Mighty Optical Illusions » Vintage

Vintage Quaker Oats Puzzle

Vurdlak — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:21:52 +0000

As seen on Deceptology blog, company called Quaker Oats published an interesting advertising booklet way back in 1895. This vintage booklet contained 25 nursery rhymes, but more importantly there was a DIY optical illusion puzzle printed on its front cover. Might be interesting to know this item is now sold as vintage collectable (also known as “advertising ephemera”). But let’s jump straight to the point – How many packages can you count? Are there 6 or 7 or 14 packages present? What happens if you turn the puzzle upside-down? Anyone volunteers to explain? If you wish, you can also print it, cut a hole in the middle and put a pencil through it, making it interactive in real world. Who knows, maybe this little curiosity would represent a fun distraction for you and your school buddies. Anyway, when you solve this one – head next to somewhat more complex puzzles. One involves a mad scientist and his soccer team, and the other missing eggs and boulders!

Incredible Paintings of Vintage Photos That Are Optical Illusions

Vurdlak — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:39:45 +0000

If you ask yourself why I have decided to feature some “ordinary vintage photos” on an optical illusions blog, think again. Work below is just a fraction of Spanish artist Paco Pomet’s portfolio. If you inspect the photos more closely, you’ll soon realize they’re in fact stunning oil paintings that are “just” a reproductions of vintage photographs. Not only do the works use a monochromatic palette and photo real style (which in itself I find quite impressive!) — but each of Pomet’s paintings includes something out of the ordinary that isn’t always recognizable at first glance. His illusions transform the vintage photos into something quite unexpected. What he does, he changes real people and places into surreal landscapes and portraits by tweaking tiny details that go unnoticed at first. Some end up more illusory that others, and these few I have decided to showcase. How long does it take before you discover hidden oddities? For more of Pomet’s incredibly detailed, well-rendered works, check his official homepage.

Nestle’s Nescafe Illusory Poster

Vurdlak — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:39:35 +0000

Kahla Glasheen has been following this site each day for a couple of years now. One thing Kahla noticed is that we never featured one particular historical illusion – a poster Nestle created for their Nescafe coffee. After little research, it turns out this poster originates all the way back in 1930s. The illusion is intuitive, and in fact you should be ablre notice it quite easily. Yet the beauty and simplicity of the poster is what I really liked about it!

One thing that surprised me was your reception of our recent cinemagraph illusion. I thought you’ll be astonished, mesmerized, surprised even, yet it seems I was wrong. The difference between simple animated .gif files and cinemagraphs is not easily distinguishable. However, having more luck than taste, seems I wasn’t so wrong after all. Some of our users noticed that this “Psycho” illusion holds another well hidden easter egg inside it – a frame featuring some sort of skull-ish X-ray layer, one that isn’t so obvious.

Have to admit, I never noticed this before! It’s such a shame you didn’t react positive on cinemagraph illusions, as I had few of them lined up to be published soon. The beauty behind them should lye in the fact that only single detail gets animated, while rest of the photo stays just what it is – a still photo. Apparently it takes lots of time to create them. Check out this gallery and see if I can change your opinion ;D

Vintage “Pin-up Ladies” Photo

Vurdlak — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:08:17 +0000

Just when I decided how it would be much more professional if I invested more energy investigating origins and sources of our forthcoming illusions I got this interesting submission, only to find out I haven’t got a slightest clue how it came to be :( Don’t get me wrong, this vintage photo looks amazing, it’s just that neither the person who submitted it (nor I) couldn’t find out who and when created it.

Anyway, be sure to comment if you have the lacking info. If you concentrate only on the “illusion”, you might feel somewhat disappointed, but hopefully this photo as a whole will entertain you for a moment or two.

The good news is, I’ve started to approach this blog in much more serious manner. I’ve spent the last few days in search for some quality help, as I feel the moment has come this project overgrew my capacities. Don’t want to spill any bombastic news before the right moment arrives, but if all turns well, you might see some improvements in content and concept over the following days ;D Keep following us, as your presence is the main motivator for me as a person running this blog. Once again, many thanks for taking your time to visit this site!

Naive Historical Illusion

Vurdlak — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:50:29 +0000

Let me show you another very old optical illusion. I wanted to share it with you not because of quality of illusion it holds (actually, this one’s pretty naive), but because it seems interesting when you see it from historical view. In one hand it, it may helps us understand how illusions progressed over time. On the other hand, there were even older examples with much better effect. I’m not sure I understand it fully, but the original text that came along with this print went something like this:

Were they really motor-men (smoothly propelled along the surface by an unseen force) that our poor old friend suddenly encountered in the streets of London, or were they merely two British workmen employed in digging down into the roadway taking five minutes rest in situ?

Eyes or Eyelids Illusion

Vurdlak — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:59:44 +0000

Here’s a funny story: when I first located given optical illusion, I thought it was great, and saved it for one of my future articles (today’s one). There was an interesting article accompanying it, explaining the event when this vintage photo was taken, along with the twist I found fascinating. The problem is, I forgot in which direction did the twist go…

So let me tell you what is happening here, and leave it up to the majority to decide the direction of the twist. I can see the photo realistic in both ways; either as woman with her eyes shut, having her eyelids painted to appear she is staring at us, or the other way round – woman having her eyes opened, but her mascara done in such way, to appear her eyes are shut.

Don’t take me for granted, but I lean more towards the first option. I just know that when I first saw it, the twist was opposite to what I imagined it to be. It’s just that I forgot, and don’t remember what is the proper way of seeing it.

Horse Pill Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:43:53 +0000

Got this vintage poster from somewhere, and took me ages to see the illusion. The problem was I had trouble understanding the instructions written on top of the poster, so I simply ignored them and did this my way. My advice would be to look at the picture as if you were staring at some stereogram. Now switch from normal to cross-eyed view (cross your eyes as if you had strabismus), and repeat this procedure back and forth. Do you see the hand with the “ball” going towards horse’s mouth? It shouldn’t be much of a problem. What bugs me, is that I don’t see the “ball” being ball at all! What I see is someone trying to drug the horse with steroids, in order to win a horse-race! Am I the only one who finds this unethical and simply wrong? Perhaps it’s just my twisted-gambling character speaking here!

Find The Vintage Faults

Vurdlak — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:32:43 +0000

Find the fault in the above picture

It’s time again to plaaay “Spot The Object” quiz! The winner of this fabulous competition wins an exclusive all-included trip to Bahamas at one of the world’s biggest cruisers. Sponsored by Sir Lie-a-lot!

Nah, am just messing with you (like you wouldn’t figure it out). So once again we have few vintage cards for you to play with. There are 5 of them, and each one includes at least one logical mistake. Can you spot all of the faults, in all of these game cards? First one is placed on the right, while the others can be found below inside our small gallery. Normally, I would’ve included one of these per article, but since I find them so easy to solve I’ve included all of them.

If my memory servers me well, we’ve concluded that these were very popular back in the old days when our grandfathers were young. Perhaps not as precious as all those vintage baseball cards, but still valuable. While you are reading this I should already be in NYC for a week, and hopefully drinking cocktails and enjoying my 7th day in Big Apple. Why I’m writing all this in such a way, it’s because I wrote this article on the last day of September and set it to auto-appear today.

I just hope I haven’t jinxed myself revealing all this… If someone has a quick thought what else to see while I’m still on Manhattan, now is the time to comment! I’ll still be able to follow this site and approve content. Now, don’t forget the gallery below. Logging out. Aurevoir!

Few more examples for you to play with:

Find The Fault… if There is One

Vurdlak — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Can you find the fault in these two vintage puzzle cards? I admit it is much easier when you know what you are looking for, but this time I haven’t even a clue what the real question should be. I’m really lousy at spotting illusions. It is just that I adore posting those that puzzle me the most. If I see the answer in the first second, somehow I dislike posting those kind of images. Perhaps these two cards are really simple, perhaps the illusion is terrible… but what can I say, I haven’t spotted anything weird in them! Looking forward to your comments! Check some of our previous puzzle cards if you like this.

Girls are There, But Where are The Boys?

Vurdlak — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Lucas Farguson sent me this vintage puzzle card, and asked if I can see the 3 hidden lads in it? First I thought it was just a trick, and that the girls are actually boys wearing a disguise, but after looking at this card a little longer, I finally managed to see all of the three cowards hiding. I mean, I don’t want to judge anyone, as I would probably be hiding from big-headed girl like this as well. So can you spot them as well? If you’re asking yourself where did this card came from, it is a valued collectors item, created in 1800 by Liebig. I have no more info on it, except that there are people out there making great deal of money selling vintage cards like this one.

Strange False Head Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:27:00 +0000

Roger Smith watches your RSS feed daily. However, he hasn’t been doing it for too long, so wasn’t completely sure if we may had this one already. Fortunately we haven’t. If you look a the vintage photo below, at first it seems to be a simple couple with a large head floating between them. But things aren’t always what they seem. Most people will probably just see a large bearded head between the two figurines. It looks like some sort of Jesus head. But look again, carefully this time. What the photo actually shows, is a CHILD SITTING on the man’s knee. If you still don’t see it, block out the “hair” of the illusive head – it is just a collection of the background foliage anyway. The “eye” is actually child’s face (shadowed by a large white bonnet). The “nose” is the sleeve, and the “mustache” is the child’s arm. If you still don’t see it, be patient – It may take awhile to see it.

Yorick’s Skull Vintage Illusion

Vurdlak — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:06:00 +0000

I decided that the last optical illusion this year (2006), should be another vintage one. As I said before, afterimages are one of the coolest optical illusion phenomenons in my opinion. If they are vintage ones at the same time, I’d call it a jack pot! It’s unnecessary for me to explain how this illusion works, since you all probably learned it with the original Jesus illusion. If by accident you forgot the method, be sure to read the vintage description beneath the original picture. Since the 2007 is closing in on us, and I’ll be out of town for two days, I wish you all Happy New Year, and all the best in the following days! Enjoy your time, and don’t forget to visit us in 2007, since there will be many many more illusions and surprises for all of you! Like we posted some new games for you this Christmas, we’ll think of something new and original in the following months. So stay tuned. For more optical illusions check our categories inside the sidebar – there are more than 1000 other if you missed them!

What Is It?

Vurdlak — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:44:00 +0000

What does this old, vintage photo show? Can you see it? Open the picture in full-size for more details. It was shot by Brown, Barnes & Bell Photo Agency, in Liverpool. The answer is quite simple, but if you still don’t see it, jump inside this article for the solution!

Eventhough it looks like it’s a portrait of some terribly deformed man, actually the solution is much nicer than that. If you flip the photo, the solution will stand bare before you. You will see a nice little puppy taking a nap! Cool Illusion!

David And Goliath Vintage Illusion

Vurdlak — Wed, 17 May 2006 23:01:00 +0000

This is one of the rare, old-timer optical illusions. It was taken from a german/french magazine that shows a vintage painting of two funny men. Eventhough they both look like the fatter guy from Laurel and Hardy (don’t remember which one is fat, and which one is thin), artists named them David and Goliath. The thing is that the blond guy (David) looks smaller and weaker then the left one (Goliath). Why is that? You guessed… becase this is another optical illusion… Another thing, if you can read the text and speak german/french please translate this and post it under comments. Thanks!

Edit: Donald Huggan, a professional translator, translated this text from Dutch to English, so be sure to email him if you have simmilar jobs for him. The original translated text follows:

“When you lay the figures next to each other in the same direction it appears that the one in front is bigger. Both are really the same size. Cut out these figures.”