Why did I buy this?

[AlanMiller]

I bought this paper cutout a few years ago in Europe. The red thread is just woollen yarn, and the dark tabs are just card stapled on. The ones on the ends of the threads are soft rubbery sheet. I'm sure this thing is meant to "do" something. Anybody know what it is?

Scan-160219-0001f.bmp.jpg

Alan

[Rudi]

My take:

The rubber squares allow you put your finger on the square to keep the thread from moving too much while tracing the legs. You can move them in any direction that the yarn will go to get different leg movements from the single stencil.

[Rebel]

I'm sure this thing is meant to "do" something. Anybody know what it is?
Alan

Separate gullible Australian tourists from their money ? ?

[AlanMiller]

I'm sure I bought them because they did something quite clever, as demonstrated by the vendor. They were also very cheap - less than 1€.

EDIT: OK, found it at last! Dancing "magnetic" puppets - How it is done.

Any loungers speak Russian? It's obviously the old marionette-on-thread trick revamped, but I want to know the "trick" so I can reproduce it for the kids.

[Rudi]

I think its the vibrations of the speakers that bob the dancers. Each one of the sample clips has the string tied to a audio speaker and then to anything else on the other side. Play some music and the vibrations start to move the puppets.

[HansV]

See The Real Hustle: The Dancing Dolls

[Rudi]

I was almost right...

[AlanMiller]

Thanks for the info guys. I knew it was some sort of take on the old marionettes trick. I bought some in Greece back in 1985 - rather better wooden ones on a fine cotton thread. But I did think it might be Rudi's idea - working off the vibrations of a boom box woofer cone. I was hoping to trick the kids with it, but it looks like too much hassle to set up. Lucky I only paid 1€ for 3 of them... as I now recall.

Alan