The Mechanical Toys Page

Toys that you can make yourself!

What Is The Mechanical Toys Page About?

The Mechanical Toys Page is devoted all toys that are powered mechanically or that are kinetic. The toys on these pages are powered by rubber bands, springs, flywheels, candles and gravity. The best thing about these toys is that many of them can be built at home with no special tools. I have built most of the toys and written instructions, with diagrams and photos, on how to build them yourself using bits and bobs scrounged from junk.

What Is So Good About Making My Own Toys?

I played with a lot of these toys as a kid and a lot of the fun is in making then. Hammering and cutting are great things for kids to do because it fascinates them and will keep them occupied for whole days. If you have children introduce them to mechanical toys (paper aerolanes don't even require tools) and let them learn and develop by using their hands. The toys don't have to have spectacular performance to keep the kids interested; the camphor boat, for example, will have the kids splashing around in water and getting cool at the same time. There are toys here for adults (or big kids as I prefer to call myself) too. Some of the toys have spectacular performance, the water rocket for example. And you can learn scientific principles by playing with them (rocket propulsion, stability and drag with the water rocket and heat engine and crankshaft operation with the Stirling engine).

Is There Anything Else Before I Make My First Toy?

If you are interested in other sources of mechanical toy information Dave Johnson recommends these books. Links to other web pages that deal specifically with one toy are given in the relevant toy pages below.

There is a TV show on BBC 2 called "Local Heroes" that introduces important historical scientists and their experiments and inventions. The Local Heroes Home Page has descriptions of how to make some of the inventions that feature on the show. This site is worth a visit.

If you know of other mechanically-powered toys that are not on this page, please mail me and tell me about them.

The Toys!

I have constructed the toys that are marked with a O. Complete instructions with pictures are included in the relevant links. The toys marked with a + have a description but no instructions. I will be adding instructions for these toys when I have the time, look out for the new icons. Some of the toys can be bought from specialty shops so even if the instructions are not available I may have included links to relevant web pages. The toys marked with a favourite are my favourites.

O Billy Cart favourite
O Camphor Boat
+ Cartesian diver
O Cotton-spool tank favourite
O Jet boat
O Match rocket
O Mouse-trap car
+ Ornithopter
O Paper planes, helicopters and water bombs
+ Putt putt boat favourite
O Rubber-band gun
+ Spinning button
+ Stirling engine favourite
O Tea-bag balloon
O Water rocket favourite

The Mechanical Toys Pages have been accessed by 27898 people since 27 Jun, 1997

Last modified: Wed Jun 10 09:50:08 1998
©  Malcolm Goris   <mgoris@nfra.nl>