SRJC art teacher and sculptor Michael McGinnis has been nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the toy industry.
McGinnis’ toy, the Perplexus, has been nominated for the Toy Awards in the educational category, the “Oscars” of the toy industry. The Perplexus is a truly unique invention. It is a three-dimensional labyrinth game, with a series of surfaces forming the labyrinth and a marble encased in a plastic sphere.
Not to be confused with a maze, a labyrinth is a continuous pathway with dangers, whereas a maze features many possible wrong paths. For McGinnis’ Perplexus, wrong paths would mean wasted space and defeat the purpose of the toy.
The toy was first designed with the intention of helping children improve hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. It has been successful in these regards and has other educational benefits. Toys R Us stated the toy is a top consumer item for children with autism.
A professor of geography said it was the top game for geography, and the game helps people understand spaces and forms.
The game requires a tremendous amount of spatial reasoning and comprehension in three dimensions. In the curving web, or plexus of the toy, every side of every surface must be used. This means a sculpture with a 3-foot diameter has about 330 feet of labyrinthine track.
McGinnis first came up with the idea when he was in high school in 1979. He was in art class and the instructor assigned them the task of designing a board game. “I was no good at board games, I drew mazes,” McGinnis said.
His first idea was based on the labyrinth games with two knobs and an assortment of holes for the metal marble to fall through. McGinnis wanted to devise a way to make a three-dimensional version of that classic game. After many years of trial and error, he managed to do just that.
There are different versions of the Perplexus. There is the mass produced toy store model, and there are larger, custom models. The larger models are custom made by McGinnis in his shop. The smaller ones, when not mass produced, are “printed” three dimensionally by a company called Shapeways.com in the Netherlands. Using a three dimensional design made in Computer Aided Design (CAD) or another program, it is then fabricated in plastic or metal. All bearings, pivot points and pipes are designed and printed in this fashion by McGinnis to give his sculptures the specific look and feel he desires.
McGinnis has seen a lot of success with his Perplexus. It is ranked number 12 on Amazon.com’s top 100 selling games and toys. Along with that success, McGinnis has been getting commissions across the world to build large diameter sculptures for different venues.
The Phaeno museum in Wolfburg, Germany, the Questicon Australian National Science and Technology Center and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry are some of the institutes with one of his sculptures. The Perplexus has a wide-ranging impact on recipients. One Chicago scientist told McGinnis that manipulating the Superplexus is a metaphor for how you do that on the nano scale.
McGinnis’ success has allowed him to focus on sculptures in his studio. He feels the toy’s success has led to the success of his sculptures, calling it “one large related project focusing on designs.” He teaches sculpture here at SRJC and says his success, “hasn’t stopped me from teaching because that’s something I find to be meaningful.”
The Toy Awards are being voted on at Toyawards.org and the results are expected to be announced early January.