#isgift

IS Gift Balloon Ball

I purchased this from my local university’s bookstore/gift store for $4.95; I still haven’t found an online source for them that doesn’t have a minimum quantity.

The product is intended to be inflated and played with as a ball and deflated to be used again later, but the best parts about it (in my opinion) are the unintentional side effects of the gimmick.

pros:

When not fully inflated, it’s pretty much like a frondless puffer ball with customisable Squishy factor 

When the nozzle is inserted into the valve, the ball will fill itself with the ‘default’ amount of air that will fill it without stretching the rubber - this means that you can squeeze it over and over again and it will fill itself back up with air. 

It also makes a quiet hissing noise as you squeeze all the air out, which i like 

If you partially inflate it, it can end up sort of lopsided with one side of the ball stretching more than the other. while technically it’s not working the way it’s supposed to, it also means that the ball will be heavier on one side, which means no matter how you push it or knock it over, it will always rest lighter-side-up. 

think those training dummies with the weighted bases that always bounce back up 

Glows Really Brightly in the dark. The picture really doesn’t do this justice - it’s the kind of glow in the dark that actually lights up small areas. I used it as a makeshift torch/flashlight once to find something on my bedside table

it’s also really fun to squish in the dark, as the stretched out material appears darker and vice versa, so you can make it brighter and darker as you squish it

deflates and folds up pretty small for storing

cute bright colours!

cons:

The packaging doesn’t say anywhere on it what it’s made of, so anyone with a latex allergy might not want to risk this one. (if it helps, it does feel similar to a puffer toy)

This thing picks up dust like crazy. I haven’t tried cleaning it with water or the cornflour trick as of yet, so I’ll keep you posted on whether either of those works

Getting the nozzle into the valve to inflate it was pretty hard the first time, although it has gotten easier the more i do it. You might want to get someone to hold the ball for you as you insert the nozzle, or vice versa 

Actually inflating the ball to beyond its ‘default’ size (the one it inflates itself to as soon as you insert the nozzle) is a Bad Sensory Feel (at least for me), to the point where I haven’t actually tried inflating the ball to its full size yet

Doesn’t come with a resealable bag of any kind, which you really need in order to keep it from getting too dusty, and to prevent losing the nozzle. I just put mine in a small snap lock bag, which works fine

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Item: Make Your Own High Bounce Ball Kit by Independence Studios (IS)

Price: $2 AUD from Target (mentioned here)

Experience: For someone without chronic hand pain, this wouldn’t be hard to do. The instructions say to fill a mould with crystals, pack the powder down and submerge it under water for about a minute. Then take the mould out of the water, hold the mould together for about two minutes and voila, ball. Except ... not so voila. I found that even holding the mould under the water a couple of minutes still left me with dry crystals (third image), and having to hold the moulds closed for so long (trust me: with chronic hand pain, more than three minutes is a long time) caused me a lot of pain on my wrist and thumb.

Even worse, getting the wet, sticky balls out of the moulds was super Bad Texture (feels like a sticky sugary mess) in addition to the stickiness making it physically difficult. I frequently had one half pop away clean and the other half stick to the ball. Once I prised them out, I had to paint the dry parts of the ball with water on a paint brush and goop the left-over crystals on to smooth out the gaps.

None of this would be so much a problem if the balls bounced. But they don’t. They make it about ten centimeters at best off the floor and often far less. Because the balls are such odd shapes, they don’t often bounce straight. They bounce sideways (meaning this autistic spends their time playing “Get The Ball Out From Under The Recliner”). Worse, the more they dry, the less they bounce. The card advises storing them in a container to prevent this, but who’s actually going to store a bouncy ball in a container? The point of a bouncy ball is that you can stow it in a pocket or bag.

Surprisingly, once dry the grains are resistant to picking and don’t fall off, despite appearing barely attached. They’re also rough to the touch, and if you want a more textured ball for rolling in fingers, this might be ideal. They’re not squishy when dry, though, and when wet they’re too sticky for me to want to squish them.

The bobbled balls flip in the air a little like knucklebones/jumping jacks. If they really bounced, that would be pretty cool.

Conclusion: No high bounce. None. You can go to K-Mart and buy a pack of bouncy balls - 6 smaller ones or 4 larger ones - for $2 AUD and they actually bounce. (I’ve been buying small ones from Wild Card Trader at 2 for $0.50 AUD!) I suppose they’re kind of fun for the novelty of making them, if you don’t have hand pain, but I’d be disappointed if I’d paid more than pocket change for them.

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The VW Kombi Tent Spotted again! This time at the Kurnell Triathlon near Cronulla in NSW. We love how they just keep popping up everywhere - Just goes to show, these babies dont just come in handy for camping; they're 100% multifunctional Retro cool.