how do i tell what mechanism my dominos have?
they turn very smoothly, and i have heard that one of the mechanisms wasnt smooth at all. they are an off white, and black.

I heard that the difference between the two dominoe designs were not smoothness, but rather the structural strength. Other than trying to dissassemble them and probably breaking them, I would suggest using an Xray machine. You know, Tyler, if you were to let me have one (yeah, right), I could Xray it and take pictures of it on the Xray machine we have in our materials lab at work.

Doug.

Most likely, the Domino you have has the mechanism with the spindles (as opposed to the tongue & groove). From your description it sounds like you've got one of the originals. I think the original Dominos were made with the spindle, and later knock-offs used the tongue & groove. Either mechanism will work very nicely if it's made well enough. Unfortunately, the originals were made too tight (very difficult to turn) and the knock-offs were low quality and didn't turn well either.

You can lift the white center cap. There is a screw, turn it and you can disassemble the Domino. The spindle mechanisme I think was only used on the blindmans Domino. All teh Polytoys Domino has the grove mechanisme.