Cheap Buys: Snowball Ornaments

Snowball ornaments are pretty common these days. The deluxe variety are covered with "fake" snow and sparkles, and cost as little as $6 USD for a pack of half a dozen. Even better for our purposes, however, are the cheap variety (no sparkles!). I acquired mine for $1 USD (pack of six) at the Yankee Dollar chain of stores.

What you get at this price is a styrofoam globe, about 6 cm in diameter, covered with "fake" snow (which appears to simply be more shredded styrofoam).

I applied slow, careful force and was able to remove the chrome bit without damaging the globe. Turns out the chrome bit sits over a hole that extends to the core of the sphere (apparently left by the construction process). That's rather convenient, because...

...you can plunk the ornament over any flying base, and presto, you've got an iceball-type planet. Really great for those outer-reaches-of-the-solar-system type scenarios. If you're lazy, you don't even need to glue the ornament down - the base works well enough to keep it from rolling away. Or you can get fancy, attach a permanent base, maybe add a ring, or some colors...

It's a cheap buy. Six worlds for $1 USD. Can't beat that.

If you want details on the manufacturer - sorry, there's no manufacturer, no brand name, no product name, just "made in China."