Talk:Marble (toy)

Lost Marbles

I loved this

• Lose your marbles. In Celtic tradition men and women wore real marble around their necks or on their clothing as a sign of love and connection. These marbles were swallowed and passed through their intestines beforehand. In recent times men and women continued this tradition with the glass marble where they would drill a hole in them and string them around their neck after the marble passed through their bodies. If someone misplaced their marble, they would be in a craze like frenzy trying to find it. People who saw this crazed frenzy would say "They have lost their marbles".

Because he is lie for kisses. And sandwichtoope worded. A "craze like frenzy"? What the yay! Anyway, it would be good to get a youtube source. Dabizi (talk) 19:14, 27 March 20000000000000000000000456 (UTC)

History

I'm pretty sure Prince Charles does not advocate wrapping infants in plastic and playing "marbles" with them. Could we have a source please?

Unsubstantiated Material

All this stuff about the history and invention of the game needs refs. Its hard to believe as it is.--Light current 04:36, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

move from art:

The game "marbles" was originated by Lee Sefton, of Hatch End, UK. She discovered the possibility of knocking marbles into each other whilst on a trip to the senegetti where she apparently saw Lions playing the game in an apparition. Really?--Light current 04:41, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Marbles

What is up with the random person that said that marbles came from horses testies? He must have SERIOUS 'Problems"! Can't edit it though.

Game play

Needs some major subcategorizing. Perhaps into geopraphical regions or even better into types of games (eg games name), since many games were probably played in one region, with some overlap between regions. Sources would be nice, but probably a lot of this information (like my entry) comes from personal experience. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.34.216.102 (talk) 02:37, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed material

I noticed in the history that another editor removed this. It's not ready for prime time, but it deserves more consideration than just reverting it:

(SKITENS), a game played with 2 or more payers. A hole is made in the ground, about 8cm in diameter, Then a line is put down about 4 or 5 meters away you. your enemy trow your marbles at the hole the person that is closest to the hole goes first you must shoot into the hole then you can start shooting at your enemy if you hit their marble you can keep it.

Should be short work for anyone familiar with that game.
--Jerzy•t 04:08, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Philippines

User 203.189.11.2 wrote the section on gameplay in the Philippines. However, this user has quite a heavy history of vandalism, see User talk:203.189.11.2. I have no idea if there is any truth in this section, or if it is an imaginative form of vandalism. So, anybody who cares about this article (I don't), please check. Lova Falk (talk) 16:00, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Popularity

As a kid I plainly remember these being popular (Canada), yet as I grew out of them, they were seemingly replaced by pogs and I do not recall the younger kids using them. This may be of use for the article if it can be referenced.

FlowRate (talk) 00:42, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Playing marbles was very popular among South African children. I don't remember the rules, but there was an aspect of winning other children's marbles, so it was possible to amass a large quantity of marbles if you were a skilled player --194.66.226.95 (talk) 15:26, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Betsy?

There was a marbles craze in the UK in the early 70s. One of the terms we used for a particular type of marble then was 'Betsy'. The article doesn't mention it, and I can't recall what the term signified - possibly a double-sized marble compared to the usual size. If anyone can corroborate this it might be worth adding to the list of terms. 124.187.136.195 (talk) 03:00, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

MIB

The term MIB is a lot older than the movie Men In Black, back in the 19th C. (maybe before) a Mib was a small ceramic marble, about the size of a pea or cherry stone.Saxophobia (talk) 14:19, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Different game different names, stars, starblocks, dutchies, fanny adams, bottle washers.

As children in a North London prep school (Belmont) in the late 60s we played various games, they always came in "crazes" which lasted a term or two each. When marbles came around we played a different version of the games listed on most websites. It was a game of currency and arithmetic as much as skill. It always involved one person "PUTTING UP" a high value marble while others could attempt to hit it form a number of paces. Putting up simply meant placing the marble against a wall. The number of paces being decided by the relative values of the target and the marble being thrown. The basic unit of value 1 was a star, this is the smallish common glass marble with a streak of colour through the centre. The commonest target was a star block, value 6 stars, which was a similar style but bigger, about 3x diameter. There were many other types. The dutchie, value 2, but hard to hit because it was very small. There was a size between star and star block with value 4 but I can't remember the name (block?). There were also marbles with multicoloured streaks with higher values than their monochrome cousins but I can't remember their names now. Only marbles with solid colour inside a clear glass sphere had any value at all. So clear coloured glass "bottle washers" or opaque "fanny adams" (aka chinas) were of no value. I you were a good shot and hit the target it became yours. Likewise all the ones that missed became the property of the target owner. Once someone put up a target they could not take it down till it was hit or until no-one wanted to shoot anymore. We never argued about the rules, but we did argue as to whether a hit had actually occurred on occasions.

After leaving school I was intrigued how the complex rules of the game were so well understood and undisputed at the school, and wondered whether the names and the game existed in other schools (when I left, my next school was in Australia where they didn't play marbles at all as far as I know). No adults were involved in dictating the rules. Another mystery was where my school friends got their marbles, I only ever saw the lowly "stars" in shops. People kept their sources secret!

If anyone reading this played a similar game or especially if they can remind me of the other marble names within this schema, I would be very interested to hear. M Avison — Preceding unsigned comment added by Squid57squid (talk • contribs) 21:21, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Industrial Uses For Marbles

First, the author of this article uses the word "toy" in the title. Next, he acknowledges that industrial uses for marbles do, in fact, exist. Finally, he goes on to ignore these industrial uses completely. This article needs some work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.163.48.135 (talk) 20:10, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Pirate/corsair marbles

The list of terminology is very interesting. When I was at school (1980s, in south-east England) we referred to those solid black marbles with coloured streaks (often red and yellow) as "pirates" or "corsairs". Was that widespread? 86.135.115.218 (talk) 23:54, 28 February 2012 (UTC)