When We Watched A Film,

called Fracture,

it featured a mobile toy, a rolling ball machine made by Mark Bischoff, it was fascinating to watch, as was the movie, you can buy similar toys marketed under the name Space Rails, but now from a company called Hammacher Schlemmer they market a model of the rails that could be said to have helped start it all, the Cyclone Classic Wooden Roller Coaster, 

the desk or table top toy is a 1:48 working scale model of an old-fashioned wooden coaster, it was designed by a real roller coaster engineer, it is made from laser-cut birch wood painted white for an authentic-looking support structure, the handrails are painted a bright, festive red, the Cyclone is 46" long, 22" wide, and 18" high, it comes fully assembled,

with the help of LEDs placed along the handrails, the Cyclone lights up at night for more of those nighttime thrill rides, this requires 10 AA batteries to keep everything lit, historically the first patent for a roller coaster was issued in 1885, the first coasters were more of gently rolling scenic railways that would take passengers out and back, the old wooden roller coasters as we know them began in 1919 and continued to gain popularity through the 1920s, the most famous of these was the real Cyclone, which was installed in Coney Island in 1927, would I like one of these desktop toys? you bet, but the bad news is that I have just looked and at the moment the $699.95 toy is not available, but hopefully it might be back on the shelves for Christmas, meanwhile for myself the Space Rail set number 6 will do nicely, Santa please take note!