Astrojax

 

Astrojax is a trademark of Active People, Switzerland, for a toy consisting of three balls on a string. One ball is fixed at each end of the string, and the center ball is free to slide along the string between the two end balls. Inside each ball is a metal weight. The metal weight lowers the moment of inertia of the center ball so it can rotate rapidly in response to torques applied by the string. This prevents the string from snagging or tangling around the center ball.

Roughly, Astrojax play is a cross between juggling, yo-yo, and lasso. A wide variety of tricks and maneuvers can be performed with it. The basic orbits are vertical orbits, horizontal orbits and a figure-eight (butterfly) pattern.

Astrojax was invented by physics graduate student Larry Shaw in 1987. It first appeared on the market in 1994, when it was sold through The Nature Company, under the name of “Orbit Balls.” Over the next several years it won a number of toy awards. In 2000 Astrojax was acquired by Active People, a Swiss company specializing in yo-yos, juggling toys.

West Coast Juggling sells several different types of Astrojax:

• The Plus is made of soft foam and, because of the softness of the balls, is the best version for beginners. It is good for rebound tricks but not particularly showy.
• The V-max is made from a durable polycarbonate. Because of the reduced friction, the V-max is good for faster moves. The V-max is available in a variety of colors, including half-chromed collectors’ editions Black Jack, Amber, Lagoon, Snow White, Patchouli and Hyper Frog.
• The Saturn is made from high-quality plastic and has LEDs inside each ball. The LEDs can be set to be constantly on or a strobing, “disco” mode. The standard Saturn has balls with red, yellow and green LEDs. There is also a version with super-bright blue LEDs called the Blue Diamond.
• The liquid-filled aqua has a soft bladder of phthalate-free PVC on a hard plastic “vortex.” The fluid flows within the bladder dynamically lower the moment of inertia of the balls.

Astrojax has won a number of toy awards, has been taken into outer space by NASA for their “Toys in Space” program, and there are three Astrojax categories in the Guinness Book of World Records database.

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