Sometime around 1930, Polish-born Bronxian, Edwin. S. Lowe, turned the card game "Beano" into "Bingo" and founded a toys and games empire.  The E.S. Lowe Company thrived on portable chess and checkers games sold to GIs in World War 2, and it hit the roof in the mid-50s with the dice game, "Yahtzee."

But the most significant way Mr. Lowe has impacted my life is this lovely deal-a-chip set called the Chip-O-Matic, released for the holidays in 1950!

This attractive and colorful gadget, which spins Lazy Susan style and dispenses plastic chips five at a time, is a sturdy Bakelite marvel.  Just the thing for serving up a Friday night poker game.  And the chips, which interlock cunningly, are more durable than the old wooden kind, even if they're a touch less classy.

And, it comes with this Fabrikoid cover:

Of course, our main use for the device is to scatter a rainbow of chips over a narrow walkway and play "lava:" blue chips are explosive and cause you to jump back, white chips freeze you in place, while red (magma) and yellow (heat ray) chips melt/zap you on the spot.

We are forever twelve.  There are worse fates… (like melting in magma)