How to Spot a Psychopath

The makers of the "Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty" I reviewed a while ago are still in business, and have as is their wont come up with some special limited-edition colours for the holiday season. The stuff makes an excellent gift, and I have of course got a profit-skimming affiliate link.

But wait, there's more.

M'verygoodfriends at the RLT.com empire of nifty toy sites now have the inventively named SuperPutty.com, wherein they sell their own whimsically tinted dilatant compound variant.

Colour aside, SuperPutty is exactly the same stuff as the Thinking and Silly versions. There's not a lot in it pricing-wise, either.

One fifth-pound can of Thinking Putty (that's 91 grams, a decent handful equal to seven standard Silly Putty "eggs") is $US6.95, $US7.95 or $US8.95, depending on whether you pick an exciting colour (including the temperature-sensitive colour-shifting versions), or something more traditional (like good old basic pink).

Fifth-pound jars from SuperPutty are $US7.95 or $US8.95, except for the "Mystery Colour" option where you get whatever they're having the hardest time selling, but only have to pay $US4.95 for a fifth-pound.

Thinking Putty sell one pound bags for $US20 to $US28. SuperPutty sell half pound jars for $US14 to $US16. SuperPutty also have combination colour sets for all sizes of putty (including their little tenth-pound jars), which are as you'd expect a bit cheaper than buying the jars separately, except for the three-colour half-pound jar sets, which are for some reason a bit more expensive than the separate purchases. Perhaps I'm missing something there.

Both companies have reasonable delivery prices, too - SuperPutty will deliver one fifth-pound jar within the contiguous United States for $US5.95, while SuperPutty Crazy Aaron charges about 50 cents more.

Both ship outside the USA, too, though that'll (a) be rather expensive and (b) quite possibly not get the parcel to you before the 25th of December.

If all you want is putty, SuperPutty have a fine cheapskate last minute gift option in their Mystery Colour fifth-pound jars. But for everything else Thinking Putty definitely have the edge. A lot more colours, better priced big bags, and better containers for the standard-sized putty. The wide Thinking Putty tin works better than SuperPutty's plastic jam jar.

So if all you want is putty, and the cheap Mystery option doesn't grab you, go to Aaron. It continues to be an excellent gift for almost anybody, including yourself.

RLT have tons of other stuff, though, which you can roll into one order along with your SuperPutty. All of the RLT sites share one shopping cart.

They have, for instance, got trebuchets (and many other catapult kits - one day I hope to have time to build the Mini Mangonel they sent me), Shot-Blades, Zero Blasters, Airzookas, remote controlled fighting tanks, Catapult Watches, and various other toys including some I reviewed in the same piece as the Thinking Putty.

They've even got a bunch of "Extreme Exercise Equipment" now, though I hesitate to recommend devices that so obviously want to kill me.

So, to recap: For rapid emergency bouncing-putty gift purchasing: Thinking Putty.

For a Santa-sack full of weird stuff more than sufficient to make all of your relatives' children into your glassy-eyed slaves, and putty: RLT.