Here is a mini version of UF Grant’s Strat-O-Sphere using a clear tube on a base.
After playing with the item this afternoon there are two issues that came up that the larger version does not have – in the MAK Strat-O-Sphere version that I had the large balls were fairly light and it was reasonable to have to push them down into the tube. But the small balls this version comes with are small power balls and are quite heavy and you can hear them land on the bottom of the tube – so why do you need to push them down? Also due to the small ball’s weight if you are not careful you can end up with four balls instead of three as momentum wins out so you have to handle the tube quite gingerly 🙁
The final issue with this version is that you loose the simple red, yellow, green colors of a traffic light and particularly the colors on the front of the tube. I took this version and made a few changes to resolve these issues and you can see the finished version here.
This seems like a nice idea but I don’t think it was thought through as far it could have been and is a far cry from the original.
Click here for more information.