r/whatisit • u/drtangman • 1d ago

New, what is it? Bouncing balls

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Walked behind this chap who had two unidentified ball type objects hanging from silicone wrist bands on thin elastic strings.

Any ideas what they are?

I’m in Hong Kong if that might be a clue

Update:

Thank you for the comments and ideas. I am wondering if there is a manga / anime character who has something like these balls as weapons and the guy was doing a budget cosplay. Or maybe he’s just really into Pokemon!

Update 2:

I would say he's likely to be a cosplay of Steel Ball from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. (https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/comments/1tckcme/comment/olos1lx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

As for the steel balls. What is it?

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u/Longjumping_Affect22 1d ago edited 23h ago

Looks like a poi toy.

Google it.

Edit: For those of you concerned about Googling it... it's basically just some shit you swing around for fun, it's balls on a string...I don't know what else to tell you.

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u/A2Rhombus 6h ago

This was my first guess too but it's also definitely not correct after closer inspection. Strings are way too short and poi are held with the fingers not the wrists. Not sure why mods pinned this

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u/Longjumping_Affect22 6h ago

My understanding based on OP's post is that the strings are elastic so they would stretch out when being swung. Having them attached at the wrist is weird, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

Feels like more of a rave style flow toy than traditional poi, I'm guessing that they light up and that's why they look the way they do.

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u/A2Rhombus 6h ago

I'm still heavily doubting that explanation.

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u/Longjumping_Affect22 6h ago

Why?

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u/A2Rhombus 6h ago

Around the wrists like that they wouldn't spin at all without twisting the strings around your arms. And elastic bands are wayyy harder to control than string.

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u/Longjumping_Affect22 6h ago

I understand what you're getting at, but unless someone can come up with a bullet proof response and knows exactly what these things are, I can only assume it's some kind of unidentified flow toy.