Cross Beams—Revolutionizing Building Toys
Cross Beams is a great building toy that rivals LEGO for form, function, and creativity. Explore this system with the author, and fall in love.
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Tag: Models
Balsa Wood Planes: A Classic Good for Minutes of Fun
I come not to bury the flimsy nature of these childhood classics, but to praise them.
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SpruKits Are Not Your Childhood Models
My son and I spent the last couple evenings putting together some SpruKits from Bandai. Like the model cars and planes I assembled as a kid, the SpruKits arrive still on their sprues. Unlike the models of the 70s and 80s, the SpruKits snap together well and make a finished model that is durable and playable.
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Fund This: Feed Your Inner Gardening Geek With the Nourishmat
This week, we take a peek at projects that can improve your gardening skills and allow you to build a super-tiny skeleton.
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Bobby Sussman’s Star Wars With Toys
Fans of Star Wars love to remix and recreate their favourite movie using a multitude of mediums – animators, editors, filmmakers, artists illustrators and photographer have all had a play in that galaxy far, far away and now it’s the turn of Instagram user Bobby Sussman and his Star Wars with toys series.
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Star Wars: Mega Models Makes Papercraft Easy as 1-2-3
Building paper models is a breeze with this new book of Star Wars themed punch-out models.
Continue ReadingMAKE Shares Tips for the New 3D Printer Owner
Got a new 3D printer this holiday season? MAKE’s got some tips for you.
Continue ReadingWhat If Lego Were Still Made From Wood?
Have a look at what the iconic Lego minifigures could look like like if they were hand carved from solid oak, by French designer Malet Thibaut.
Continue ReadingStar Wars Comes to Scalextric This Fall
Scalextric is one of the oldest, best-known slot car makers out there. Their tracks and cars have supplied hobbyists with fodder for decades and their devotion to detail has made even the most meticulous modelmaker mirthful.
Continue ReadingDiving Into The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour
Turns out I was only looking at a model of the model though. The reason we had been slowly rising became apparent as we entered the next room, coming out onto the second floor. There, spread over at least 15 …
Continue ReadingThe Pirates of Colorado
Talk about a good summer GeekDad style project: The Greeley (Colorado) Tribune recently reported that a couple of local men built a 20 foot long pirate ship, complete with a ship’s wheel, Jolly Roger, a plank (for walking,) and cannon. …
Continue ReadingA Detailed, Awesome, Scratch-Built Muppet Theater
The Muppet Show is one of my top ten favorite TV shows of all time. It first aired from 1976 to 1981, and lived on in syndication through 2007. The show was set at the Muppet Theater, a classic Cabaret-style …
Continue ReadingLego Helps ESA Scientists to Visualize Spacecraft
ESA scientist Detlef Koschny built Lego models of the Rosetta space probe and lander to help visualize and demonstrate their functionality in meetings. I’m sure there are more sophisticated and professional ways to do this, but you have to imagine …
Continue ReadingModel Rocketry’s Big Idea Guy Is Back At Work
So, what do you do after you set a world record by building and launching a nearly-four-story model rocket? If you’re Steve Eves, you set your sights even higher: The Northeast Ohio guy who crafted a 1/10th scale Saturn V …
Continue ReadingGeekDad Basics: How To Launch A Model Rocket
From the GeekDad mailbag, we’ve received the following request: My son and I have decided to build and fly our own model rocket. However, I am hopelessly mechanically and electronically dopey. I’m bad at gluing together models. I can’t do …
Continue ReadingRideable Electric Train and More Geeky Toys From the Shizuoka Hobby Show
One of the most amazing things about the growth of GeekDad has been making contacts all around the world with people who are into toys and geeky gadgets. One of those contacts is Francesco Fondi, an Italian ex-pat living in …
Continue Reading36-Foot ‘Model’ Rocket Is Set to Take Flight Saturday
It’s the kind of story that makes you ask yourself, "How big does a model rocket have to be before it stops being a model and becomes real?" Also, if you’re anything like me, it makes you really want to rearrange your schedule so you can watch the 8,000 pounds of thrust take it into […]
Continue ReadingThrow Your Own Pinewood Derby
It’s a crazy sale! They’ve gone mental! Maker Shed is selling pinewood derby cars for ONE SINGLE SOLITARY DOLLAR EACH! But, you ask yourself, what would you do with a pinewood derby car? Unless you’re the parent of a Cub Scout, that is. Consider the example of Greg Flanagan. Last August, he asked his wife […]
Continue Readingart machines: I want a “Sub-Sonic Dissidence Propulsion Device”
Gareth Branwyn over at Make drew our attention to this web site: art machines. Hardly a surprise, given the name of the site, art machines boasts a growing collection of machine-inspired artwork as well as some very cool and elaborate/diabolical machines. And they’ve got robots too. From the most recent post, this is a photo […]
Continue ReadingPinewood Derby for Grown-Ups
For a long time the Cub Scout rite-of-passage known as the Pinewood Derby has been harboring a grown-up side — moms and dads who helped their sons build Derby cars, and then built their own just because. Well, sometimes adults build the cars to help out a good cause. Check out this great flickr set, […]
Continue ReadingDiscovering Dragonology
The Dragonology series has been out for a while now (as a matter of fact, it’s apparently popular enough to warrant video game versions), but it’s not so ancient that I ever ran into it myself, and my kids have been too young to pick up on it. Until now, that is. We were at […]
Continue ReadingTurn Off The Screens and Go Old-School Geek
We are in the middle of Turn Off The Screens Week, a program supported by many school boards in Ontario, described by organizers as providing participants and their parents the “opportunity to discuss the impact of inactivity caused by time spent in front of screens.” So, no video games (console or portable), television, movies, computer […]
Continue ReadingMatchstick Models: Do Not Build Near An Open Flame
Neat post on Make, reporting from the NYC Toy Fair, about these amazing models available for purchase. Using small wooden dowels (just like classic matchsticks), you too can build a locomotive, or the Eiffel Tower. Called Matchitecture, they are lovingly assembled kits for people who have the time and patience to build something amazing. Check […]
Continue ReadingMarshmallows: Not Just For Roasting Anymore
My son, Adian’s, kindergarten class was learning about three dimensional shapes and objects last week. His teacher opted to bypass the usual visualization tools (Tinkertoys, LEGO, K’NEX, etc…) and used marshmallows and toothpicks instead. This actually worked out pretty well. The toothpicks can be stuck in pretty much any which way and the whole thing […]
Continue ReadingOld School Zoo Tycoon
I have a tendency to accumulate computer equipment and some of it inevitably trickles down through the household (i.e., I can’t bear to part with anything that shipped with a keyboard); as a result, my kids have become reasonably proficient with the gear at a fairly early age. My daughter, Natasha, in particular, is a […]
Continue ReadingHome-Made Trebuchet Really Throws It Down
GeekDad reader Tom Heck sends us some cool video of the trebuchet kit he and his son assembled and tested together. I love that the counterweight is a dumbell! Check out the video in the Extended Post (picture is one of the kits from the maker’s website).
Continue ReadingFor Sale: One Used AT-AT in Good Condition, Needs Paint
The website Starship Modeler had its 15th annual contest to make the best wreck. They could be anything wrecked, such as: Any heavily weathered and battle-damaged/injured vehicle, hardware or figure Any destroyed or discarded vehicle, hardware or figure Any figure, vehicle, hardware, mecha, aircraft, starship, equipment or other subject that is battered, damaged or falling […]
Continue ReadingNow This is What a Portable Energy Weapon Should Look Like!
From Neatorama today, the REALLY cool-looking (and pricey) replica of the Lost in Space Laser Pistol: Sci-Fi Metropolis in collaboration with master propsmith Richard Coyle, created this 1:1 scale model of a laser pistol from the 1960s sci-fi TV series Lost in Space. We should warn you though ("Danger Will Robinson!"), the limited edition models […]
Continue ReadingLego Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon
It took more than 30 hours to finish, but our “Ultimate Collector’s Edition Millennium Falcon” is now complete. When the box arrived at my doorstep several weeks ago, I was surprised at its weight – 24 pounds, including packaging. And when we opened the box to look at all the pieces, we were blown away. […]
Continue ReadingDinosaurs Alive -Well, Sort Of…
We made our annual Thanksgiving Day trek to the Toronto Zoo last week (I live in Canada- we still have turkey, but we like to cook it before the snow hits) and one of the big highlights of the trip for the kids was the Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit. Housed in a large dome, the exhibit […]
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