Ball in Motion

Yesterday we took the kids to what I would venture to say is the city's second best toy store, Magic Mouse in Pioneer Square.  Last time we were there, they had these crazy plastic balls out on the floor that were moving all on their own and the kids were very entertained.  This time, after watching our 17-month-old chase the ball for 20 minutes, we decided to buy one and see if it was as entertaining at home.  It is called a Squiggle Ball and I've never seen them anywhere else.  I even just looked on Amazon and they don't seem to sell them (shocking, I know, doesn't Amazon sell everything???).
So, we brought the ball home (along with a vintage-looking diesel train engine for the little train-lover among us) and tried it out.  The results were hilarious.  For some reason the ball seems to prefer rolling itself down our hallway and getting stuck in odd places like behind doors, under beds and in the bathroom - I'm beginning to think it is antisocial.  It also seems to favor the narrow passage behind the couch.  A couple of times I forgot about it and was a little frightened by the strange banging noise that I couldn't place somewhere nearby - it reminds me somewhat of a stray rodent.  Our three-and-a-half-year-old is afraid of it and screams like a girl running away from it because he thinks it's going to "eat" him (he has an odd fear of robots right now for similar reasons).  I think he's actually entertained by it, but he does always run for higher ground.  The littler guy just sort of ignores it when it's on the ground.  He does like to walk around with it while it's turned on and he thinks it's pretty fun to dance with.  I pronounce it an entertaining toy - particularly if you have a) pets, b) wood or other hard floors, c) lots of open space for the thing to roll around (none of which we have).  It does get stuck if there are a lot of toys out on the floor.  The only thing in a similar genre that might be more entertaining is an actual hamster rolling around in a plastic ball.  The motorized squiggle ball is far less messy, though.
Someone posted a youtube video of the ball in action, here it is: