Puzzle

Small hand-held games like this one, also called dexterity puzzles, represent contemporary versions of similar types of games popular throughout the twentieth century. Typically, a small rectangular glass-topped 'box' holds metal balls and the object is to move the box, manipulating the balls into a target. Various versions in the museum's collection feature mice into a trap, baseball games, simpler mazes, and bombs into Japanese cities--an extreme example from 1945. These contemporary modern versions have up-to-date graphics. Some are takeoffs of computer and video games such as Frogger and Space Invaders, others simply mimic old fashioned toys.