I had the original Spirograph in the late 60s and in my opinion it was better than this one. The pieces in the old one were held in place on the paper with tiny pins which I am looking out for and a cardboard board base was also provided to ensure the pins did not damage furniture. The set has a not very sticky adhesive plastic to hold the circles to the paper, only it does not work very well. The plastic does not hold the big circles in place. Also loose paper of a decent size came with the original set, a small pad came with this one, and the old one had more coloured pens.