Thing On A Spring is a side-scrolling platform/puzzle game produced in 1985 for the Commodore 64 by Gremlin Graphics. Gameplay involves controlling a character resembling Zebedee from The Magic Roundabout through a toy factory while avoiding evil toys.
The game was written by Jason Perkins, Anthony Clarke and the graphics were by Mark Rogers, with musical score composed by Rob Hubbard, his first composition for a game . In his Zzap!64 review, Julian Rignall exclaimed, "The sound is unbelievable, I won't describe it but just wait until you hear it; words fail."
Along with Rockford from the game Boulder Dash, the Thing On A Spring character became a regular graphic element printed in the margins of Zzap!64.
Thing Bounces Back was released as a sequel in 1987, also by Gremlin.
Source: Wikipedia, "Thing on a Spring", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
Individual credits:
Rob Hubbard: Music (C64)