Magic 8 Ball
by Mattel
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Toys and Games Reviews of Magic 8 Ball
Customer Review: Great fun for kids from 5 to 95 (and beyond)
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was seven years old I received a Magic 8 Ball for Christmas. As soon as I unwrapped it, I ignored every other present under the tree for the next half hour, so absorbed was I in the 8 Ball. Fast-forward some quarter of a century later when my own son was seven. I passed my 8 Ball down to him. That's how durable it is.
WHAT IT IS:
The Magic 8 Ball looks almost exactly like the 8-ball in a billiard game, only larger; about five inches in diameter, slightly flattened on one side, which allows it to sit on a flat surface without rolling off, and constructed of very hard black plastic. The flattened side is a round window, in which you can see an icosahedron (a 20-sided geometric figure) floating in water. On each face of the icosahedron is a phrase written in white: Yes, Without A Doubt, My Sources Say No, Concentrate And Ask Again, Yes Definitely, Outlook Not So Good, You May Rely On It, Ask Again Later, etc. The positive, negative and vague phrases are distributed about 10-5-5, so you get a 50% chance of a positive response, a 25% chance of a negative response, and a 25% chance of a vague response.
HOW TO PLAY:
Using the 8 Ball is great fun. You hold the ball face up, with the 8 showing, and ask a yes-or-no question. Turn the ball over, wait a second or two, and as if by magic (at least young children will think so), a face of the icosahedron with the answer to your question will swim eerily up into the window. The question, of course, should make sense. I remember my bratty little five year old neighbor down the hall complaining that my new 8 Ball was dumb -- "I asked it, Is my mother a boy? and it said Yes." I told her "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer." She went home in a huff.
The big caveat in playing with the 8 Ball, of course, is taking it too seriously. It's a game, for heaven's sake. It's a toy, actually, but grownups who think they are too grown up for toys can call it a desk game or whatever else they want. (Law & Order SVU fans: check out the 8 Ball sitting on Detective Tutuola's desk.) You can ask the 8 Ball any question that can be answered with a yes or a no; like most other fortunetelling games, its response will be right some of the time. Using the 8 Ball to play the stock market is definitely dicey. It's can be frustrating when you're told to "Concentrate And Ask Again", or "Ask Again Later". I wanna know now, dammit.
The Magic 8 Ball is one of the classic toys, like Slinky, Mister Potato Head, and Lego blocks, that have stood the test of time. It's easy to use and great fun.
SAFETY/DURABILITY:
I've never known an 8 Ball to break. My own was dropped on the hard floor innumerable times and never showed a crack. Maybe if you bounced it at 90 miles an hour off a concrete wall...
AGE RANGE:
Age 5 to adulthood. Children under 5 will probably find it too large and too heavy to handle easily.
Judy Lind
Customer Review: Fun for children and adults alike
Summary: 5 Stars
The difficulty of buying a Magic 8-Ball through the web is that you cannot ask it the most important question of all: "Should I buy you?" Perhaps Amazon asks each 8-Ball the variant "Should I send you to customer XYZ?" before packing. We can only hope.When I asked my Magic 8-Ball if I should write a positive reivew, it said "IT IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN." When I asked if all those reading this review should buy a Magic 8-Ball it said (quite emphatically, I might add) "YES." Though the Magic 8-Ball may hedge with a "MOST LIKELY" or the ever cryptic "BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW," it is most often a source of affirmation. Having a Magic 8-Ball on your desk can save countless hours of trying to make decisions based on long, complicated evaluations of fact.
Some 8-balls can be difficult to read, physically, that is, as the manufacture does not lead the inner mechanism to place an answer flat against the opening. Again, difficult to check when buying through the web. (Talking 8-balls, which Amazon doesn't list, solve this problem.)
Variants on the 8-ball come and go (most recently, affirmation balls and financial-advice balls have made the rounds), but these are nothing more than pretenders to the throne. When asked if these imitators could provide correct answers, the Magic 8-Ball said, "OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD."
Customer Review: THE INDECISIVE PERSON'S DREAM COME TRUE!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are some great reviews on this toy so I asked my Magic 8 Ball if I should do a review too and it said "It is decidedly so." Then I asked if I should give it a positive review and it said "Ask again later." Ok. I guess it trusts me to give it a good review. "We" have developed trust! LOL!THE MAGIC 8 BALL is definitely a toy that should be on every adults' desk and each childs' bedroom. It is so fun to ask it questions and get its answers. I have to say though, it is amazingly accurate. I'd say 90% of the questions I have asked have happened according to its reply. I am talking about future questions that I have no control over.
Ok let's test it right now! Hold on...oooo not good. I asked "Are you from the devil?" It replied "Without a doubt." Then I asked "Are you from God?" Its reply was "Don't count on it." Scary! But if I asked it the same questions again I wonder what it would say? I did and you don't want to know people.
Now the ultimate question. I just told it I finished a review about it and asked if I should post it and it replied "My sources say no."
Well I am anyway because my sources say yes!
Customer Review: A toy that uses the imagination
Summary: 4 Stars
The Magic 8 Ball is a great toy for kids who have a good imagination. Sometimes when I'd see one of them in a store when I was a kid, I'd pick it up for a minute and asks questions and shake it up to see what it would say. Now my little sister got one and plays with it all the time. She'll ask something like "Is it going to rain today?" or "Is my brother stupid?" and then she'll shake it up and laugh at the answers that come up. All you do is ask a question out loud or in your mind, then shake the Magic 8 Ball and a prism shaped object will float to the top of the water inside it, revealing an answer such as "My guess is no" or "Can't decide, ask me later."So pretty much, the Magic 8 Ball isn't a game you play or anything like that, it's just something that kids can use their wild imaginations with and actually have a little fun while they're doing it. The Magic 8 Ball doesn't really have much educational value, but it is durable. You don't have to worry about it tearing up after somebody drops it or if it falls on the floor or anything. I recommend the Magic 8 Ball to anyone who has any kids in their family that have good imaginations.
Customer Review: A nostalgic toy
Summary: 3 Stars
This is one of those toys that I had as a kid, and now as an adult, I wanted one again. I put it on my wish list, and received it, among other items. My husband, daughter, and parents really like being able to shop from my wish list.
This toy is for amusement only, it's not at all educational. You think or ask out loud a simple yes or not question while holding the ball with the 8 up. Then turn the ball over, and get one of a variety of replies, which might be hilarious when combined with the right question. It's a lot of fun at parties, especially if the participants are a bit tipsy. I think that this is a better toy for adults than for children.
This thing shouldn't be roughly treated...I know that the ones I had as a kid could and did break, if dropped. I received my new one a couple of days ago, and I haven't broken it yet. I can't say exactly how durable the new versions are.
I do have a complaint about it...the little message piece inside the ball doesn't always come up with one message side up, sometimes it will have an edge come up in the window, which is a bit frustrating.