Help me find reusable doodle pad
January 20, 2010 12:53 PM Subscribe
What-cha-ma-call-it Filter: A kids doodle paddle has a transparent layer of plastic and a black board underneath. You doodle on it with a plastic stylus. To erase you just lift up the transparent layer.
Best answer: Nope! Magic slate.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:58 PM on January 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:58 PM on January 20, 2010 [3 favorites]
Supposedly, it was originally called the Mystic Writing Pad, but I always recall them being called magic slates or magic screens.
posted by scody at 12:58 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by scody at 12:58 PM on January 20, 2010
Best answer: Heh, I asked the same question a few years ago, and also called it a whatchamacallit.
posted by iconomy at 12:59 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by iconomy at 12:59 PM on January 20, 2010
Until the dumb kid down the street gets hold of your Magic Slate and uses a Bic pen instead of the Magic Stylus. Then it is called trash.
posted by Babblesort at 1:06 PM on January 20, 2010 [9 favorites]
posted by Babblesort at 1:06 PM on January 20, 2010 [9 favorites]
More generally: palimpsest.
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:08 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:08 PM on January 20, 2010
It's called a Magic Slate in this New York Times article (Interesting story about how the toy was used in the American Embassy in Moscow to outsmart Soviet spies.)
posted by zombiedance at 3:39 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by zombiedance at 3:39 PM on January 20, 2010
Best answer: I recently asked this question too: Magic Slate
posted by Sassyfras at 4:36 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by Sassyfras at 4:36 PM on January 20, 2010
Response by poster: Iconomy and Sassyfras... pretty funny. I thought the question would be so obsure that no one would have asked it prior too.
I'm looking for want to see if I can hack a signature pad that doesn't display the signature. There is a $400 difference between the one that shows what you write and one that doesn't. Thought I might be able to outfit one with this on top so someone could see their signature while they write and just lift up the plastic to erase it.
posted by bleucube at 3:55 AM on January 21, 2010
I'm looking for want to see if I can hack a signature pad that doesn't display the signature. There is a $400 difference between the one that shows what you write and one that doesn't. Thought I might be able to outfit one with this on top so someone could see their signature while they write and just lift up the plastic to erase it.
posted by bleucube at 3:55 AM on January 21, 2010
The problem with Magic Slates (at least the cheap Wooly Willy kind) is almost everything you wrote on the top plastic part left the imprint of the stylus not only the plastic sheet itself, but also on the sturdier black base. So it eventually became a mess of scratched-in scribbles, not unlike the plastic screens covering the credit card keypads that never register your proper signature after a while.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:50 AM on January 21, 2010
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:50 AM on January 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by clavicle at 12:57 PM on January 20, 2010