Retro Pocket Toys

Everybody had one. A flat plastic case with water sealed inside, a rubber button on the front, and a handful of coloured rings drifting around a tank that never quite did what you wanted. You pressed the button, a puff of air went up through the water, and the rings went everywhere except onto the pegs. Retro Pocket Toys is four of them in one drawer. RING TOSS — five rings, five pegs. A ring has to go over the top of a peg and slide down it, which is exactly as difficult as you remember. HOOPS — six balls through a hoop and into the rack behind it. TIC-TAC-TOE — nine posts in a grid. Three counters in a line wins it. You only have five. LEAPFROG — four counters, four lily pads, one each. REAL WATER, NOT AN ANIMATION The tank is simulated from the actual properties of the object. Water at room temperature. Pieces moulded in a plastic slightly denser than it, which is why they sink…