Source for Orbit Ball

[xxpingphuongxx]

I know that every team is in search for these lovely balls. Has anyone located a bulk amount of them yet? We read some where on Yahoo Answer that they found some at Wal Mart. One ball at $9.95 each.

Please post a comment or so if you have a way to get a bulk order.

[Pat McCarthy]

As of 5pm today, there are 5 Orbit Balls at the Wal-Mart in Alpine, MI! West Michigan teams should make their move before other teams do!

I'd have bought them, but I'm not in the business of extorting FRC teams, even though I could probably use the extra money.

[GregW11]

Now the question comes up: How many did FIRST buy to cover the number that will be broken during competitions?

And $2 says Blip Toys removed the balls from their listings until the end of the competitions, when we'll see them put back up on them...

edit: the Wal-Mart in Lafeyette/Erie (in Colorado) had six as of yesterday, so if you're near that area looking in stores around it might be a good bet...

[jtdowney]

Originally Posted by xxpingphuongxx

I know that every team is in search for these lovely balls. Has anyone located a bulk amount of them yet? We read some where on Yahoo Answer that they found some at Wal Mart. One ball at $9.95 each.

Please post a comment or so if you have a way to get a bulk order.

My local Walmart had about 10 of them back in the Toys section.

[MrForbes]

Our local WalMart has one, it has three broken straps. We didn't buy it.

[Mike Schreiber]

We found ours at a local Walmart, sounds like everyone's getting them for $10, but nothing in bulk.

On another note, this is already being discussed here. Please move discussion to the other thread so we don't have multiple threads on the same thing. In the future try to look for the topic before you start a new thread on it.

[fromano]

i doubt Blip will be bringing them back after the competition, the fact that the Walmarts are calling them a discontinued item makes it sound like its not just them putting a hold on the product. And im kinda iffy about if they'll make more of them. i mean, between acquisition time for materials, processing, and then shipment, it'd take (my guess) no less than 3 or 4 weeks to get shipments to teams. but i dont foresee them putting them back on the shelves.

one thought is that when FIRST had decided on their idea, the balls were still in production, but since then, Blip has since discontinued them. i really hope thats the case, cuz then, at least, it wouldnt be FIRST's fault for using a discontinued item...

on a side note, the Toys-R-Us by us said that they'd had them over the summer. (and that it was more of a summer-time item) we found two non-broken ones at the walmart in town.

[llama]

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 second the motion to getting exact specs on the materials and when i inspect the ball on monday i will post as detailed of info as i can.

the other logical way to get around the problem of unobtanium balls would be to find some sort of substitute (obviously there will be complications but its worth trying)

so far i have found this
http://www.amazon.com/Rhino-Toys-100...pd_sim_dbs_t_3

good luck to everyone! this is gonna be a challenging season

[dirtbike59]

all the walmarts in NH are sold out. from what i understand is this is a discontinued toy. i bought 4 broken ones. it isnt hard to fix them but we also want our robot to be able to handle broken ones seeing how they will break on the field.

[yoda92]

Originally Posted by llama

I second the motion to getting exact specs on the materials and when i inspect the ball on monday i will post as detailed of info as i can.

the other logical way to get around the problem of unobtanium balls would be to find some sort of substitute (obviously there will be complications but its worth trying)

so far i have found this
http://www.amazon.com/Rhino-Toys-100...pd_sim_dbs_t_3

good luck to everyone! this is gonna be a challenging season

I have one of the balls mentioned in the post. Though it is of similar weight, and might I say much more durable, its dimensions are much smaller. The ball that i have is about half the size of the Wild Time Orbit Ball and would not sufice for the actual game piece.
I'm hoping all my concerns about the orbit balls is answered by Monday or Tuesday after corporates have a chance to respond to this increased demand. :/

[Enigma's puzzle]

Thanks Pat McCarthy, team enigma was able to get those!!

[Team1710]

I wish FIRST supplied more of these things. Its now impossible to get some in the kc, ks area.

[Bob Koch]

To help you find orbit balls at Wal-Mart:

Go to your local Wal-Mart and ask to see an assistant manager, one over toys would be best.

Ask them to please look up the UPC code or the Wal-Mart number for you in their Telxon (pronounced Tel Zon)
UPC 65838282040
Wal-Mart number 784170

This will tell them if they have any in stock in their store.

They can also do a search of other stores using these numbers. They can search in say a radius of say 50 miles (there are over 100 balls in stock within 40 miles of Middletown, Delaware as of tonight.

They can give you the store numbers and the number of balls on hand. I then went to the Walmart web site and got a listing of the stores in the area. The store number will print out with each store.

I also found that many times not all of the product is out on the shelf. They come in boxes of three so many times they are still in boxes in the back room.

It should be noted that this inventory system is not perfect, but is really pretty good at finding product. I also took along a picture of the product when I went to visit the stores to buy them. It often helped the employees find the products once they could see it.

[Team1710]

Originally Posted by Bob Koch

To help you find orbit balls at Wal-Mart:

Go to your local Wal-Mart and ask to see an assistant manager, one over toys would be best.

Ask them to please look up the UPC code or the Wal-Mart number for you in their Telxon (pronounced Tel Zon)
UPC 65838282040
Wal-Mart number 784170

This will tell them if they have any in stock in their store.

They can also do a search of other stores using these numbers. They can search in say a radius of say 50 miles (there are over 100 balls in stock within 40 miles of Middletown, Delaware as of tonight.

They can give you the store numbers and the number of balls on hand. I then went to the Walmart web site and got a listing of the stores in the area. The store number will print out with each store.

I also found that many times not all of the product is out on the shelf. They come in boxes of three so many times they are still in boxes in the back room.

It should be noted that this inventory system is not perfect, but is really pretty good at finding product. I also took along a picture of the product when I went to visit the stores to buy them. It often helped the employees find the products once they could see it.

Thanks this really helped! Here is an image i took of the label in walmart.

[fordchrist675]

Yeah we got ours at Wal-Mart. got about 10 of them figured we could play some hoops haha