Spider-Man: Wow Paper Magic Pad (Giddy-Up!)

Background

Giddy-Up really does specialize in odd-ball stuff. Magnetic, color-changing, whatever you've got, they're into it. This "magic pad" is a case in point. It actually consists of a heavy cardboard "clipboard". The clipboard is yellow, with a blue-and-red Spidey spring-clip which holds a fat yellow "color-change marker", plus a 6" x 11" pad which can be completely removed.

There's no real reason for the spring clip, or the removable pad. It's all there just for the sake of being "new and interesting". In fact, the pad is just an tweaked version of the Spider-Man: Surprize Ink Game Book 1 (Giddy-Up) series, with the clipboard added.

Story Details

The pad itself consists of 24 clean white pages, bound along the short edge (which is to say, the top).

Most of each page appears blank. But that's where the "magic" begins. You see, where the page says "draw a picture of Spider-Man rescuing Mary Jane", they mean "rub with the pen and the picture will appear, but we'll pretend that you drew it".

Same many of the puzzles, join-the-dots, mazes and such. All you have to do is rub with the pen and eveything just appears for you! Excellent!

General Comments

This really is the age of no-effort amusement.

Stu: Hey Marv, these kids are having trouble with our activity books!

Marv: But dammit Stu, we already pulled out all the drawing pages, all they have to do is color things in.

Stu: Sure, but the latest focus groups say that the pre-teen market is no longer prepared to invest that kind of time and effort. They're paying good money, and they don't expect to have to work so hard to pull value out of their amusement dollar.

Marv: What the heck do these kids want? Are we expected to do everything for them?

Stu: Well, research indicates they're prepared to rub with a pen, as long as they aren't expected to exercise any fine motor control.

Marv: I despair for the future of our society.

Stu: I hear ya buddy. I hear ya.

Overall Rating

I'm torn between 5 webs "heck this is neat" and 1 web "Oh dear Lord, The Dead Kennedys were right - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death".

Let's tear that down the middle and go for three webs. That way I don't have to work so hard and actually think about anything.

Footnote

Actually, I'm being just a little unfair. Some of the content you do actually need to fill in yourself. Some of the puzzles involve some real interaction. But hey, where's the fun in being objective?