See... The Flying Fleas!

Who's ready for the greatest show on Earth? Or how about the itchiest show on your dog turned into a buggy old big top themed tin toy made by Chein? I was definitely scratching my head in amazement after finding "The Flying Fleas" at an antique mall yesterday. And though being quite out of my price range (and quite broken too, I think, because I never could figure out how it works), I decided I still had to photograph it anyway from all sides because it's covered in some of the cutest midcentury, wraparound cartoon artwork ever! The game seems simple enough: little multi-colored, plastic "fleas" lay in the center ring, and I'm guessing you're supposed to do something that makes them fly up and grab ahold of the tiny metal trapeze danglers, and thus, flip them from one trapezie thingie to another. Or something, I seriously couldn't find any info online anywhere about this unique toy either, unfortunately. The whole "flea circus" phenomenon dates way back hundred of years, and many of us probably first became aware of it in a funny Tex Avery cartoon (HERE), or in a Ripley's Believe it or Not book. Having grown up thinking it was all just a kooky make believe concept where tiny, inanimate objects simply moved around, apparently powered by a flea (because of their near invisibility in size to the naked eye), I later learned that flea circuses were actually real, and actual fleas actually performed daring fleats, err, feats of wonder! If you don't believe me, you can take Sir David Attenborough's word for it, just CLICK HERE...