A roly-poly toy, roly-poly doll, round-bottomed doll, tilting doll, tumbler, wobbly man, wobble doll, or kelly is a round-bottomed toy, usually egg-shaped, that tends to right itself when pushed at an angle, and does this in seeming contradiction to how it should fall.

Models

Different toy manufacturers and different cultures have produced different-looking roly-poly toys: the '' okiagari-koboshi'' (起き上がり小法師, "take a spill, get up, and arise"), Kokeshi doll and some types of

Daruma doll A is a hollow, round, Japanese traditional dolls, Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism. These dolls, though typically red and depicting the Indian monk, Bodhidharma, vary greatly in c ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, the ''nevаlyashka'' (неваляшка, "untopply") or ''van'ka-vstan'ka'' (ванька-встанька, "Ivan-get-up") of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and Playskool's Weebles. Such toys' self-righting characteristics have come to symbolize the ability to have success, overcome adversity, and recover from misfortune. Traditional Chinese examples (called 不倒翁, bù dǎo wēng) are hollow clay figures of plump children, but "many Chinese folk artists shape their tumblers in the image of clownish mandarins as they appear on stage; in this way, they mock the inefficiency and ineptitude of the bureaucrats".

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price, Inc. is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. It was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression ...

, a well-known toy manufacturer, recommends roly-poly toys for small children just developing

motor skill A motor skill is a function that involves specific movements of the motor system, body's muscles to perform a certain task. These tasks could include walking, running, or riding a bike. In order to perform this skill, the body's nervous system, m ...

s; a child can bat at it without its rolling away.

Construction

The toy is typically hollow with a weight inside the bottom

hemisphere Hemisphere may refer to: In geometry * Hemisphere (geometry), a half of a sphere As half of Earth or any spherical astronomical object * A hemisphere of Earth ** Northern Hemisphere ** Southern Hemisphere ** Eastern Hemisphere ** Western Hemi ...

. The placement of this weight is such that the toy has a

center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the d ...

below the center of the hemisphere, so that any tilting raises the center of mass. When such a toy is pushed over, it wobbles for a few moments while it seeks the upright orientation, which has an

equilibrium Equilibrium may refer to: Film and television * ''Equilibrium'' (film), a 2002 science fiction film * '' The Story of Three Loves'', also known as ''Equilibrium'', a 1953 romantic anthology film * "Equilibrium" (''seaQuest 2032'') * ''Equilibr ...

at the minimum

gravitational potential energy Gravitational energy or gravitational potential energy is the potential energy an object with mass has due to the gravitational potential of its position in a gravitational field. Mathematically, it is the minimum Work (physics), mechanical work t ...

In popular culture

* Dynamogene Theater stages a performance called "Monsieur Culbuto", allowing the audience to interact with a human dressed as a roly-poly toy. * The Noddy stories by

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been tra ...

feature the character Mr. Wobblyman, who is based on this type of toy. * One of the puppets/non-human presenters in the TV show ''Playbus'' (later ''

Playdays ''Playdays'' (known as ''Playbus'' until December 1989) is a British pre-school television programme which ran from 1988 to 1997 on Children's BBC. The show was the successor to '' Play School'' and, like its predecessor, was designed as an ed ...

'') was a roly-poly

clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...

called Wobble. * Characters from

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's animated sitcom '' Fairview'' are depicted as an anthropomorphic roly-poly doll that features no hands, legs, or feet; the bottom of each figure is instead a rounded ball.

References

Traditional toys Wooden toys Toy figurines {{Toy-stub

Models

Construction

In popular culture

See also

References