With its simple gears and coloured pens, Spirograph has helped generations of users create intricate, kaleidoscopic designs that blend creativity and geometry. Now, as the brand celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2025, it remains as engaging and accessible as ever, inviting both longtime fans and new creators to rediscover its timeless appeal.
In honour of this milestone, Spirograph is asking fans to rally behind a bid to nominate the brand for inclusion in the National Toy Hall of Fame, with online submissions accepted through July 31st.
Spirograph’s story isn’t just about longevity or accolades; it’s also about moments that elevated it from popular toy to phenomenon. One of the most memorable was the vibrant wave of “Spiromania” that swept through homes and classrooms more than 50 years ago.
SPIROMANIA STRIKES
Denys Fisher created the original Spirograph toy in the UK in the mid-1960s with the product named Toy of the Year in 1967 by the British Association of Toy Retailers. Kenner brought the brand across the pond shortly after that. The toy’s novel approach to Op Art resonated with both children and adults, allowing the company to couch their sales success as Spiromania in television and print advertising.
Kenner capitalized on the Spiromania concept by augmenting the basic Spirograph set with new offerings, including the much larger Super Spirograph, Motorized Spirograph, and Spirotot, which brought the arts and crafts toy to the nursery school-kindergarten crowd. One of the more unusual additions to the line was Spiroman, a “space-age robot” that children could use to create geometric patterns by tapping his hands and setting his pendulum feet in motion.
Kenner’s Spirograph toy line was Spiroman.
FADEOUT & RESURGENCE
Like most fads, Spiromania eventually faded. Hasbro, which ultimately acquired the brand, scaled back on marketing the toy in the early 1990s, where it remained in limbo until Kahootz Toys successfully relaunched the product in 2013. PlayMonster’s acquisition of the company in 2019 has brought continued energy to the Spirograph brand, giving a new cohort of children and nostalgic adults a chance to experience Spiromania once again.
Todd Coopee is Editor-in-Chief of Toy Tales, an online publication that covers toys and games past and present.
