#fidget shape

2 in 1 Fidget Stick Spinner - eBay, $3.51 USD.

Dimensions: 8 cm x 3 cm x 1 cm.

I paid $3.10 USD for this item on a buy-2-get-discount sale. Listing has free standard international shipping.

The seller currently has a buy-3-get-one-at-12%-off sale, including these, and I’ve had no problems with my transaction, packaging or shipping.

I’ve seen informative posts about these, but I haven’t come across too many reviews as yet. It looks such a good idea, right--fidget cube and spinner in the one toy?

The awesome thing is that this actually works as advertised. The spinner function works great. It doesn’t spin for as long as a conventional tri-shaped spinner and doesn’t have quite the same vibration feel, but it spins easily with only slight wobbling.

You will have to remove the metal plug holding the split ring to the spinner to use it as a spinner, as it’s too long to fit in the space between my thumb and pointer finger when spun. Thankfully, it’s easy to pull out--a magnet holds the plug flush to the spinner, and it requires quite a bit of strength to pull without being too difficult to do so. It’s a really good balance of the magnet being strong enough for security without being too strong to use, and I think, barring the spinner catching on something, it isn’t like to fall off if hung off a bag by the split ring.

(It’s a super design, actually, and I’d love to see more fidget toys take this approach of a magnetic attachment. You get all the ease of being able to attach the item to your bag or lanyard without the clip getting in the way of your using the toy.)

Most of the buttons work smoothly. All the click buttons are noisy, but they don’t have that horrid jarring crack/snap I’ve found in fakes and the Fidget Fingers Series 2. The gears and roller ball turn easily. The slide buttons tend to make the spinner rattle when used, so they’re not as silent as they should be. The only thing that really doesn’t work is the spin wheel; it’s as tough and sticky as my first Zuru Fidget Cube, and it’s easier to use the dial as a spin wheel instead.

The dial has a fun feature with numbers printed on one side (one through six) and fortune-teller-style words on the reverse (“no”, “go for it”, “may be”, “yes”, “pray” and “try again”). I don’t have a need for the words, but as a player of Magic the Gathering I always have a use for a dice roll equivalent.

Possibly the only downside is that isn’t as nice to touch as the Fidget Pad or the Zuru or Antsy Labs Fidget Cubes. The plastic isn’t that silky; it just feels like cheap plastic. It also rattles a bit when shaken, and for this reason might be annoying when hung from a bag or lanyard.

I feel like there’s actually been a bit of thought put into this one, in terms of how to make it useful. It’s another cheap knock-off, of course, but barring one feature it works well, it combines two fidget functions popular with stimmers, it’s easy to carry with you and the dice roll/fortune teller options are pretty fun.

I still think I like the Fidget Cube a little more as it’s quieter, but I like this better than the Fidget Pad, and the price makes this absolutely worth trying.

Image description under read more cut:

Fidget Fingers Series 2 Cube - Games World, $10 AUD

I went to a large shopping centre in Werribee (Pacific Werribee) and they had a Games World store with lots of different kinds of wooden puzzles and other fidget things. (No Tangles. I didn’t see a Tangle all day, aside from my own. Even the Toyworld in Werribee didn’t have Tangles.) They did have the unique fidget cube knock-off, however...

It has six sides, like the Antsy Labs cubes and knock-offs, but the switches are very different. It feels like a knock-off, too: it’s as light as my fidget pad, lighter than my knock-off cube. I think this would benefit from a Prism to make it less bangy when knocked over, as it makes a loud clacking noise the Prism’d Zuru cube does not, but it doesn’t matter too much because you cannot use this cube around other people. It’s the noisiest, clickiest, most obnoxious cube I’ve ever heard. As someone with the autism/SPD/migraine fun combo, I’d be in semi-verbal meltdown.

The Push side is two red rectangular buttons. When one is pushed, the other rises. They’re a little louder than the switch on the Zuru and fake fidget cubes, and like the switch can be used more quietly if you put a finger or thumb on each button. I can see this working for people who love pushing buttons.

The Scroll side is a red notched mouse wheel set in the cube. This. This I like. A mini scroll wheel that’s more portable than a mouse and has more texture than the roller ball on the fidget cube? Yes, please. It’s tolerably quiet, although not silent.

The Slide side is a series of three red switches in grooves that slide back and forth. They move easily and are the second quietest side on the cube. I like this function, too.

The Dial side is pretty identical to the Fidget Cube’s spin wheel. The crimped edges give it more texture and it doesn’t make a lot of noise. Like my pink/white Zuru cube, though, it doesn’t turn well. My orange/white Zuru cube and the fidget pad do this so much better.

The Click side is ... underwhelming. It’s a long, raised red tube-shaped button and you click it. That’s it. I don’t know why it’s so big. It’s louder than the loud buttons on the button side of the Fidget Cube, too. Since this is very little different to the Push side, I really have no idea why it’s there.

The Flick side is The Noise Hell Side, otherwise known as a flick button. I want to like this, as it’s more like a real light-switch, and the rounded switch on the fidget pad is one of the better features on it. But the click is so loud and snappy. You know someone snapping their fingers right outside your ear? It’s that but worse. So sharp. Testing it a few times just to write this paragraph has made my head ring. I am on edge from the noise and one mishap away from screaming at someone or going into keyboard-throwing meltdown.

[Edit: after a day of shopping, this pushed me over the edge into “huddling under my electric blanket for four hours because I can’t sit up” migraine.]

People, if you have any kind of hyperacausis or SPD-related sound sensitivity or just don’t like obnoxious noises, don’t play with the Flick side. And please, please don’t use the Flick side in public where others can hear it, if they haven’t consented to hearing this sound. Please.

I’d honestly recommend paying the $3-$5 AUD extra for a Zuru cube. It’s a heavier, quieter, higher-quality-feeling product (despite the fact that I do have one with flaws) that’s nicer to hold. It can also be used more easily around other disabled people, which is an important stim toy feature too often forgotten by makers who don’t seem to really understand stim toys. Yes, different ways to fidget is important, but they need to be useful and accessible with minimum sensory discomfort for the user and those around them.

Now that fidget toys are a Thing, I wonder just how many of the new ones offer ways to fidget without ever considering the sensory needs people who stim also often have - meaning that many autistics and folks with ADHD, SPD, migraines and fibro (among other diagnoses) can’t access toys that are actually meant for us. A stim toy made without thought for the needs of the disabled people who use it is even more erasure on top of the cursory references these newer toys are giving us (ND and disabled stimmers) and it concerns me.

Image description under read more cut:

[image description: two 10-in-1 fidget toy/spinners on a white background. The toys look somewhat like a garage door remote control, being a black oblong shape fastened to a round, black metal ring attachment. The left fidget, working from top to bottom, shows four round blue buttons, a notched-edged spinning wheel sectioned into six pieces numbered from 1-6 with a small upwards-pointing arrow at the base of the wheel, a black roller ball and two blue plastic gears. The right fidget, also top to bottom, shows a round blue spinning wheel, the reverse side of the crimped wheel with words written in each of the six sections, and two ridged blue push switches.]

Anon! Thank you so much for sharing with us! I’d seen knock-offs of these toys around before, and there’s a post in the queue, but I hadn’t seen conversations about the original version of the toy or its original name, so I’m grateful for the nudge in the right direction.

The Stick Spinner is listed at $14.95 USD on Incredible Science. I can’t tell if there’s international shipping on offer, as the shipping info page takes me to the customer returns page, so non-US folks who are really excited by this item might have to send them an email to inquire.

For folks who are looking at this and struggling to figure out how this works as a spinner (like me), there’s a YouTube video showing this toy in action.

(It’s kind of loud, there’s annoying-to-me background music, the captions are auto-generated and the presenter takes three minutes to get to the point of demonstrating the toy. Seriously, skip to the 3:00 mark.)

There’s already knock-off versions available: check out this one for $5.26 USD on Amazon (does not ship to Australia, so probably North American only) and this listing for $4 AUD on Wish.

(The search terms “fidget spinner two in one” seem to get me the best results if you want to check out other vendors; “10-in-1” and “stick spinner” got me nothing.)

After checking out the video, I’m feeling the need to want to try this one out myself. This looks like a lot of fun for stimmers who want a multipurpose stim toy that doesn’t weigh down pockets or bags and includes a spinning component.

Again, thank you so much, anon!

Thank you so much, @communist-crow!

I am really glad to see it recommended - I know they have lots of things, but I hadn’t actually gotten any community feedback on the shopping experience, so I’m grateful that you could come in and give us this recommendation.

I’ve done a search for “fidget” with “free shipping” and there’s a lot of different listings, especially for spinners and fidget cubes. Chain fidgets for $0.94 USD caught my eye, as did this 5 set of Boinks Fidgets for $2.65 USD. Great for international folks who can’t really afford international shipping from conventional stim toy retailers but still want to try these toys out!

There’s also lots of listings for chewellery, but not all the listings are very specific about what chemicals the items don’t contain: “eco-friendly”, for example, doesn’t tell us anything useful as to whether the item is safe for chewing. I’d purchase only from listings that specifically state the product doesn’t contain (at minimum) BPA and phthalates, preferably with the words “food grade” used as well. Even then I can absolutely understand why folks would prefer to continue buying from Stimtastic, but it is an option for those wanting to explore inexpensive chewables with free shipping options.

Again, thank you. I am so glad to have positive feedback on Aliexpress!

Sounds fabulous, @mindless-insight! I’m sure we’ll all be looking forward to your review. $5 is a super great price - most of the links I’ve seen for similar toys are more like $8-15 USD! I love to see discussions about new and different places to purchase toys, and Hollar hasn’t mentioned before on this blog. Thank you for bringing it up and giving us something new to investigate!

Here’s a link for folks who want to check it out ahead of time - it’s similar to the Holy Crystal.

(There’s absolutely no rush - take however long you need. We’ll wait patiently and enjoy your review when it arrives!)