Beware the dancing bug vendor...

June 8, 2006 11:14 AM

RogueStreetVendorFilter: The past few times I've been in Florence, Italy, I've seen these guys selling "dancing bugs..."

Okay, so they're only sometimes bugs. Sometimes they are bad depictions of Disney characters or whatever. Typically they have a cardboard body, some kind of feet attached to thin legs.

The vendor typically has music playing on a boom box and the so-called bugs are doing a little dance, mostly just round-and-round.

I've never been tempted to part with my euros to find out what makes them tick, but is there a common name for them and what makes them go?

posted by Ogre Lawless to shopping (9 comments total)

Not sure of a common name, but I've seen them all over Europe: Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Paris, etc. If you look closely, you'll see that there's a very fine guage wire rigged to the back of the boombox that the figures are attached to. When the cassette motor in the boombox spins, the wire moves and the figures "dance." These things are a total scam, which is why you'll notice the vendors hurrying to cover them up whenever they spot the police nearby.
posted by sbrollins at 11:28 AM on June 8, 2006

What makes them go is a fishing line that the vendor is holding behind his back. It's tied to the boombox, strung through a loop on the back of the widget, and held covertly in the hand of the vendor.

I don't know about the common name.
posted by JekPorkins at 11:29 AM on June 8, 2006

and on preview, what sbrollins said.
posted by JekPorkins at 11:29 AM on June 8, 2006

Similar things have been discussed here before. They depend on 1) a very thin black thread, such as can be purchased at magic shops or unwound from a lady's sheer stocking, 2) the support is side-to-side and not from above as you would normally expect.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:54 AM on June 8, 2006

I wish you had a camera so we could see them
posted by Napierzaza at 12:29 PM on June 8, 2006

Magic! Thanks, folks!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:46 PM on June 8, 2006

I wish you had a camera so we could see them

Yeah, we really need a photograph here, or a link to one. Might get in trouble taking a picture, however; if it's a street scam like Three Card Monty the seller has some compatriots standing around nearby.
posted by Rash at 2:57 PM on June 8, 2006

The dancing Mickey Mouse scam makes a brief appereance in Neil Gaiman's Endless Nights in the Death and Venice short. The illustrations are spot on for those of you who are pining after a photo.
posted by romakimmy at 4:59 AM on June 9, 2006

I managed to dig up a short video from my trip archives. Sorry that its not longer but you can kind of see the setup and the constant-fussing by the minder.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:53 AM on June 13, 2006