Firefly jacks?

[jason1976]

For those of you that watched the DVD's, and saw the last episode, you know (other then Early's space suit) the jacks that River, and Kaylee, are playing with, are the last prop we see in the show.

I thought it would be a nice touch to add a set of jacks to my collection, and since the set on the show, looked just like a set I had when I was a kid, I thought it would be easy. Boy was I wrong. I had to look all over for them, and still haven't found anything all that close.

The one's on the show look to be large metal jacks, with a Red, Blue, and maybe white ball. (sorry I can't do screen caps on my computer these days) I've only been able to find, large plastic, or small metal jacks, and all red, or all yellow balls.

Does anyone have a good source for the correct jacks set?

Jason

 

[SurferGeek]

 

[Hellclaw 01]

Your assuming the ball belongs to that set of jacks though.

The jacks seem to be the standard metal variety, which are easily found. To me the ball seems a touch on the large side for a jacks ball, it also looks a bit shiny, slightly translucent too.

Check gumball machines for the super bounce balls, they have swirly patterns like the ball in the screen caps. I bet the smaller versions will be about the right size too.

 

[jason1976]

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I made the assumption that the ball was part of the set. In fact, that's not at all what I did. I used to have a ball like that, and I believe that it was a "Supper bounce ball". I just can't find that ball, or the correct jacks.

There are different sizes of jacks out there, and I can clearly see in the pic that has River's hand next to a few of them, that these are larger then the metal once I've been finding.

Jason

 

[Mike J.]

How big would you estimate the ball is? I have a similar one I just measured; it's about 1 and 3/8 inches at it's widest...

As far as jacks & balls go, I think your best source would be a toystore, or a dollar store. I'd suspect most modern jacks would be made of plastic, though... I suppose you could hit them with some silver spray paint. Or cruise eBay & yard sales for older metal jacks.

Good luck.


-Mike

 

[Great_Bizarro]

If memory serves me right, something that is becoming more and more rare, there were 2 sizes of jacks that were the standard during the 60's(last time I messed with a set of caltrops). A regular size and a larger size, these look to be the larger size.

 

[RedTwoX]

A Google search for "metal jacks" turned up a bunch retailers. This particular one lists Regular and Jumbo:

http://www.greathallgames.com/anostalgia/anostalN.html

Unfortunatly they don't provide any measurement to know just how big "Jumbo" is.

I just found another:

http://www.toypost.co.uk/product.php?productid=163

Check out the set top-center.

DISCLAIMER: I don't know anything about these retailers and this is not an endorsement. It just looks like they might have the product you are looking for.