A fun kids' kit: Blinkybugs!

Blinkybugs are little creatures with blinking LED eyes. The eyes blink when the bug's long wire "antennae" bounce against the LED's leads. They were invented by Ken Murphy.

Earlier this week my 7-year-old daughter and I made a blinkybug from Murphy's new kit, Blinkybugs! Make Your Own Electronic Insects, published by Chronicle Books.

The kit contains enough materials to make three blinkybugs (out of watch batteries, pipe cleaners, a small copper tube, foil tape, music wire, and LEDs -- no soldering required) and it comes with a book that presents the instructions in comic book format.

I did most of the work on the first bug, but the next day, my daughter asked if she could build one by herself. She gathered the required tools (scissors, needle-nose pliers, a marker, tape, and a rule) and set up shop on the kitchen floor. She called me in once -- to bend the little copper tube -- but other than that, she was able to build it on her own by reading the simple and clear instructions.

Because she made them, she seems to like them a lot more than she would if someone had given them to her pre-made. The bugs sit in her lap when she watches TV, and she puts them on the desk so they can watch her play on the computer.

This is a great kit for any kid.

Blinkybugs! Make Your Own Electronic Insects

• [Anonymous]

  Mars Attacks card #21 rules.

• [GeekMan]

  Mark: Your daughter is utterly adorable. You’re a very lucky dad.

  I tinkered with electronics a fair bit when I was a kid, as a result of my dad’s hobby interest. Kids have a good head for basic circuitry and cute stuff like this is a great way to get them started!

• [Swampdog]

  I saw these at the first maker faire in San Mateo. We figured out how to make them using batteries, battery cases, guitar strings (for the antennae), LEDs, and bits of wire for the legs. I taught my (then 12 yo) daughter how to solder them together. She made several dozen and sold them to raise $600 that she sent to Mercy Corps to make a playground for needy kids somewhere.

  Yay blinky bugs!

• [Kosmoid]

  Errrrr… that’s all well and good, but really don’t you think it would be better to first produce a Blinkybugs movie with different characters, and of course a not so subliminal dose of Hollywood liberal sensibility to assure an Oscar?

  I could see the voices being done by Penn or Clooney or Garofalo for characters agitating for overthrow of Megabugs Corp. You could license collectible Bbug glasses to BurgerKing and sell the plastic characters for $6.99, each hidden in packages so that kids need to goad their parents to keep buying them so that they can eventually get the special “white” Bbug. Business is all about perceived scarcity and brand management.

  How’dya think Hello Kitty got started?

  But seriously, first time a kids swallows one of these it’ll mean ka-ching litigation.

• [Stefan Jones]

  That fundraising idea rocks, Swampdog!

• [Anonymous]

  This is absolutely wonderful. A great way to teach kids to build things by hand, and it presents basic principles of electronics in an easily digestible form. I love the comic book style of the instruction manual, that’s priceless!

  If I had kids, I’d recruit them to spread them amongst other kids.. Soon, it would become a fad and I would build up a gigantic blinkybug army, deployed worldwide. Soon after, my arduino implants would activate, turning them into a physical worldwide neural botnet, poised at my disposal. Muahahahhaaaa.. Then again that’s probably why it’s best I don’t have kids.

• [warreno]

  Now all you need are Blinkymartians!

• [SamSam]

  This seems to be a pretty good example of the “bundle all the bits you could probably just buy yourself for $2 into a kit and sell it” theme. I guess it’s probably a good way to get kids (and adults) into making things themselves, although I sometimes wonder if it also teaches them that they can only actually build something when it comes bundled up in a kit.

  I guess I was pretty annoyed the other day when I saw Bristle Bots in the store window. They had originally been designed by the Evil Mad Scientist Lab as a really neat and easy bot that you could make out of a discarded toothbrush head. And then these guys were selling brand-new “toothbrush heads” in the kit (and no mention of EMSL).

  Like I said, though, it can also be a good thing. If you’re just going to make a couple bots, you don’t want to have to hunt around different junk stores to buy six pipe cleaners, four LEDs, etc.

• [EggyToast]

  “This is just my opinion, but I think that even if you’re following instructions rather than designing the item you made, there’s still a sense of achievement when you’re finished, which to me is no bad thing.”

  Yep, that’s why LEGO still sells their kits unassembled, even the simple ones. Sure, people talk about how LEGOs are cool because you can make whatever you want, but most kids get started just following the directions, and the fact that you put it together yourself is pretty cool. It also works as a great introduction to taking it apart, or mixing two sets together.

  And yes, Mark’s kiddo could easily be a unicorn chaser. Just ‘shop new stuff into her hands, et voila!

• [Astragali]

  Mark, I’m not surprised your daughter has a preference for the ones she made. This is just my opinion, but I think that even if you’re following instructions rather than designing the item you made, there’s still a sense of achievement when you’re finished, which to me is no bad thing.