Well, you can certainly tell that we're getting to the dregs of our collection. This wheel is a vision of ugliness. A certain Louise S. Odom put this thing out in late 2000 and Odom's Orchids is still in business in Fort Pierce, Florida. The menu on their website lists things like Lady Slippers, Phalaenopsis, Growing Supplies, Orchid Books, Available Dogs. No wheels, though.

This wheel is made of some weird, flexible plastic. It's absolutely hideous. The side half-circles only serve to turn the disk. They don't reveal anything.

This monstrosity measures 10.625 across the disk and 13.625 from top to bottom. Amazingly, Odom's sold this thing for FIFTEEN AMERICAN DOLLARS. I hope WE didn't pay that much for it.

The copyright date on this cute little wheel was 1955. This wheel is 3.75 inches and in pretty fair shape considering its age and flimsiness of paper stock. Who wouldn't be attracted to the colors on this one? We sure were.

The Gillette Company evidently produced a lipstick called Soft Touch by Toni. "Lasts twice as long as long-lasting lipsticks." Just choose your hair color and match it up to the dominant color in your outfit. Then you can judge for yourself whether the colors are harmonious. Gillette can't do ALL the work, you know!

Here we have another fairly large wheel: 10.625 inches, not including the little section from which it hangs. The copyright date is 1987 and it seems pretty faded to me.

This is one of those things you might see hanging in the exam room of your doctor's office. As you would expect, it has lots of disquieting illustrations. "You have malignant melanoma. Here, let me show you!" It's not the kind of wheel I particularly want to see among the others on my wall.

This wheel was produced by Glaxo Dermatology Products, which include Aclovate and Temovate (both corticosteroids).

"Great battles have been won and lost; empires have fallen; great men have lost their lives and others were made famous, because of the information revealed by mysterious secret ink messages."

How could any kid resist this? This little wheel was copyrighted in 1934. It measures 2.625 inches across. It is made of a decent sort of cardboard (not coated, though) and is in great shape considering its age. It is accompanied by a little booklet on invisible ink and two bottles of fluid for writing and revealing invisible messages. Sadly, the bottles are long gone. I wonder what they had in them?

This little code wheel is a real gem, don't you agree? I would have loved to have one of these. This is a pretty sophisticated little device, really. I have reproduced the entire booklet for your pleasure below. Note, also, the other products put out by Playgames, Inc.

Is there anything baking soda can't do? Apparently not. This wheel is 9.5 inches across and in rather poor shape. It wasn't of a very heavy cardboard to begin with. This was produced by Church & Dwight Company, which peddles Arm & Hammer baking soda. You'd think they'd note that on their wheel, wouldn't you?

I don't know when this was printed, but there are some clues to be found. For example, there's not much call for freshening baby's rubber pants any longer. There is also a recipe for cleaning "vinyl-wear". Clean and brighten!

I wonder how much Helloise would give me for this wheel?

This is a big one: 11.5 inches across. It's in excellent shape considering it was copyrighted in 1969. Maybe this is an older printing.

I know a lot about sewing but next to nothing about knitting. This appears to be a wheel for a basic raglan sweater pattern you can make in just about any size you'd want. I love that there's a category of "sub teen".

You can see there is some color-coding happening here. If you are working on the front, you match the greenish-beige section of the inner disk to the same-colored section on the outer, according to the size you're making.

I don't know why we buy wheels like this, though. It's really no great shakes, unless you happen to be a fanatic about raglan sweaters.

Figure the fat in foods with this handy fat calculator. "You MUST know what you are eating."

It fits in your pocket or purse! This heavy plastic wheel is 4.5 inches across and comes in its own little vinyl sleeve. The latest copyright date on this is 1990 and now out of date. The nutrition labels already show the percentage of fat calories based on a 2000 calorie diet. Nowadays, your smart phone will have some app that calculates this for you.

So this is NOT the ultimate calculator, but it's more fun to use.

You know, this doesn't seem to best way to get a kid interested in astronomy. The thing looks like it was designed by a pharmaceutical company.

This wheel is 5.75 inches across and is in excellent shape. It bears no date, but the books the Schneider's wrote date back to the early 60s or thereabouts.

Well, who were Herman and Nina Schneider? Herman was a public school science teacher in NYC and Nina was, among other things, a Shakespearean scholar. They wrote a lot of children's books together such as:

Science for Today and Tomorrow
Let's Look Under the City
Science Fun With Milk Cartons
and
Science Fun With a Flashlight.

They also wrote Let's Find Out About Heat, Weather and Air. That title brings to mind the slogans from North Korean propaganda posters.

They sound well-intentioned. They just needed a better marketer.

Isn't this hideous? What a ghastly design. Why do people think this typeface is readable? You don't use the caps to do all-caps lettering either. Maroons.

This is your cheat-sheet to the Bible, in wheel form. One side has the Old Testament and the other has the New. It's 7.625 inches across and in excellent shape. It's obviously a recent offering. However, the original was copyrighted in 1948, so this is a reprint.

This wheel will keep the kiddies busy for about 30 minutes or so. It's an aid to the old license plate spotter game played by restless children on long car trips. You just point the arrow to the plate you've seen, find your location on the map and there's your point value. If you see a Hawaii plate while traveling in Maine, you get 15 points! However, if you're in Hawaii and see a Maine plate, you only score 14.

This wheel is 7.25 inches across and in good shape. It ought to be. It's from 1993.

Now, listen up you little monsters: "The driver, like the captain of a ship, sets the game rules and is the final judge."