Let us help you identify that mysterious object you’ve found.
Currently in CHALLENGE mode: If you've got something obscure knocking about, post a picture, and let's see how we do. Please prefix such posts with "CHALLENGE:" so we know we've got a fighting chance.
Trying to figure out what this kid's toy from the dentist is. I tried to look for it online and the only thing that looked similar was a fidget toy/spring like this:
Except this is just a solid piece of plastic. I thought maybe it just needed to be pulled apart, but it broke in half when I tried.
Maybe it's a spring that somehow fused together? No idea what else it could possibly be.
Since it broke when you tried to pull it apart, that seems like it's supposed to be one of those fidget slinky things you linked. But perhaps fused and brittle from age or poor manufacturing. If it was intended to be a solid piece, it would have been more solid, right?
It was probably in that toy box for 15 years.
Kinda what I was thinking too, thanks!
Tell them to take their work out of your kid's mouth and issue a refund!
OP broke it, so no can do under the "you broke it, you bought it" rule.
Sometimes you see this when a cheap Chinese manufacturer buys some tooling and runs the wrong materials to save money.
I bought some zip ties like this, rather than tough and flexible nylon, they were hard and brittle like Polycarbonate; as soon as you bent them around something they snapped in half.
Plastic degradation, probably cleaned with a solvent like alcohol. It has now essentially fused and become brittle. Only good for eventual microplastics or incineration now.
I have used alcohol on many of plastics and have never seen plastic fused as a result.
Should consider yourself lucky. Brittle, sticky, fusing, cracking failures are very normal with solvent attack on various plastics
I think they are indeed meant to be Slinkies but they either got too hot and melted, or were fucked up during manufacturing.
The dentist is handing you over his 3D printer calibration test parts
My kid's dentist also has toys, and they're bottom of the fucking barrel knick knacks that break after one use. I'm not saying I expect high quality toys from a pediatric dentist, I just can't help but notice how rich that motherfucker is and how much plastic waste he's generating.
This is a mini slinky. They're just poorly manufactured.
This is how plastic Slinky toys used to come out of the box. You had to break them apart. Sounds like you got a bad one?
I think your right. It's a spring. Instead of pulling, see if you can unwind it layer by layer.
It'd be weird for them to gift hair rollers or a tube extension to a kid at a dentist's office, so I think I'm with the other commenter about it being a fused spring, I guess??
Those are cock rings.