Despite the fact that The Wibbler is guaranteed “fun for all ages”, the last thing I’m about to do is jump on this thing and start to wibble. All it is is a brittle piece of vacuformed plastic that you stand on with no strap to hold your feet in position and then start to tip every which way. I would bet that rather than having fun more people ended up with broken ankles and chipped teeth from their wibbling activities. This is probably why I never heard of The Wibbler before and why nothing shows up in a Google search for it. Which makes me treasure this toy that’s “scientifically engineered and built like a bridge” even more. Would you want to drive across a bridge called The Wibbler?
I definitely think more time was spent on designing the packaging than figuring out the physics of wibbling.
Although, as an art director I never would have chosen a red background to demonstrate kids wibbling away as it looks like they’re just standing on a black line.
As you can see, most of the Wibbler examples show two people wibbling together. As my life and career are dedicated to promoting socially fun interaction between people I’m usually up for anything that promotes this kind of activity, like say “Twister”.
But as bone crushing as Twister can get, one is standing on their own one or two feet and should you topple over at least there are a bunch of other bodies to cushion the fall. Tettertottering on The Wibbler gives one no such padding. I would suggest having excellent medical insurance before one takes it upon themselves to wibble.
If you still want to know how to wibble, here are some easy instructions:
My guess is that someone like Weldon Smith loved to wibble.
For now, I think I will confine my walking and dancing activities to two feet on solid ground. But should I ever get the itch to wibble, I’ll stand on this plastic bridge, say a little prayer and hope for the best.
John Switzer
Where do you find all this interesting and bizarre stuff?this would be very handy if you ever wanted to facilitate a groin pull.YIKES! I prefer nibbling to wibbling anyday. Love your Kitsch,best regards.
Allee
Been collecting for most of my life so it’s all right here!
Junior Jones
You might be interested to know, there is an article on the Wibbler in the October 31, 1960 issue of Life magazine, on page 45. It states that a gentlemen by the name of Mr. Harold Katz invented it one day after seeing some kids playing with a Hula-Hoop. And he wondered why he hadn’t invented that. So he invented the Wibbler and in his hometown of St. Louis sold over 55,000 of them at $1.98 each. If you want to see the complete article you can view the Life issue on Goggle books. Boy its fun to be young again.
Allee
Fantastic info. Thanks, so much Junior. And if you think it’s fun to be young again, check this out: https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/
Deb
I had a wibbler! It was great, I stayed on it all the time. Problem was the plastic wore off on the bottom when used on rough sidewalks. I have been telling my family about my wibbler and they thought I was crazy. Now I can prove it.