Source for Orbit Ball

[Chris Fultz]

i found a few at three different local wal-marts.

Luckily there are several walmarts in Indy area - but with 9 local teams, it could turn into a race to the toy department!

[Stealth]

We got 2 for $3 a piece, but they didn't have price tags on them. If you encounter this just keep bugging people about them.

Also maybe its time we started looking for some materials to construct them. Its basically just a bunch of intertwined 1 inch wide flexible plastic strips. That has to be much easier to find than the orbit balls themselves and cheaper too.

[Tom Hand]

Just bought seven at a local Walmart. I refuse to shop at that store chain but did it for the daughters; $9.97 in the Harrisonville store. Our Team PR person has already notified two other local teams to see if they need them. Our local city teams got some to use so they are sitting well.

[BeckyHand]

[Chris Marra]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

To anyone who has already broken one of these: can you find out what plastic material they are made of? I'm looking for an exact answer (such as acetal, PET, etc), not just something like "Its plastic, duh".

The reason I ask, is that after finding only four of them between two local Wal-Marts, the engineering and New England frugality instincts inside of me rang out. The orbit balls don't look very hard to [re]produce!

Using calipers, the interior plastic material is about 1" wide by about 0.1" thick (cannot tell for sure due to felt thickness), and the material they are coated with seems to be identical to the material used on stretchable Book Socks. The plastic (depending on the actual material) should be easily source-able through McMaster, and book socks aren't that difficult to find.

If someone can get me an [exact] answer within the next few days, I'll immediately place an order into McMaster to make about twenty or thirty of these balls, and then I'll raid the school supply sections of every store in the area like a loaded refrigerator.

I wouldn't bother with buying up book covers for this purpose. Admittedly, I handled the orbit balls very litte despite taking dozens of photos of them, but I believe the outer skin was basically a spandex material, as are those book covers. It would be much more efficient to just purchase a few yards of fabric from your local Joanne's, or, McMaster might even stock sheets of spandex.

[jojolawebb]

This ball is similar to a Sepak Takraw ball. These balls are a bit expensive $16 to $20 each from sport suppliers. If you go to Instructables.com and search for - How To Weave A Greek Paper "Football" - you will find a video that shows exactly how to construct this ball out of paper, just use the same principal using the material of your choice.

[neoshaakti]

Anyone try KB Toys?
Or toys R us

[Lodyev]

Originally Posted by neoshaakti

Anyone try KB Toys?
Or toys R us

Yeah I tried all the ones here in Richmond.
KB toys says they've never carried them, but the guy from Toys R' Us said he'd seen em on their shelves before. Maybe you'll have better luck with yours.

[And250]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane

The balls structure is made out of PU foam(Check link above)

Also walmarts are running low, when i went there were only 4 of these balls left and that was the largest walmart in the country.

[chapm436]

According to the blip toys site their products are distributed at Kmart, Wal-mart, Target, Toys R Us.

Hopefully that helps

[JamesByrne]

I have been to 3 walmarts. No where else seems to have them by us. We got lucky and got 6 at one of the stores. So we so far are at 10.

[Jaime65]

Originally Posted by Lodyev

Has anyone found them anywhere other then Walmart?

I found one at KB Toys on sale for $6 at our local mall.

[Jaime65]

Originally Posted by Lodyev

KB toys says they've never carried them...

I’ve found one at that store.

[sanddrag]

Didn't find any at Toys R Us. Got 5 at one Wal Mart, and they manager checked the computer and they show up as discontinued not able to reorder.

[SammyKay]

One of our mentors was able to reserve 2 of them at the Walmart in our county. Another one of our mentors is gonna hit the Walmart on his way to the workshop today before he comes over the bridge. And I think a few parents (including my own mother) are dropping off their kids and then going to another Walmart just to try to find these things. We know that we're going to have at least 3. If anybody finds them online, please tell us!