John Adams Supergrafix

What can I say about this toy? Well nothing good that's for sure, it's a toy that looks goods and seems like a good idea, but it just doesn't work like it should.

The Super Grafix is meant to make anyone a super duper drawer, by the use of mirrors.

The Super Grafix starts out flat, it's about the width of a briefcase (perhaps slightly thinner), and when it's opened out you have a drawing board at the bottom, the handle turns into an eye piece and then there is a removable back board which doubles up as a document holder (for the picture you want to copy).

It works with the use of two mirrors. When you look through the eyepiece, you are looking at a small mirror (about 2"x3"), which is facing another mirror, this one is slightly larger, and is facing the back board. Providing you are sitting in the right position and have a good light, the positioning of the mirrors means you can see the picture propped up on the back board being 'projected' onto the drawing board. And from there you can follow the outline of the picture and draw your own copy.

The back board is removable, so you can take the Super Grafix outdoors and set it up to draw any scene (the advert used to show a girl drawing a castle which she had projected on her drawing board).

That all sounds good in theory, but in practise it's another thing altogether.

Firstly, the whole thing feels very cheap, and everytime you open it out or close it up, you feel like something is going to break. There are two yellow knobs at the sides which adjust the height of the eyepiece when it's opened out, and are also used to lower the handle to keep the whole thing closed. When you turn them you get a horrible ker-clunk, ker-clunk, that reminds me of those cartoons when someone is trying to use square wheels. Also, the drawing board is put away by pressing a bar on the back, and moving it upwards at the same time, I don't know if ours is faulty or not, but it takes me ages to get it closed, and my daughter (who owns the offending article) can't manage it at all.

Apart from the design flaws which make the Super Grapfix feel cheap and tacky, actually using it isn't as simple as it sounds. You have to be positioned exactly right in order to see the reflection in the first place, and you have to have a decent amount of light, preferably natural light, because electric light doesn't seem to work as well. The eyepiece allows for using the left or the right eye, but doesn't allow for children who wear glasses. In order to see the reflection properly you have to really put your eye as far into the eyepiece as you can (the bit where you put your eye is shaped a bit like a shallow Optrex eye bath). So children with glasses (as both of mine do) can't get close enough in, and they've both complained they can see a double image.

Once you've positioned yourself properly, and you've got enough light, you can set to drawing. But oh no, now you find that the picture is being reflected either too high or too low. So you have to adjust the height of the eyepiece, otherwise you end up drawing off the edge of the drawing board, and half your picture gets left behind on the frame. Whilst sometimes it seems one click will mean you finally have the right position, other times you'll find one click then takes a reflection that's too high, too low and vice versa.

After a good half hour of frustrated moving positions, changing the height of the eye piece, or changing the surface your using in order to change your own height, you can finally do your drawing.

Is this easy you cry? Hmm well yes and no, the image projected is ok if it's outlined in really thick lines as the two examples you receive are, but if it's a pale picture you really struggle to see the lines. The booklet comes with examples of people copying off photographs, but I tried this and it was near on impossible and I ended up with a picture that looked more like a Picasso portrait of my daughter than a lovely pencil sketch. Needless to say she was a tad upset and worried that she was ugly.

I haven't even bothered to try and take it outside. Mainly because it's such a faff I wouldn't have the patience to mess about with it in public and embarrass myself by getting irritated with it, but also because it states in the instructions that you'll need something to prop up the front of the drawing board to use it when the back board has been removed. And I fail to see how something can be classed as portable if you have to take books or something similar to use as props in order to make it work.

I would definitely not recommend it, it has become a dust magnet in this house, because I can't bear to throw it out because of the cost. It'll have to go one day though, and I shall be glad to see the back of it.