The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of Sean Conner, who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Notatoy

Bunny received a flyer in the postal mail claiming she could win “$15,000 Cash or Choose Your Cruise—Spain, Italy, Greece, and More!” There were just three simple steps to claim the prize:

  1. Pull the tab of the attached VIN Gauge Combination Box™ and your 5-digit number will light up.
  2. Scratch off the circle below. If the two numbers match, you are one of our GRAND PRIZE WINNERS.
  3. Immediately call the phone number below to find out which of the five prizes you won (see the prize list below).

First off, I'm assuming that VIN stands for “Very Important Number” and not “Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia.” Second, why is it a “VIN Gauge Combination Box™?” What does “gauge” have to do with it? It's not referncing a distance, quantity, capacity or dimention, just a number.

But whatever. The prizes themselves are nothing to write about, being a bit vague with “worldwide destinations” (Kandongjang-ni, North Korea is a “worldwide destination”) and “getaway in major U.S. cities” (Scranton, Pennsylvania is a “major U.S. city”), but the VIN Gauge Combination Box™? That is fascinating!

The VIN Gauge Combination Box™ is a 2″×1″×¼″ (50mm×25mm×6mm for the U.S. Imperial impaired) plastic box with the text “Combination Box™” painted on. Just below the text is what looks like a LCD screen. There's a small plastic tab sticking out the side, with the text “PULL TAB TO ACTIVATE” printed on it. Pulling the tab lights the LCD screen with a five digit number lit up. The tab was just keeping the battery from making contact with the circuitry.

Now, looking at the LCD screen it seems a bit off. The numbers aren't aligned with the edge, the left side is slightly higher than the right, and the center number is a bit brighter than the rest, with the light kind of dimming the further from the center of the display you get. Looking closer, it doesn't even look like an LCD screen. It's more of an LED screen, black background with green LEDs, but the screen itself looks weird.

I push the tab back in to turn it off, and … wait a second! The battery is disconnected as the light turned off, but I can still see the number!

It's just green printed text on a black background. The battery is just there to power a backlight! The “tab” itself is long enough to not only block the battery, but to cover the “LED display” itself. Taking it apart, it's just eight pieces:

  1. the plastic strip making up the “tab” which breaks the circuit;
  2. the top half of the box;
  3. on the underside of the top half, a metal piece to bridge—
  4. an LR41 button battery (the thing is tiny!) and
  5. a second LR41 button battery;
  6. a green LED;
  7. a plastic piece with the green text “63371” (my “number”) on a black background.
  8. the bottom half of the box;

And that's it. It's so cheap they didn't even bother removing the flashing from the plastic mold. I would not be surprised of everyone that received this in the mail got the same number as I did.

The most amusing bit though, is the injected text on the back of the device: “THIS DIGIAL ELECTRONIC DEVICE IS NOTATOY.” It lists the patent number (a patent number! Someone patented this thing?) And of course, it was made in China.

So the “VIN Gauge Combination Box™ is, in fact, a notatoy. How about that?

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