Perplexus – The Original by PlaSmart – Toy Fair 2010

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What is the only toy that I have played with every day since I returned from the Toy Fair his year?  The Original Perplexus.  See now I have you intrigued, so let me tell you a little bit about this toy.  It all started before the Christmas holiday in 2009, I wanted to get my boys a wooden labyrinth game, but my wife was against it because of the little metal balls that would be around the house when the new baby came.  Somehow though I luckily won that battle and a labyrinth was had.  Little did I know though, that there was a better toy, one that answered all my requests.  I would find it right when I walked into Toy Fair 2010, Perplexus.

It is no wonder that Michael McGinnis’ invention is on the cover of Hammacher Schlemmer for Spring 2010, this thing is just unreal.  So where to start, well Michael was on hand at the booth demonstrating the toy and giving us some background on the Superplexus, which is how this thing originally got started.  You can check his site for even more info.  Not to be outdone by other displays, he also had a Superplexus there for us to try out while looking at the smaller Perplexus version.  They were positioned right outside the entrance to the main hall, which was genius in my opinion, you could not help yourself, you had to stop and look.  PlaSmart also had booth just in case you wanted to sit down and talk business with them.  McGinnis is a very interesting fellow to listen to (and was also extremely nice) and I was happy to hear the background on the product before getting it into my hands.  The Perplexus is addicting and once it came into my house my boys would not put it down either, we actually had to allot each other a certain amount of time as we passed it around like a hot potato.  What is special about the one that we received from PlaSmart?  Well Michael McGinnis’ himself signed it, which is great.  The toy itself is a self contained 3-d labyrinth that has numbers marked off on it so that you can see how far you have gotten and compete a bit with friends and family.  I love the fact that it is self contained, no ball to lose, also having no strings or bars, you also do not have anything that might break after repeated use of the toy. 

I can not gush enough on how much I love this toy and you can find it at Amazon for your purchasing pleasure.  I will admit to not being very good and needing more practice with the toy, not that I am complaining about spending more time with Perplexus.  Check out the quick video below of my wife playing with it.

Perplexus is a 3-D labyrinth game enclosed in a transparent plastic sphere. By twisting and turning the sphere, players attempt to maneuver a small, steel ball through an intricate maze composed of narrow plastic tracks. There are obstacles of varying difficulty that must be navigated in order to reach the end. The experience offers hours of entertainment and fun.

Perplexus was invented by 3-D design teacher Michael McGinnis who began his project in the late 1970’s and originally named and marketed it as Superplexus. Through years of experimenting and design it was finally developed into a finished product with the help of KID Interactive, a toy invention and licensing group.

In 2009, Busy Life, LLC became the licensed manufacturer of the Perplexus line of toys. It is distributed by PlaSmart, Inc, a Canadian corporation.

Note:  We received our Perplexus from PlaSmart for review

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