Air Powered and Air Flight Mechanical Toys

Can you believe it? Another new section for the The Automata / Automaton Store. The new section features air-powered toys and various flying toys.

Some of the neat items include:
* X2 Power Flyer kite/glider hybrid
* Propeller-powered trike kit
* Flying Robotic DragonFly
* Easy Star Electric, RC Airplane

Check out these and dozens of other air toys in the new Air Toys store section today!

Marble Track Toys from in AutomataStore.com

Another new section in The Automata / Automaton Store is yours for the viewing. The new section features every kind of marble-track rolling ball toy that Amazon.com sells. I couldn't believe how much they had...especially the specialty wooden track components.

Check out the new Marble-Track Toy section of The Automata / Automaton Store.

Magnets and Magnetic Toys in One Place

Earlier this week I announced that a Solar-Powered Toys section was added to The Automata / Automaton Store. While working on the new section, I realized I had overlooked more than one important category of mechanical toy.

So, without further ado, I would like to inform you that there is now another new section devoted entirely to Magnets and Magnetic Toys. It turned out to be a surprisingly big section! Shown here is a levitating top made with cherry wood. Magnets, rotational motion, wood, levitation...OK, this meets and surpasses my criteria for cool.

As with the Solar Toys section, the new Magnetic Toys section can be found under the main heading of Mechanical Toys in the left side navigation list of the store.

Visit the The Automata / Automaton Store to check out the huge selection of magnet-based toys.

Amazon Summer Toy Event 2008 - Save up to 70%

I just learned that Amazon.com is having a huge sale on toys. Some toys are being sold for up to 70% off. Here is the Amazon Summer Toys Event main page.

Here are some deals I think might interest you, Dear Readers:

* Fuel Cell X7 - Hydrogen Powered Car
* Discovery Exclusive Hydrogen Fuel Rocket
* Air Hogs Havoc R/C Helicopter - Blue
* Kabuto Mushi Robot
* Vectron Phazor (27.045 MHz)
* Kid Galaxy Backyard Flyer Blue Splash
* Yukon Express 200-Piece Wooden Train Set

These are just a few things I happened to find. The sale runs now through now though June 18th, 2008. Check out the rest of the Amazon Summer Toy Event sale items.

Mr. Machine Collectible Robot Toy Patent

The following is the patent abstract for the classic mechanical toy known as Mr. Machine. The full patent has several drawings and a lot of descriptive text.

---

Patent No.: 3,050,900
Category: TOY
Inventors: Marvin L Glass and Leonid Kripak
Date Filed: Dec. 28, 1959, Ser. No. 862,208

This invention relates generally to, and has for its principal object, an animated toy. More particularly, the invention relates to, and has for a further object, a mobile toy including a construction and arrangement of the parts which can be readily assembled and disassembled, which resembles a mechanical man incorporating various interest attracting features, and which are generally fabricated of translucent, differently colored plastic materials so that a fascinating mechanical, multicolored activity is observed during operation of the top.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a toy of the type described which is of inexpensive construction, which has educational value in developing the mechanical skill of a child through assembly, disassembly and operation of the toy, and which will attract and maintain the attention of children over an extended period of time.

---

I guess patents are not intended to sound fun. But Mr. Machine is fun! So, I'll leave it to the marketing copyrighters to convince you...

From Amazon.com:
"1960's authentic Mr. Machine! An early robot collectible toy manufactured using original molds! Rolling, spinning, ringing, squawking fun! Take Mr. Machine apart & put him back together! Includes authentic numbered Mr. Machine & his "toy wrench," DVD, Replica of US Patent Certificate, Numbered Certificate of Authenticity, Collector's Manual."

You can order the Mr. Machine robot gear toy online.

K'NEX Exploring Machines Set - Builds 30 Models

The more I look these days, the more great engineering toys I find. I would have loved this as a kid. Heck, I would love it now.

This is the K'NEX Exploring Machines Set. It contains 1,460 pieces and color-coded building instructions to build 30 different models. One really cool thing about this set is that it is so big, you can build 4 of each model type simultaneously. While I am guessing that this feature is targeted at educators, I think this increases the set's play-potential dramatically.

The models demonstrate the following mechanical devices:

• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class levers
• Fixed, movable, compound, and block & tackle pulley systems
• Wheel and axles with the force applied to wheel and axle
• Inclined planes, screws, and wedges
• Spur, crown, sprocket, rack and pinion, transmission, and differential gear systems

The set comes in a plastic storage case with dividers and lock-on transparent lid.

Here's the K'NEX EDUCATION Exploring Machines set at Amazon.
Here is the K'NEX Exploring Machines Set at Edmund Scientifics.

Gear Toy: Superstruts Wacky Machines Set

Kazoo Toys offers building and construction toys from a host of toy makers. Shown here is the Superstruts Wacky Machines Set made by Waba Fun. This 175 piece building set includes 12 large gears and plans to build 7 models that include a clock, geared-down Ferris whee, a car that drills, and other fun contraptions.

Otherbuilding and construction toys offered at KazooToys.Com come from toy makers including:

• Building Blocks
• CoinStruction
• Cranium Super Fort
• Elenco Electronics
• Gears & Gearbotics
• Haba Toys
• Kapla
• K'nex Building Toys
• LINCOLN LOGS
• Magna Tiles
• Magz by Progressive
• Playmobil
• Quercetti Toys
• Rokenbok Construction System
• Taurus Toy
• Superstructs
• Zometool Building Systems
• Zoob Toys
• ZOOMORPHS

Find a wide variety of building and construction toys at KazooToys.Com.

Make Your Own Robot...With a Soda Can!

This little kit includes a plastic body, wire wings, wire legs, motor with wires, screws, and detailed instructions...almost everything you need to turn an empty soda can into simple robot bug that skitters across the floor. You supply the batteries, soda can, and the time it takes to put it together.

Check out the Make Your Own Soda Can Robug Kit.

Good Deal on I-SOBOT Robot by Tomy

Amazon is selling the Tomy I-SOBOT for just over $200 USD now -- that's a savings of $97.03 off of original retail.

Update:
The price seems to have jumped back up to $242 -- still a savings, but only of about $57.

From Amazon:
With unbelievably smooth robotics, the i-SOBOT walks more like a human than a robot. This fully-functional and fully-assembled robot features 17 custom designed actuators and gyro-sensor, allowing it to keep balance and freely move joints for impressive performance, vivid movement, and incredible flexibility. Other main components include a built-in speaker unit and built-in microphone with a voice recognition chip. With built-in clutches and metal gears, the i-SOBOT offers up to 220-degree movement. The two infrared transmission bands allow the robot to be operated with an LCD remote control.

See all the details of the Tomy I-SOBOT Robot

15 New Robots from WowWee

Head over to the MAKE magazine blog to see their roundup of reviews for toymaker WowWee's new line of robots.

Here's an article on the new robots from PC Magazine's coverage of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

I'll be updating the robot toys section of The Automata / Automaton Store, once these new toys are available through Amazon.

Mechanical Toys - Automata/Automaton Store

Just in time for the holidays...tons of cool mechanical toys! There has been a HUGE update to The Automata / Automaton Store. An entire section of mechanical toys has been added.

Under the Mechanical Toys heading there are many subsections:
* Tin Toys - Robots
* Tin Toys - Vehicles
* Tin Toys - Animals
* Tin Toys - Games
* Contemporary Wind-Ups
* Motorized Mechanical
* Wind-Up Flying Toys
* Mechanical Banks
* Balancing Toys

There are also sections dedicated to:
* Robot Kits
* Robot Toys
* Construction Toys

Dug North's List of Top 12 Robotic Toys for 2007

I scanned Amazon.com for a hours in search of the coolest robotic toys. The slideshow above shows you 12 of my top picks (in no particular order). Many of them have video on Amazon so you can see what they can really do.

1. LEGO Mindstorms NXT

2. Pleo Dinosaur - A Ugobe Life Form

3. WowWee Robosapien Version 2 Humanoid Robot

4. WowWee Roboraptor Robotic Dinosaur

5. Tomy I-SOBOT Robot

6. i-Que Personal Robot

7. WowWee Robotic DragonFly

8. Robone Fully Articulated Robot

9. WowWee Robotics Roboquad

10. WowWee Robosapien RS Media

11. Tyco R/C N.S.E.C.T. Robotic Attack Creature

12. Hitec 77002 Robonova I Ready-To-Walk Humanoid Robot

Gear Lab - Cool Gear Toy Set

The folks over at Edmund Scientifics have an interesting gear toy. The Gear Lab consists of a gears workbench, an assortment of pulley wheels and gear cogs, long and short axles, cranks, and a cord. The entire set is contained in its own storage box. Nice.

This Gear Lab looks like fun to me!

HiTec RoboNova-1: Robot, Toy, Automaton, Art?

I have been asked publicly and privately where I draw the line between robot and automaton. As of yet, I do not have a well-reasoned answer. I have also been asked about the line between objet d'art and toy. Again, my answer is a murky one.

While this blog isn't about robots, I have a great fondness for them; I have made a few myself. With all of this gray area, why not show you an autonomous toy robot?

This 12 inch tall mechanical man can walk, run, do flips, cartwheels, and perform dance moves. At $1300 (or $1000 for an unassembled kit version) one hesitates to call it a toy. Perhaps because it can be programmed, we would also hesitate to call it autonomous. Just because it is sold en masse, are there not elements that qualify as art?

All I feel certain of is that RoboNova-1 is a technological marvel. I have no doubt that watchmakers, engineers, magicians, and automata-makers of old would have found this thing as fascinating as I do. I would love to have one (in order to do a proper review for you, of course).

Check out the HiTec RoboNova-1 at Edmund's Scientifics.

5 Best Books for Paper Automaton Plans

Here's a list for people interested in making working paper automata. This is a great way to make your first automaton. It is also good for people that do not have woodworking tools. Older kids, focused kids, or supervised kids can learn a tremendous amount about engineering by making a paper automaton. All but Museum of the Mind contain several complete projects. An afternoon's work and you can have made your very own automaton.

1 - Paper Automata: Four Working Models to Cut Out & Glue Together- Rob Ives

2 - A Handbook of Paper Automata Mechanisms- Walter Ruffler

3 - Automata Too: Four Working Models to Cut Out and Glue Together- Magdalen Bear

4 - Museum of the Mind: Build Your Own Thinking Machine from 192 Pieces of Paper- Paul Spooner

5 - Spooner's Moving Animals or the Zoo of Tranquillity- Paul Spooner

5 Best Books for Wood Automaton Makers

Here is a list of books for people who want to make an automaton out of wood. These books deal with the subject directly, all have useful patterns, and the first three have detailed plan drawings. I recommend all of these highly.

1 - Automata and Mechanical Toys- Rodney Peppe

2 - Making Mechanical Toys- Rodney Peppe

3 - Whacky Toys, Whirligigs & Whatchamacallits- Rodney Frost

4 - How to Design & Make Automata  - Rob Addams

5 - Cabaret Mechanical Movement- Aidan Lawrence Onn, Gary Alexander

Automata and Mechanical Toys by Rodney Peppe

I have said in the past that if you want to make a wood automaton, and can only get just one book, Automata and Mechanical Toysby Rodney Peppé is the book to get.

This wonderful book is currently available in hardcover at amazon.com for 31% off the regular retail price. This is a great deal.

The book is printed on fine glossy paper and is full of color photos (160 in all). The book profiles over 20 leading automata-makers, and provides step-by-step instructions for making an automata test-bed. There is also a section teaching you how to make ten fundamental mechanisms.

One of the best things about this book is that there are scale patterns to copy and use -- cams, gears, pin-wheels, ratchets, and even a Geneva mechanism.

Visit Amazon and use the Search Inside! feature for Automata and Mechanical Toys

Following as a close second, Peppé's book entitled Making Mechanical Toysshould also interest you.

Goat / Logic Gates in Paper Automata Form

Here's a really interesting combination of expertise: logic gates (the basis of all computing and therefore computers) and paper automata.

Rob Ives -- another of the masters of paper automata -- has created Logic Goats. The OR goat will nod if you press either the first button or the second. The AND goat will only nod if you press the first and the second buttons.

If we could get a NAND and NOR goats and string them all together in complex chains, we might be able to build a Goat-based computer!

Check out, buy and download the Logic Goat Automata at the Flying Pig web site.

Mechanical Toys & Games @ The Henry Ford Museum

The Henry Ford Museum has over 10,000 toys and games covering over two hundred years. Items in the toys and games collection include dolls, toy animals, board games, toy automobiles and trains, mechanical toys, construction sets, toy musical instruments, puzzles, marbles, and educational toys. Of particular interest to me is the mechanical Toys and Games section.

From the site:
Toy makers have long experimented with ways that toys could simulate human and other real-life action. Key-wound clockwork mechanisms, mass produced by the late 1800s, revolutionized the toy world. Different mechanisms could motivate dolls, engines, cars, boats, and other novelty toys, producing amazing and eccentric variations of speed and direction. Although many of these were ostensibly designed as children's playthings, they were equally appealing to adults.

Visit The Henry Ford Museum's Toys and Games section online

Also check out the online exhibit related to toys. (The link is at the very bottom labeled "enter".)

Not Your Father's Erector Set - Interactive Robot

This Erector set builds 6 ultra-cool robots that can be motorized and programmed. The Sleek and futuristic design comes with 2 motors. The new Erector assembly system is faster and easier than ever and includes a power tool that doubles as an additional motor. The set comes with over 500 plastic and metal pieces

This is not your father's Erector set!

Check out the Erector Interactive Motorized Robot Speedplay Set

Another Autonomous Dinosaur: Roboraptor

Mark Tilden the former NASA scientist behind Robosapien, also created Roboraptor, this programmable robotic dinosaur.

Roboraptor is one astonishing, programmable RC dinosaur. He is fully controllable and programmable by radio control but also fully autonomous in free-roam mode.

Roboraptor has multi-sensors to allow this 32" bipedal beast to see, hear and feel the environment around him. He has multiple touch sensors in his head and tail, while sonic sensors detect sound and direction. He even has three distinct moods: hunter, cautious and playful. Go near his face when he's hunting and he'll behave aggressively; touch him when he's playful and he'll nuzzle your hand.

Now I want both a Roboreptile and a Roboraptor to see which one would win in a fight!

There's good video of the robot here: Roboraptor

LEGO ™ Mindstorms NXT Robot Kit

Dear LEGO: feel free to send me your newest robot-building kit, with 32-bit command center, large LCD, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth interfaces. I will be happy to review it (and keep it!). Sincerely, Dug North

• Intuitive GUI and drag-and-drop icons are PC- and Mac-friendly
• Touch and light sensors, sound sensor, and ultrasonic sensor
• Three motors for smooth, reliable operation
• 6-wire digital cables for precise connections
• 5 main themes(8 different models - Vehicle: Roverbot, Animal, Scorpio; Machine: Robotic Arm; Human: Humanoid; Gadgets: Clock, Music, Game and Movers
• Models are built with the LEGO Technic System
• 571 pieces
• Quickstart Guide - build a robot within 30 minutes
• Model-specific building instructions, tips and tricks, testing methods and programming options
• Easy-to-use software
• Test panel

Learn more about LEGO ™ Mindstorms NXT Robot Kit

Autonomous Roboreptile

Who doesn't want their own 2 1/4 foot fully autonomous reptile with two aggressive biomechanical gaits, stereo sound sensors, color-shifting skin, whipping tail, snapping jaws, rear sensors, infrared vision sensors, touch sensors and hood to fit over its face to subdue it during aggressive moods?

Rumor has it that everyone in the audience of Ellen Degeneres Show will receive one free tomorrow, Thursday November 16th. That's going to be chaos!

Check out the Flash video of The Discovery Remote Control Chromashift Roboreptile

Schylling - Wind Up Mechanical Tin Toys

It warms my heart that Schylling is still making classic tin toys. While my preference is for wood and hand-cranking, I love retro metal toys that you wind up.

Some of them are very clever...and no batteries required.

I dealt with their customer service folks once and they were really nice. I broke a crucial piece on my Balancing Bear Ernestand they shipped me a new part, free of charge!

Check out a bunch of Schylling Tin Toys

Awesome Gear Toy: Quercetti 3D Gear Tech

Here's a great toy for the aspiring automata-maker.

From Kazoo Toys web site:
The Quercetti 3D Gear Tech allows you to build exciting technological structures! There are 270 pieces in this gear set featuring pillars, 6 way axles, connectors, extenders, interlocking plates and meshing gears. There are exclusive universal joints that allow for greater freedom during construction. This set also includes a new "chain" and an "elastic belt" to transmit rotary motion to distant gears. Ages 6 and up.

Check out the Quercetti 3D Gear Tech toys