Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

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They look like ants from up here!

My ants haven’t been doing much tunneling. It’s been a bit cooler here so maybe it’s due to the temperature.

I thought there was a dead ant in the gel on the top, but when I dug down a bit into it, it was apparently just ant poop. You can see the dark spot in the picture here, just above the ant in the middle of the picture. This picture is looking down from above through the lid. There was also a bit of condensation on the lid which I wiped off. You can also see down through the tubes in this picture.

Speaking of the lid, my sister-in-law expressed concern that her cat might knock over the AntWorks and let them escape. So I thought I’d mention that the AntWorks is not glass, but plastic, and the lid fits on quite tightly. It could not be accidentally knocked off and it actually takes a bit of prying to get it off.

Since I didn’t have much to share in the way of new tunnels today, I thought I’d post a video I came across which shows what happened to someone else when their AntWorks gel pulled away from the side a bit, and two curious ants got stuck between the gel and the wall. I really don’t know how this could happen. The gel is very tight (it seems like it has been poured in as a liquid and set-up inside the container) and it would take something serious to pull it away from the side. Perhaps they dropped it. It’s a long video, but you could zoom ahead to see the outcome.

Ants with mood lighting.

Our ants haven’t made much more progress today, so I thought I’d attach the AntWorks Illuminator to their habitat and see if it gets them in the mood to tunnel.

The Illuminator is very cool. It slips right into the base of the AntWorks and has 4 blue LED Lights in an array which light up the gel from below. This turns the AntWorks into the coolest night light in the universe.

The other cool thing is that as the ants pass above the lights, they cast shadows in the gel, which looks kinda eerie. If they are active, the lights look alive.

You can’t see it in this picture, but the ants seem to be tunnelling in the gel mounds they created "above ground". There is what appears to be an ant encased in the gel. Not sure yet if it’s a dead ant that they entombed, or if it’s just an ant that’s sleeping in a tunnel. Otherwise, the ants are tunneling upwards in one corner again. They now have a tunnel all the way across the bottom connecting four vertical shafts.

We have tunnelage!

Our ants in the AntWorks continue to build their tunnels. They even connected the one that goes behind to the straight vertical tube, giving them a little shortcut. Now they are extending the tunnel that runs along the bottom of the AntWorks.

There’s some discoloration of the gel that the ants deposited at the top. Some may be ants in the top showing through the gel, but I believe some of it is ant poop in the gel. I’m not sure what I can do about that. Every time I take the lid off, the ants scurry to the top and get very excited. I suppose you could put it in the fridge and slow the ants down, but I’m not sure what that would do to the gel.

	Experiment patch

Advertising for AntWorks says that it is "based upon a 2003 NASA Space Shuttle experiment". Well, yes, it is, sort of. The experiment was part of the Space Experiment Module (SEM-14) on board STS 107 (Space Transport System mission 107). Unfortunately, this was the Columbia mission that disintegrated in orbit, so the experiment was not recovered after the flight. It was not exactly a NASA experiment, however. The experiment was part of S*T*A*R*S (Space Technology And Research Students), which allowed students from around the world to fly experiments on the Space Shuttle. The Ants in Space experiment was conducted by the G.W. Fowler High School in Syracuse, NY, which is very cool.

		Image from onboard Columbia showing the ants progress on their tunnels in space
	STARS module prototype

The gel was developed in order to see how ants tunneled in the weightlessness of space compared to ants on earth. If they had used sand or earth for the experiment, the tunnels would have collapsed on the return trip due to the extreme G-forces. It also wouldn’t have allowed them to see the tunnels as clearly. The ants in space were released into the gel to begin tunneling at the same time as ants on earth in an identical module so that they could compare their progress. Although the experiment did not return, they did determine that the ants in space made tunnels faster than those on earth. And that they were a bit more erratic.

Back here on earth our ants’ tunneling has seemed to slow a bit. They also seem to be sticking to the corners and bottom at the moment. Hopefully, they will create more tunnels in the middle soon. This morning I watched one ant work quite hard to bite off a chunk of gel while her sisters kept nudging her from behind. It looked like they were impatient with her progress.

Incidentally, all the ants that you receive are all female. In fact, almost all the ants you ever see are female. Male ants are only created as needed by the queen for reproduction.

Tunneling along the bottom of the AntWorks	You can just see the area where the ants have connected the tunnels as they cross paths

Our ants didn’t sleep much last night.

Overnight our ants were quite busy. They began two tunnels from the starter holes I created last night. One tunnel goes straight to the bottom and the other curves behind the first one. I’m not sure at this point if they are going to break through to the other tunnel, or continue on behind it.

You can see all the little chunks of gel they have removed from the tunnel and deposited on the surface at the top. Oddly, they are also taking the gel chunks up the walls and sticking them there. Wonder how they know that will work.

The instructions tell you to open the lid now and then and give them some fresh air. When I did that today, they got very excited and started running all around. There are air holes in the lid, but apparently they like getting fresh air. On the right of this photo you can still see the other two starter holes in the gel. I don’t think they are holes any longer from the top because they seem to have buried them in the gel chunks.

	They seem to have made a little room at the bottom of the tunnel

Other than removing the lid for a "few seconds every week or so", there isn’t much more you need to do to care for your ants. The gel is their food and water, so you don’t need to find food for them or give them a drink. Other than that, you just need to keep them out of direct sunlight because ants prefer shade. I also suspect AntWorks would heat up pretty much in sunlight and cook the ants in their gel. That would be bad. The ants prefer room temperature between 58 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

This basically leaves you to watch your ants at work. And they are busy. Ants do sleep, but I haven’t seen any that seem to be sleeping yet. They all seem busy. The manual says that some ants sleep while others work, so there is activity 24/7.

The whole family is enjoying watching our new buddies building their tunnels and scurrying around.

I should point out that AntWorks is not meant to be an ant colony. That is, it is not meant for long-term ant populations with a queen and breeding. It is meant to house about 20-30 ants for their lifetime and give kids and adults an opportunity to get to know these incredible creatures. The gel makes the entire tunnel system, and the ants activities, available to a degree that an ant farm with dirt could not. But it is not meant for long-term sustainability of a colony.

A close up of the ants in their tunnels.

AntWorks habitat ready for ants.

The AntWorks ant habitat has been one of my favorite "toys" since we first started selling them several years ago. It’s been some time since I started one of my own, so I thought I’d get one going and post some blogs with the ants’ progress. Check back on my blog, or click on the AntWorks category to see the entire process form beginning to end. All the photos in this post will be ones I’ve taken from this "group" of ants and I’ll give an honest report of how things go.

If you’re not familiar with AntWorks, it is "A Space-Age Habitat for Ants". You can get more information here, but basically it is a gel that supplies everything the ants need: food, water, and tunnelling medium. It is also fairly clear, so you can see your ants’ tunnels and see what all of them are doing while they make their way around in their habitat.

	Our new ants in their luxury travel accommodations

On September 21, I ordered my ants online from one of the ant suppliers listed in the AntWorks booklet. They were $4.95 total including shipping. The ants are not included in the price of the AntWorks, but you can gather your own ants from your yard if you prefer (care should be taken). On September 26th, they arrived in the mail. They mentioned that some of the ants may not arrive alive, but mine were all just fine. We were on our way out for the day when the mail was delivered, so we weren’t able to start our AntWorks right when they arrived, but the ants were fine until later that evening when we were able to put them in their new home. I wouldn’t keep them waiting too long, but a few hours was fine. The timing on our ant order was great because my Niece was visiting and she was able to help us. Her hand is in some of the pictures here.

	Poking holes in the gel to help the ants get started

The ants you receive are Harvester Ants. They are a really good size to view, but they should not be handled because they do sting. They arrived with a sheet warning "Caution! Do Not Touch These Ants!". Fortunately, there is no real reason to handle them, they come in a nice little tube ready to be added to your AntWorks.

When you’re ready to add your ants to the AntWorks, you are instructed to place them in the fridge for about 10 minutes, which slows them down. While we were waiting for them to calm down in the fridge, we followed the instructions and poked 4 holes in the AntWorks gel to make starter holes for the ants to tunnel. There is a little stick included for this. This makes it easier for them to start tunneling, and I think also gets them started in the locations you would like them to tunnel, so plan your starter holes well. We also wiped off a little bit of condensation that was on the plastic above the gel when we opened it. This is normal and the instructions tell you to just wipe it off.

	Adding our chilled ants to the AntWorks habitat

We took the ants out of the fridge after 10 minutes and they were fairly quiet. Unfortunately, it took me too long to get things set up for taking photos and they began to get active again, so we popped them back in the fridge for a few more minutes to calm them down again.

Next, my son gently "poured" them into the AntWorks habitat. Since they were still chilled, they were not moving much and there was no chance of them getting out the top. This was a chance to clean out some of their poop that poured out with them using a damp Q-Tip. We closed up the lid and waited for them to come around, which they did soon. Obviously, the ants were quite curious about their new home and they began exploring it as soon as they woke up.

They didn’t start tunnelling just yet but we did enjoy watching them for a while. They sometimes check out our starter holes, but by the time we all went to bed, they hadn’t made any tunnels. Check back to see their progress the next morning!

Our ants in their new home, still groggy from the fridge

Getting up close and personal with our ants using the included magnifier. You can also see one of the starter holes.

Buzz Lightyear, looking very confident before blastoff.

He may be just a toy, but Buzz Lightyear has just recently returned from quite a trip. In May, 2008 Buzz was launched into orbit on board Discovery for a 6 month scheduled mission aboard the International Space Station as part of an educational program teaching children about space. But his mission was so successful, that NASA and Disney extended it to more than a year. That means that Buzz holds the record for his stay in space, surpassing the longest duration mission held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov set in 1995.

	Buzz’s pal Woody sees him off on his journey.

Buzz, a 12-inch tall action figure, finally travelled into space through a partnership between NASA and Disney Parks to encourage students to pursue science, technology, and math. To further encourage students, NASA and Disney have created an online program called the Space Ranger Education Series.

Buzz returned to earth on board the Space Shuttle on September 12, 2009. Buzz spent 468 days in space, beating the record by 30 days. His good pal Woody was on-hand to wave goodbye when he lifted off in 2008, but was probably not there when he landed since the Shuttle had to land in California. After several "debriefing sessions" Disney is planning on a ticker-tape parade for Buzz in honor of his space duration achievement on October 2, at Walt Disney World along with his space station crew mates and Apollo 11 Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin (who maintains that he is the real Buzz)

	Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger, on duty.

While on-board the station, Buzz made some video recordings designed to teach kids the basics of working and living in the weightless environment of space. In one video, an astronaut sleeps with Buzz, letting him go as he drifts off, which lets Buzz also drift off across the station. He will also contribute a journal about his adventures.

Buzz also made some great videos before he left for his adventure. Scroll down to see one of them.

Buzz’s triumphant return to California.

Buzz wasn’t the only toy in space for this mission. STS-128 pilot Kevin Ford, brought a model of the space shuttle along for his elementary school as well as a model car for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Astronauts are allowed to bring a small amount of personal items along on their trips into space. They are usually out of reach for the duration of the flight.

Will Buzz’s space adventure be reflected in the upcoming Toy Story III? Probably not. Will Toy Story III be delayed due to Buzz’s extended space mission? Hopefully not. But a re-issued Buzz action figure will be on-sale at Disney resorts to commemorate his mission and Buzz, the Astronaut, will be on display at Disney in the future.

Josh firing our 6F Big Bang Cannon

At the beginning of the summer, my son was firing off our little 6F Big Bang Cannon. One of my neighbors heard it and checked to see what he was doing and we got talking about the cannons. He mentioned he had a cannon somewhere that he doesn’t remember ever firing. He thought it was in pretty bad shape and might not be fireable (is that a word?).

The next day he came over and he’d found an old cannon in his basement that was the size of a 10FC, but with military green finish (not currently available). I’ll have to do some research to see what cannon it is exactly. It wasn’t in too bad shape, but it needed some work. He asked me if I would mind getting it working and I gladly agreed (I need to keep his wife’s plum goodies coming).

It took me about two days to clean it up, but this mostly involved soaking time. The loading mechanism was fused and needed some work. I soaked it overnight in WD-40, cleaned it up (it must be completely dry to work), and put some graphite on it and it worked fine. There was a bit of calcium buildup in the chamber, so I soaked it for about an hour in CLR, which cleared it out nicely. Other than that, it just needed a bit of cleanup, spiderwebs cleaned out of the barrel, a new "spark plug" and it was ready to go.

I returned it to him with a new tube of bangsite. He brought it back later that evening for my son to fire and it worked great! It was very loud and Josh had a great time with it.

My neighbor wasn’t sure how long he’d owned the cannon, or where he got it from. He was pretty sure he’d never fired it. But with just a little work, it’s good as new. He was fortunate that no parts were missing, but those could mostly be replaced as well.

I’ve been thinking about this. There aren’t many toys out there that you could say this about. Perhaps some older wooden toys could be sanded and oiled and would be good as new if they were kept dry. But Big Bang Cannons are certainly unique. A little bit of cleanup and it’s usable. No need to keep it on a shelf and never touch it to preserve it for future generations. Just make sure you flush the chamber after use, keep it dry, and keep all the parts together.

My son enjoys firing ours. I keep an eye on him to be sure he is using it properly and cleaning it up once he’s done. But he gets the "bang" of fireworks with almost none of the dangers. He certainly enjoyed the larger one too (are you listening Santa?).

Following are some photos of our neighbor’s cleaned up cannon. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any pictures before and during the clean up.

After a short absence, we have Thinking Putty back in stock. If you aren’t familiar with Thinking Putty, it’s similar to Silly Putty®, only cooler. Don’t get me wrong. I love Silly Putty®. But Thinking Putty not only comes in cooler colors, it also comes in Hypercolors, Glow-in-the-dark, Color-shifting, Metallic, and Super Magnetic (which is VERY cool). You also get a big chunk of putty, not just a little egg full.

In addition to the colors we had before, we’ve gotten some new colors of Thinking Putty including Lava, Hot Pink, Scarab, and Strange Attractor. Strange Attractor is very cool. It is black with slight green speckles in it. It does everything the other putties do, but when you have a strong magnet, it really begins to get fun. It will repel and attract to the magnet and even envelop it in time. (Sorry, we don’t carry magnets at this time, but watch for them in the future.)

The Glow Krypton putty is the one I’m keeping to play with myself in addition to the blue I already have. I covered my hand with it and charged it up good and freaked out my son with it the other night. His response… "you are a very strange parent". Here is a shot of my putty-covered hand. This gives you a good idea of how much you get in a tin (putty is partially covering the back of my hand too).

Thinking putty is made in the USA and is compliant with ASTM F963, EU standards EN 71 Parts 1, 2 & 3, and CPSIA. Thinking Putty is inert, non-toxic and contains no latex or wheat compounds. You should not put Thinking Putty into your mouth, but if you eat a small amount, you’ll be able to play with it again in a few days (think about it).

Dave’s Cool Toys

If you’ve visited my Toy Trivia web page, you might know that Play-Doh was originally created as a wallpaper cleaner. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that it was a great modeling clay and it was quickly marketed as Play-Doh Brand Modeling Compound in 1956. Play-Doh was granted U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 for a "plastic modeling composition of a soft, playable working consistency". The ingredients are a closely-guarded secret, but Hasboro has revealed a few… water, salt and flour. It doesn’t contain peanuts, peanut oil or milk. You can visit the official Play-Doh website here.

If you’d like to know exactly what makes Play-Doh the versatile stuff it is, visit this page on HowStuffWorks.com to learn more about starches, surfactants, and inhibitors than you ever needed to know.

National Play-Doh Day is September 18th. To date, over seven hundred million pounds of Play-Doh have been sold. Factories produce about 95 million cans of the compound every year. More than 6,000 stores in the United States carry the compound, and it’s sold in 75 countries.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Play-Doh has one of the most distinct odors that conjures up hours playing with the mushy stuff as a child. I’ve been trying to find out exactly what that smell is, but the closest I’ve been able to come is almonds or marzipan. Supposedly the almond odor was added to cover up the "industrial" odor from the ingredients. Doesn’t sound right to me. It is possible that it’s just a lucky combination of the ingredients. At any rate, I love the smell of Play-doh, but not quite this much… the Demeter company has created Play-doh Cologne Spray for that "fresh, just-out-of-the-can" aroma.

On our Fun Stuff To Do page, we have featured recipes for such things at Silly Putty. But one thing we haven’t had (yet) is a recipe for Play-Doh. I’ve done some research and found one here. In the future, I’ll try it out and post the results here. I also found this page with a bunch of recipes.

If you have run out of ideas for your Play-Doh Fun Factory, try this amazing idea… making cookies! This woman made space invader cookies using the Play-Doh Fun Factory. What a great idea. The possibilities are endless. I would try this one, but I don’t have the patience.

Need more Play-Doh? From now until May 31, 2009 (hurry) amazon.com is running a great promotion for a free Play-Doh Case of Colors with the purchase of the Play-Doh items at this link.

We’ve featured one of the amazing Sony Bravia commercials on this blog before. Another great one is the Play-Doh Bunnies commercial using stop-motion rabbits in a live street setting in NYC. It is absolutely amazing. Watch it here…

Dave’s Cool Toys

One of our most popular items at Dave’s Cool Toys (and one of my favorites) are Big Bang Cannons. We’ve been selling them since 1995 and they are still one of our most popular items.

Our Big Bang Cannon product pages have quite a bit of information about the cannons, but it would be impractical to answer every possible question about them on each of those pages.

For that reason I have created a Big Bang Cannon web page. Not only have I tried to answer every possible question customers could have abour these great items, but I’ve included some history, operating tips, a link to a pdf file of instructions for your cannon (in case you lose them), photos, and much more. I’ll keep it updated and add to it in the future.

Dave’s Cool Toys

We recently purchased the Crayola 3-D Sidewalk Chalk set. Crayola has been coming up with some very cool products lately and this is no exception. The packaging is very clever, letting you look through the glasses and view the art on other packages in 3-D (this is probably what sold me on buying it).

But would it work on our patio? My youngest son did some drawings and I went out to look at them with the glasses and they were very cool. He didn’t make his lines very heavy, so the effect was limited.

Since I haven’t really grown up yet, I had to try it myself. I started with my name, which you can see a picture of here. The concrete came out a little dark in the picture. The cool thing is if you have a set of the glasses you can click on the picture for a larger version and, with the glasses on, it will appear in 3-D as well. I made a spiral version with the colors blending so it looks like it’s sort-of cone-shaped. I didn’t get a good photo before my son’s scootering mostly erased it, though.

To see a cool video that truly does capture the effect, visit this link.

To plan your artwork you need to remember that cool colors (blue, green) will appear farther away and warm colors (red, orange) will appear closer and lift up from the surface when viewed with the glasses.

Does the 3-D work? Yes! Very well. My Wife and Sister-in-Law both tried to put their foot under the "A" in "DAVE", since it appears to be hovering high above the other letters.

The effect works through a process called Chromadepth 3D. The special glasses pull any warm colors like red, toward the viewer, and cool colors like blue away from the viewer. All the other colors are sorted by their position in the rainbow, or ROY G. BIV. Other than the glasses, you don’t need anything special to create 3-D art. Any good sidwalk chalk will work just fine. For this reason, you can take photos of your kids (or your) artwork and the photos will be able to be viewed in 3-D long after the art has washed away in the rain. Chromadepth glasses are available online from cheap ones to nice plastic ones (like those that come in the Crayola sets). Once your chalk is gone, you can even create more 3-D art with markers, crayons, or even on your computer. Just remember the order to create the 3-D effect in. I had limited success with crayons using the Crayola glasses. You can also find lots of artwork online that uses this effect. A quick search on Google Images found hundreds. Supposedly some movies also have inadvertently been created in Chromadepht 3-D just through the use of their color pallete including Mulan, Pocahantas, and Batman and Robin (although I haven’t tried this). I also found some cool 3-D videos online (although many of them are just video slide-shows). Try this 3-D flythrough or this Blacklight Maze.

If you’re looking for more chalk, check out the Chalk Fun kit at Dave’s Cool Toys (shameless plug). You can make your own sidewalk chalk, then use your own chalk creations to make art on your sidewalk. Not only is it fun, but it’s on sale!

Dave’s Cool Toys

I’ve just found out that one of our favorite toys, Busy Beetles, and it’s companion, Batty Lizards have been discontinued.

Busy Beetles are a wonderful set of interlocking puzzle pieces of beetles that interlock, Escher style, into an endless combination of patterns. They are based on the principle of Tessellations. They are great.

We’ve been carrying them since 1999 and they’ve been a popular item over the years. Before that, starting in 1997, we carried a similar item called "Tessera". They were the same shape, size, etc. as Busy Beetles, but in cool, dark pearlized colors. I still have a few sets in my office somewhere.

I’ve ordered the last Batty Lizards that the distributor has in stock (they were out of the Busy Beetles), but when they are gone, we will have them no more. If we find another supplier for them, we will get them back in stock.

Goodbye Busy Beetles. We’ll miss you.

Dave’s Cool Toys

For Christmas, my boys got a Grow Your Own Elf in their stockings. They are one of those little creatures you put in water and they soak it up and grow many times their size. So I found a large jug for them and my son, Josh, put his in. I think he expected it to grow in a few hours and was disappointed when the instructions said it would take 10 days.

But out of curiosity, we measured the "before" elf and he was 1.5 inches. The package said he would grow 600%, which would put him at 9 inches. (My son was not happy with me when I asked him to do the math on that one.)

So we waited, and watched, and he started growing in the jar on our kitchen counter. He was a lazy elf, lying on the bottom of the jar. We moved him when we needed the counter space, then put him back so he could continue to grow. Eventually, as he grew I realized the jar I used (a 1 gallon pickle jar) was a bit optimistic. And he never quite reached 9 inches. He stopped growing at about 6 inches on about day 4 and never really grew any more.

My wife thinks he looks like Butch Patrick. I’ll let you decide, he’s pictured here.

You can see from the picture on the right that my son took, that even though he didn’t reach his full potential, he sure grew quite a bit in 10 days.

Out of curiosity, I did some research to see why these grow creatures work. I discovered that they are made of a "superabsorber" similar to the material in diapers (also marketed as "Instant Snow"), combined with a polymer to keep their shape.
Specifically, they are "a plastic called a graft copolymer of hydrolyzed starch-polyacrylonitrile (commonly known as “Acrilan”, “Orlon” or “Creslan”)". Got that?

As I looked online, I discovered that these growing creatures make a great science experiment for school or home. Kids start with several identical grow creatures, and grow them under different circumstances, such as both tap and distilled water, or adding salt, sugar, or vinegar to the water and measure if they grow more or less. To see some interesting experiments done by Jack Spangler, a kindergartner, with grow creatures, check out his blog, here. It is excellent!

Now that I’ve composed this blog post, I’m wondering what would happen if I kept our little friend in water indefinitely. Will he continue to grow after, say 2 months? Or will he reach a limit? Well… we have one more, so check back in a few weeks!

I came across this horrible misrepresentation of a toy today. It’s the Banzai Wild Waves Water Park . A savvy consumer, David Ng scanned the “Water Park’s” box and took a photo of his children standing next the actual product to show how extremely misleading the product shot is. Many manufacturers spend a great deal of time and money making their product look as good as possible, but this obviously goes well beyond that and purposely tries to deceive the consumer. Apparently, the box also claims that you may not return the item to the store you bought it at (try and stop me!)

I checked on Amazon for this item and the photo there (at left) was a somewhat more realistic version. Clearly the children in this shot were photoshopped in. Probably at the last minute to avoid prosecution. The box also states “product may not be as appears on image”. Well that may well protect them legally, but that statement opens the possibility of putting anything you want on the box! One of the many strengths of the Web is the ability of consumers to get the word out about poor quality products, and they certainly have done that at Amazon.

For a fascinating look at the difference between advertising photography and reality check out Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality.