Etch-A-Sketch

Whether it's a Spirograph, a Lite Brite or an Etch-A-Sketch, the toy world is not hurting for art related toys. As for if any of these really qualifies as "art", well that's a whole other story entirely. The Etch-A-Sketch, developed by Andre Cassagnes of France, is exactly what its name implies: you etch a sketch. Using the knobs on the board and the funky screen that moves a stylus that thus displaces an aluminum powder across the screen, it's a fairly unique toy, especially when invented, even if it is rather limiting by the fact that its knobs only go either horizontally or vertically. Introduced at the peak of the baby boom (thus making the toy old enough to complain about kids on Facebook) in July 1960, it retailed for a whopping 2.99 and went on to sell 600,000 units that year alone.

Cassagnes, who died at the age of 86 in 2013, was born in Paris, France to parents who owned and operated a bakery, a truly shocking career choice for someone who's French, really, but he wound up having an allergy to flour which forced him to seek another line of work. This is almost like being born to parents who are tailors and being allergic to cotton. Hilarious. So he became an electrician for Lincrusta, a French manufacturer who - shock of shocks - produced picture frame covers using an aluminum powder. He not so much "created" the Etch-A-Sketch as he did co-opted it, but hey, we can't be mad at the guy, cause it was a cool idea and we should be grateful for its existence.

Turns out he was also a well known kite designer, which I frankly think is much more interesting than any of the other information I've relayed to you thus far, and I wish I could know more about. He apparently specifically specialized in the creation of original modular kites in the 1980s and in 92 was described by a magazine article as being the most famous kitemaker in France. An achievement that I'm sure wasn't hard to attain, considering, like, how many could there have really been? Honestly. I don't think the competition was that tough.

But his kites are not what he's remembered for, and frankly with the invention of the iPad and its artistic tools, he likely won't be remembered for the Etch-A-Sketch much longer either honestly. He partnered with American manufacturer Ohio Art Company to develop the toy further, though since 2016 it has since been produced by Spin Master (something I find hilariously ironic considering how you use the toy). In 98, the toy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York and in 2003, the Toy Industry Association even named it one of the most memorable toys of the 20th century. But to tell you the truth? The most interesting thing (aside from the kites that we're unable to discuss) about the Etch-A-Sketch is that the other variants are far more interesting to talk about.

Let's talk about the Etch-A-Sketch Animator, shall we?

Debuting in 87, it featured a low resolution dot matrix display, and while it had two knobs similar to the normal toy, it also featured several buttons to manipulate the drawings. It retailed at 89.99 (a pretty hefty price tag for something considered a 'toy' back in 87) and only had, of course given the year, only a few kilobytes of memory capable of storing 12 frames of pictures in any combination up to 96 times. It also, somehow, contained a speaker. Despite its primitiveness, and its rather limited technological functionality given the time period, this is a pretty goddamned impressive piece of technology that I think should be more well done and is, in my opinion, way more interesting than the actual Etch-A-Sketch.

I mean, just LOOK at this fucking thing. This is almost like what would today be the equivalent of an app on a tablet. Now granted, I'm sure it didn't work much better than the regular Etch-A-Sketch, but it's still pretty goddamned impressive given it debuted in 1987 (for a whopping 90 dollars, for the record). It featured a low resolution dot matrix display with a few kilobytes of memory, and was capable of storing up to 12 frames of pictures in any combination up to 96 times. What you could possible manage to make out of two knobs and a few kilobytes memory I can't begin to fathom, but for the time period, it's a pretty impressive piece of machinery, and fairly priced given what was inside of it the year it came out.

In 88, they released a follow up called the Etch-A-Sketch Animator 2000 (because until the year 2000 actually came to fruition, it was the go to year for future proofing titles because we hadn't yet discovered how wildly underwhelming the decade would actually be). This one featured a laptop like design and honestly, while it's likely more advanced, and maybe even more functional, I am not including a picture of it because I think it's clunky and uglier compared to this suave bad boy right hurr. The Animator 2000 featured an LCD screen and retailed for 139 dollars, with 196 kilobytes of memory. This one was capable of 22 frames of drawings and 99 frames of animation. But just look at the colors of the OG Animator. Those cool ice blue knobs, the nice little light red buttons and the eggshell white casing. This thing was beautiful, and I love it. There was also a color Etch-A-Sketch, which is a neat idea, definitely, but I can't imagine those ever managed to make much headway in the sense of sales numbers either. This is actually the first I've heard of it, so.

Etch-A-Sketch continued to try and break into the electronic market, but none of them ever really made a dent in the public consciousness like the original toy did. But there's one more thing about this toy that we can't ignore if we're going to discuss it, and that's Etch-A-Sketch Art.

The people who work in Etch-A-Sketch art - which I guarantee you've seen in some manner or another because people on the internet reshare things until your eyeballs bleed - are quite talented in ways that I can't begin to understand. Their talent makes me physically angry. Here I am banging a pencil and a piece of paper together like a fucking monkey and meanwhile they're recreating the goddamned Taj Mahal in a fucking Etch-A-Sketch. These weirdo geniuses make their work permanent by simply removing the the aluminum powder, which is made possible by either drilling holes in the bottom of the toy or removing the plastic backing. It is then resealed as a semi permanent shake resistant piece of art. I'm really jealous of the level of artistry that goes into making these things, because I've been drawing for 20+ years and I haven't gotten much better, meanwhile...

...Seriously. You thought I was being facetious didn't you? Chump.