This was the 1st Ring Spin that I ever purchased and I have to say there are no regrets. In fact this thing is so cool and original in design I had to get two of them, one for each child so they would not fight over it. Plus, they are an investment in art in my opinion. This particular model appears to be fairly limited as I have not seen too many for sale on the open market. Either it was uber rare…or no one wants to sell it cause it is so cool.
I know it is not the 1st Ring Spin made, I get there is a history to it. My feeling is that the Dreidel game application to the spinner design itself just makes this SO much more interesting to actually be able to play the Dreidel game with the spinner…not just get a yes or no type of answer…it has all 4 sides of a Dreidel represented. Shin, Hay, Nun and everyone’s favorite Gimel. For those of you that are not familiar with the traditional Jewish game of Dreidel played at Chanukka time…here is a brief description of it from myjewishlearning.com:
- Any number of people can take part.
- Each player begins the game with an equal number of game pieces (about 10-15) such as pennies, nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, matchsticks, etc.
- At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center “pot.” In addition, every time the pot is empty or has only one game piece left, every player should put one in the pot.
- Every time it’s your turn, spin the dreidel once. Depending on the side it lands on, you give or get game pieces from the pot. For those who don’t read Hebrew, some dreidels also feature a transliteration of each letter. If yours doesn’t, use the photo below as a cheat sheet:
- a) Nun means “nisht” or “nothing.” The player does nothing.
- b) Gimel means “gantz” or “everything.” The player gets everything in the pot.
- c) Hey means “halb” or “half.” The player gets half of the pot. (If there is an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes half of the total plus one).
- d) Shin (outside of Israel) means “shtel” or “put in.” Peh (in Israel) also means “put in.” The player adds a game piece to the pot.
- If you find that you have no game pieces left, you are either “out” or may ask a fellow player for a “loan.”
- When one person has won everything, that round of the game is over!
Reprinted with permission from A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration, published by the Shalom Hartman Institute and Devora Publishing.
So as you can see…this game can actually be played with the Ring Spin…problem is that most games you do not want to have to wait 1.5+ mins per spin for it to stop so in order to use this appropriately for an actual game of Dreidel I would think that there would need to be a way to stop the spin in mi spin and determining that “side” it has landed on from that.
Enough of the Dreidel game….you get that now eh? Let’s talk about the spinner. First off let’s give big props to the tactical carrying case, very carefully designed for full functionality. Very well padded but not bulky, small belt loop. Perfection in my opinion for a carrying case.
The weight of the whole spinner is 83 grams. The slug is 35g and the body is 48g. They are appropriately called a ‘slug’ as the larger side is modeled after an actual bullet casing. That is a huge theme in the Steel Flame line as they make gun accessories as well as their infamous ‘kill box’ pendants that are made from metal that is shot thru with a bullet in the shooting range then cut out around the bullet hole to be used as the centerpiece of the pendant. Wicked cool.
I can’t tell if I like it more as a in hand spinner or as Ring Spinner but I think I would have to go with the Ring Spin. It has a very unique fell to it as a Ring Spinner that really no one has copied to this point to much extent. Maybe the Snaggletooth one is close to this but I have never tried it so I don’t know. I do know that a Loophole or Mackie Lin Styx spinner feel nothing like this does. There is a unique property to the way the squared corners of the body work as weights and give the spinner it’s voice.
The patina is proper on this too…finishing superb. Everything is clean as a whistle.
Steel Flame Ring Spin is the real deal. Oh yeah…did you see the BLUE anodized screws…love that extra touch on there. Hope you have a great Chanukah! SHALOHA from my family to yours!
