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Old Toy Modding?
Sqwubbsy writes "Stumbling through Google, looking for info on the Big Trak by Milton Bradley, I came across an article about one that was retrofitted with an OOPic controller. I was wondering if anyone else had a good story about a retrofitted toy that they beefed up?"
Well, you all probably don't want to hear what I...I mean my friend...did to a lifesize barbie doll.
If by modding you mean, "blow it up with firecrackers to see what it does."
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Well I had a story about a blow up doll that I had modified with a two horsepower wet/dry shopvac, but I've been too busy healing up from all of the skin grafts to post it.
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"Dear Penthouse. My name is Teddy Ruxpin! I never thought it would happen to me, but there I was, with Chatty Cathy and Baby Alive..."
yeah, I once "modded" an old GI Joe figure with a "jet pack" strapped to his back (about 3 or 4 regular bottle rockets with fuses twisted together). amazingly enough it DID fly up about 10ft into the air and actually HOVERED there in a relatively fixed position for a few seconds. unfortunately, there was apparently a manufacturer's "defect" which caused the "jet pack" to explode and letters to be sent to next of kin.
Yeah we had one of those old old teachers, we finally drove her to retire, I could never figure it out though we musta put 100 tacks on her chair at different times EVERY time they were bent, we used to say she had lead brithces )I know lead is soft but cmon we were in second grade) , Finally I got a serious whaching when I mixed ink from a pen, nasal spray and original crazy glue together and painted a matchbox car with it , while it was drying we were pushing it back and forth accross the desk by the bumper and she walked over and grabbed it, went to throw it in the trash and it was major league stick to her hand, she ended up with a bandage on her hand and I got my first "whacking" at the pincipals office, NOW THAT WAS TOY MODDING FOR FUN AND PROFIT !
And seriously, that has got to be the coolest washer I've seen. Forget all the fancy-smancy new machines with touchscreen LCDs, it's way cooler to do it yourself. :^)
"Ad infinitem et ultra!" - Buzz Lightyear
In the early nineties, Mattel had an infamous Barbie doll that told girls gems like "Math is hard. ..giggle.." Some activists broke into a warehouse and swapped boards between the GI-Joes and Barbies so that the Barbies were saying things like "Stop Cobra!".
http://ifaq.wap.org/posters/barbiedir.pdf
Negative obstacles are going to be a problem (i.e. holes in the ground , stairs, bottomless pits, etc).
Bottomless pits are none of a problem, just add steering fins.
Now, pits that DO have a bottom, these mean some serious problem!
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When I was 5-years-old, my aunt bought me one of those dorky remote control cars that goes forward except when you press the remote control, making it turn backwards and to the right.
Well, being bought at Big Lots, it breaks almost immedietely and leaves me with my first of many derelict cars.
My father, being an insane, genius, electrical engineer (do they make them any other way?), decides that the thing to do is make it into a complete remote control car. So the first things he does is orders a MOSFET speed control kit from RC/Modeler (back in the days when electric speed controls were awesome AND expensive). And he hands me a soldering iron, a schematic, a preprinted circuit board, and sets me to putting it all together.
Fast-forward one year: I'm playing with my brand new remote control car! It runs over anything and teaches me a very valuable lesson about things coming at you turning right when you move the stick left!
I've still got that car. 20 years later and it rolls just fine with a fresh NiCad charge. And I'm a mechanical engineer. Coincidence?
1. You
2. My mother
3. ???
4. Profit!
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
I used infrared LED's and sensors as eyes. By pulsing the LED's and reading the sensors when both on and off, I was able to filter out background noise. When the truck approaches an obstacle it knows something is there and will swerve or stop and back up if the obstacle registers on both its left and right front. Like this, the truck can drive around continuously on its own. But not for long cause it sucks down batteries like you wouldn't believe, worse on plush carpet but not so much on hardwood flooring.
I've also modded a different RC monster to carry a wireless video+audio camera. It moves too fast to drive indoors. It is interesting to drive around the yard while sitting at my dining room table watching the monitor. I would like to add a radio circuit to carry my voice. Imagine the neighbors kids reaction if a little truck drives up to them and says 'Hey you little hooligans, get the heck out off my lawn!'