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GVS has been celebrating the holidays for weeks. Starting with fancy “TV Dinners” to a “Christmas Victory Sale” to searching for the Perfect “Mystery Date!” Now I want to take you back to a fabulous Christmas I experienced when I was a child. It led me to rediscover one of the most fantastic toys ever made!

It’s the late 60s, and I was but a young girl, unable to stand the suspense on Christmas Eve. I remember I was so excited I didn’t dare look at the tree. I deliberately turned my back on it and watched whatever program was playing on the little black-and-white TV. You know, an analog set with the gorgeous round screen and rabbit ears. Finally, Christmas Eve passed into Christmas day and I was able to unwrap two fantastic presents.

You can see the gifts in this photo. They’re side-by-side under the tree, nestled on the white tree skirt. One is a huge stuffed version of Lassie, a famous canine TV star of the era. I loved that stuffed dog. To me it was huge, almost as big as I was. It came with a brush so I could comb her long fluffy hair and I could hug her close at night.

Unfortunately, over the decades my Lassie disappeared. I have no memory of her fate. Nor of the toy sitting next to her. I had forgotten such a game existed, until I discovered this picture a couple of months ago. Most of the box is visible. You can see the word “Think” and 300 something on the front. There are three more words on the side. Even though I couldn’t fully read the name, it took only a second before the memories came flooding back. This fabulous toy is the most perfect thing a geek like me could ever own. For this is a “Think-A-Tron. The machine that thinks like a man!”

Designed to resemble early data processors that would fill entire rooms, the “Think-A-Tron” was really one of the first personal computing devices you could own. They called it “An Electric Question and Answer Computer.” The 300 number I mentioned above turned out to be 300 questions, printed on punchcards, that came from an encyclopedia called the “Book of Knowledge.”

The “Think-A-Tron” is filled with whirling knobs, lots of buttons, a crank, and flashing lights. No quiet digital computer is this. You know when it works. You can hear it and see it!

While my original “Think-A-Tron” was long gone, fate must’ve been on my side, because one was for sale on eBay and the auction ended the very next day. I won and now the “Think-A-Tron” is mine. I will not be parted from it again.         

I love everything about it, but the best part are the punch cards. Designed to look like real punch cards that fed computer code into early, room-sized behemoths, these cards make up the heart of the game.

Each card has two trivia questions, one on either side. Some are true or false and some are multiple choice. Here’s a good example. “In George Washington’s time, a pound of sugar cost about: A $.10, B $2.75 or C $.50?” I truly have no idea what the right answer is, but there is an easy way to find out thanks to my “Think-A-Tron.”

On the left side of the “Think-A-Tron” sits a plastic tray. Hasbro calls it a “Card Carrier.” In the center of the device is a handle that you turn clockwise. This puts the carrier into the proper position. Place our punchcard with the question inside the carrier, making sure it faces you, then slide the carrier into the machine, pushing it in all the way. When you do that, the computer comes to life!

Gears whirl as the machine starts to think and the lights in the answer panel begin to flash on and off! The “Think-A-Tron” is actually reading the punches on the card! It only takes a few seconds, then the correct answer appears on the display.

By lighting the correct combination of bulbs, you get either an A, B, C, answer, or T for true or F for false.

Back to our question about buying a pound of sugar in George Washington’s time. I would have guessed C, $.50. My mother guessed A, $.10. We pushed the card into the “Think-A-Tron” brain and came up with— drumroll please— B!

A whopping $2.75 a pound. This must’ve been before sugar was widely available and therefore very expensive. Wow.

Here’s another question. This one of the true or false variety. “Many lizards and frogs can change their color to suit the surroundings? True or false?”

I inserted the card into the “Think-A-Tron,” let the gears whirl, and the display lit up with— T for true! Lizards can change their color if need be.

How about this one? “Most of the land area of the earth is below the equator? True or false?”

“Think-A-Tron” says— False! See how fast we’re learning?

You can go on just asking questions, but Hasbro marketed this as a game. Somehow you must be able to keep score. That’s where the knobs and levers at the bottom of the unit come in.

Set them to zero at the beginning of play. Note, there’s a counting lever to the side of each knob. If you’re playing against a friend, you press down on the lever closest to you whenever you get a question right. This turns the knob one notch. If you are alone, the computer becomes your opponent. Keep track on the other knob of how many times the computer is correct compared to you. The first side to reach twenty correct answers wins!

While it’s challenging to test our knowledge of trivia, to me it’s best feature is the history this toy represents. A history that is even explored in the operating instructions that came with my “Think-A-Tron.” They included a section called: Facts about Data Processing Machines.

Remember, this game was created in 1960, when we were just at the cusp of exploring the fabulous future of computers. Most people did not even have a handheld calculator at home.

The first time my family bought an electronic calculator it cost $100, but were amazed because it could add, subtract, multiply and divide. It came up with the right answer every time. We no longer had to figure it out by ourselves. Amazing.

The booklet that came with the “Think-A-Tron” had a long section devoted to facts about the computers that existed during this era. “These are new types of machines being made today that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. They quickly and effortlessly do work that once required many human minds and many hours to accomplish. These new machines called “Data Processing Machines” can “read” and “write” hundreds of times faster than humans can. They have “memories” able to store millions of bits of information to be used when it is needed. They can make intelligent decisions from the information given them, write out their answer and even control other machines.

“Sometimes these difficult problems take several hours for the machine to complete but this is fast because these problems would otherwise take many years of calculating by other methods. With faster and more exact calculations, airplanes can be designed to fly faster, rockets made more accurate and dependable and even older products, such as camera lenses, are made more perfect. Without the “Data Processing Machines” many of our latest technical achievements would have been impossible.”

“Of course, these new machines do not really “read” as humans do, instead of eyes for “reading” they use electrical sensing devices and they do not read books and magazines but read patterns of punched holes in cards or tape or sometimes they read magnetic patterns on disks or drums.” 

“They do not “write with pencil and paper but write instead with electric printers, lights or by punching holes in cards. And they do not really “think” as humans do, but instead follow very simple and exact rules built into them by their designers.”

Then came a very interesting paragraph, which raises the question, even in the 60s, about the impact these machines would have on human life and society. Changes which, although we have seen them unfold in the past few decades, are not complete.

“Those of us not familiar with these new machines find them mysterious and often worry about their affect on our lives. Where earlier machines that man invented, such as the steam engine or electric motor, were meant to increase his muscle power, the Data Processing Machines are meant to increase his mental power and to do work that formally required people’s minds to perform.” 

The booklet does not go on to answer these philosophical questions, but I think that it the fact that it even raised it in the first place is fascinating.

The last paragraph in the booklet, ties all this back toward our game. “The Think-A-Tron Machine contains some of the most important elements of actual Data Processing Machines. The miniature punchcards contain information that the Think-A-Tron machine must “read.” After reading the card the Think-A-Tron selects the correct information from storage and prints out the answer in lights on the display screen.”

 What a fantastic device. An actual, working, thinking computer in the 1960s. Constructed with a fabulous design, that harkens back to the real dawn of the technological, computerized age. When you own a “Think-A-Tron,” you own a symbol of a fabulous future. One that, in someways has arrived, but a future, in other ways, that I still hope for.

In any case, the “Think-A-Tron” symbolizes a memory of one of the best Christmases I ever had. One I am proud to share with you.

There is no item better suited for the esteemed title I’m about to bestow upon it. For the “Think-A-Tron” is truly a piece of Glorious Vintage Stuff!