21:19 PM »

It's A Vintage Old Time, New Year's Eve, noise maker.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/534117052/vintage-party-noisemakers-tin-litho


« Last Edit: March 16, 2020, 11:34:48 PM by ta0 »
Logged

ta0

  • Administrator
  • Olympus member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14235
    • www.ta0.com
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2020, 11:40:39 PM »

Thanks Larry! That was fast!
A grown up rattler, of course!  ;D

I guess I could return it as "not as described", but it was cheap and I can use it to receive 2021  >:D

Should I move it to NSTR? I feel it can stay here as it was advertised as one and I did spin it like a top.  :-\
Logged

Larry D.

  • Hyperhero member
  • ********
  • Posts: 1359
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2020, 08:46:16 AM »

Should I move it to NSTR? I feel it can stay here as it was advertised as one and I did spin it like a top.  :-\

I like your idea of leaving it here for the younger folks benefit.
Sort of "Buyer Beware".
Logged

ta0

  • Administrator
  • Olympus member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14235
    • www.ta0.com
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2020, 12:07:07 PM »

With the risk of making this even less top related, here is a clacker noise maker that would go perfectly with the rattler:





Oh, those 50's pinup girls . . .

But it doesn't spin and I will definitely NOT start a new collection!   :P
Logged

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2020, 12:44:16 PM »

Support an object on a narrow contact below its center of mass. If it...
(1) falls over right away when you let go at rest, but...
(2) stands against gravity for at least a few seconds when you spin it fast enough about the axis through the center of mass and the contact...

... then it's a top in my book -- regardless of its intended purpose (if any).

In that broad sense, your party noisemaker's definitely a top -- and a pretty good one with the right starter.

I call objects like these "found" or "incidental" tops to distinguish them from the "intentional" tops we usually play with and discuss.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2020, 02:54:09 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
Logged
Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time ... and with spinning tops, we decorate both.
—after Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1960-1988

Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes.
—Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955

jim in paris

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3900
  • "oeuvre de coeur prend tout un homme
    • my vids on  youtube
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2020, 01:00:42 PM »

hi folks

those 50's pinup girls . . .
reminds me of another spintop girl




 8) 8) 8) sorry 4me2


jim
« Last Edit: March 18, 2020, 02:38:02 PM by ta0 »
Logged
"oeuvre de coeur prend tout un homme"

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2020, 02:58:56 PM »

Given that vintage finger tops with pictures of political candidates were once fairly common, there must surely have been some with pin-up girls instead.

Whether you're male or female, which would you rather look at?
« Last Edit: March 18, 2020, 03:04:39 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
Logged

the Earl of Whirl

  • ITSA
  • Olympus member
  • ***********
  • Posts: 7993
    • St. Jacob Lutheran with a tops page
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2020, 04:18:16 PM »

Good job, Larry!  You are all over it.
Logged
Happiness runs in a circular motion!!!

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2020, 03:14:33 AM »

those 50's pinup girls . . .
reminds me of another spintop girl

Excellent!
Logged

ta0

  • Administrator
  • Olympus member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14235
    • www.ta0.com
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2020, 09:40:25 AM »

Yes, that pinup girl image is tops! But from 1935 (December, Vol. 2 #3)!  :o Thanks Jim!
The top hat is intriguing. It looks very much like a working monobolo/kongzhu. But those were probably unknown in the west at that time.  So it's  likely pure luck that the artist came up with such a realistic drawing of one.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 04:55:12 PM by ta0 »
Logged

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2020, 12:06:38 PM »

Now the question is, where are the ads and product art with pin-up boys?
Logged

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2020, 12:27:06 PM »

Support an object on a narrow contact below its center of mass. If it...
(1) falls over right away when you let go at rest, but...
(2) stands against gravity for at least a few seconds when you spin it fast enough about the axis through the center of mass and the contact...
... then it's a top in my book -- regardless of its intended purpose (if any).

Q1: Since the original question was top or not, what do you guys think of these criteria for a "true" top?

I worded them with 2 goals in mind...
1. To include acorns and other found tops as well as intentional ones.
2. To exclude (a) spindulums (CM below contact), and (b) gimbaled gyros and other spintoys with no net external torques on their rotors.

The latter category effectively excludes pump "tops" and similar spintoys with feet that keep them from falling over in normal use.

Q2: Is that too strict?
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 12:30:05 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
Logged

ta0

  • Administrator
  • Olympus member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14235
    • www.ta0.com
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2020, 03:44:24 PM »

I agree with your definition of a top. However, for collecting purposes, I might relax it a bit for some things that may not fall but were advertised and look as tops, and also make it narrower to things that were meant to spin.
Logged

Jeremy McCreary

  • ITSA
  • Demigod member
  • **********
  • Posts: 3781
    • MOCpages
Re: Non-top? cocktail lady metal top
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2020, 04:52:47 PM »

I agree with your definition of a top. However, for collecting purposes, I might relax it a bit for some things that may not fall but were advertised and look as tops...

Yeah, that's a gray area for me as well. Top-like spintoy?

... also make it narrower to things that were meant to spin.

But who meant for acorns to spin? I really think we should leave intent out of it and stay purely operational...

If you can get an object to behave as specified, by any means necessary, it's a bona fide top -- no matter how or why it came to be, or what it looks like.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2020, 05:12:13 PM by Jeremy McCreary »
Logged
Pages: 1 2 »  All   Go Up