Nobody knows the doodads we’ve seen... but perhaps you can figure them out, if you’re strange enough. One needs a particular cast of mind to see the world through Hammacher-tinted glasses, the nagging inconveniences to be solved, the opportunities for whimsy that must be taken. It is to delight this curious minority that our new guessing game is designed.
What’s That Thing? presents an enigmatic assortment of product images from the past century or so. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out what on Earth they are. Give them a good once-over and mentally reverse-engineer their purpose. Every one was - and in some cases, is - an actual Hammacher offering. Our back catalog is indeed stranger than fiction.
Use the game’s share links to broadcast your triumphs to the virtual world, or pop down into the comments here. We’re simply dying to know what you got right, where you went wrong, and which oddball apparatus you hanker to see among our wares again.
You may notice that What’s That Thing? resides in our rather snazzy new Game Room, along with our ever-popular Classics Price Guessing Game, previously covered in this space. Delightful new game ideas are constantly popping up in our fevered minds, so expect more such diversions at the Game Room in the future.
We’ll be adding more cryptic contrivances to What’s That Thing? as we dig them up. After all, our past is getting longer every day.
These are great, Jason. Even an oldie like me had trouble getting them!