Construction Toys — creative tutorials for construction and mechanical sets « Construction Toys

How To: Build a looping rolling marble machine with magnetic elevator

Wow! No longer do you have to buy those huge marble machine roller coaster toys — you can DIY one! This video covers the materials, tools and techniques used to make a homemade rolling ball marble machine. If you haven't seen this rolling ball marble machine toy in action yet, WATCH IT. It's a looping rolling marble machine made with wood, rebar tie wire and polyurethane tubing, featuring a magnetic elevator.

How To: Turn a 5MW laser into a 100MW laser

Tired of that dinky little 5MW laser? Turn the power up and convert your 5MW laser into a 100MW laser? A small amount of modification can produce a significantly stronger light coming out of your laser. You will need a small screwdriver (such as a jeweler's screwdriver), needle nose pliers, a soldering iron and some bonding glue to do this properly. This video tutorial will show you exactly how to turn your 5MW laser into a 100MW laser.

How To: Make a larp shield out of foam and cardboard

This tutorial shows you how to make a fun boffer shield out of foam and cardboard. You'll need four pieces of corrugated cardboard cut into 18 inch diameter circles, a craft razor, spray adhesive and paint.

News: 160-Piece Arsenal of Life-Sized LEGO Weapons

The LEGO Life-Size weapons flickr group has 160 LEGO constructed weapons- guns, knives, bombs and more. A selection below, click through to view more.

How To: Disassemble a can for its parts

Aluminum cans are useful for various DIY projects, but they can be tricky to take apart. In this video you'll learn how to easily disassemble cans.

How To: Use basic building techniques

Papa Tom teaches viewers the basics for building realistic miniature buildings using Scene-A-Rama Building and Structures Kit. This is great for school or art projects.

How To: Create a simple mold to cast a toy duplication

If you have a toy you love SO much, this video will show you how to create a simple mold so you can duplicate it! This simple how-to tells you what you'll need to get cloning today. This video will also tell you what can and can't be cloned.

How To: Pot mod a green laser

Put the newspaper down on a work surface. Pick up the 5 MW green laser pen and unscrew the battery cap. Remove the batteries and put them and the battery cap aside.

How To: Make a homemade spin toy with a button and string

If you've ever found yourself bored and not knowing what to do, this video tutorial might help you out. See how to make a homemade spin toy with a button. Just get out a pair of scissors, a large button, a glue stick, string and a small piece of paper and you can begin building this time consuming button spinner toy, time consuming as in not hard to make, but fun to play with.

How To: Build your K'NEX Vertical Vengeance Roller Coaster

K'NEX is one of the most popular construction toys on the market, right next to Lincoln Logs and LEGOs, but what makes K'NEX stand out is the fact that children can build mechanically derived toys. Instead of blocks or little logs, kids use interconnecting plastic rods and connectors, which give them tons of contraptions to build and play with. Today, K NEX has even more possibilities with wheels, pulleys, panels and flexi-rods to make amusement park roller coasters, airplanes, animals, bikes...

How To: Build a spy periscope

This video is to show you how to construct a super cool spy gadget! You'll need some toilet paper tubes, tape, scissors, glue and an old CD. Then, just like that you'll be able to make home made spy gear in no time.

How To: Make a boomerang can

Make a boomerang can out of household items. Great for kids! Will return everytime, just roll it and get ready to catch it. :)

How To: Build a Lego Mario

The ultimate lego achievement for any Nintendo or Super Maro Bros. fan. Learn how to build Mario out of legos.

News: Full-Sized Mechanical Skeeball Machine Built Entirely Out of K'Nex—And It Works!

If you played with K'Nex as a kid (or still do), you know that it can take a lot of those tiny little pieces to build something. Just imagine how many it must have taken to make this full-sized, fully functional, coin-operated skeeball machine with a mechanical score counter. Instructables user Shadowman39 (aka Kyle) spent an entire year building this masterpiece. It's the same size as the ones you see in arcades, and it's coin operated, too. But don't try to feed it your pennies, it knows th...

How To: Make your own slingshot from easy to find materials

Can you feel your inner Dennis the Menace trying to get out? Trying to recreate the early 90s bad boy Bart Simpson look? Watch these videos to learn how to make yourself a slingshot. This slingshot is made from materials that are probably laying around your house, but you will need some power tools.

How To: Make a Soul Eater scythe out of cardboard for cosplay

Soul eater is one of the most popular manga and anime series in the world, and the scythe that protagonist Maka uses against the souls of the damned is one of teh cooler weapons in modern anime. This video will teach you how to make an excellent cardboard replica of it for cosplay.

How To: Make boffer weapons using the latex methods

Want to go beyond the basics of larp weapon making? This tutorial shows you how to use latex and foam to make any sort of larp weapon you can imagine, from a sword to a spear to even a mace or halberd.

How To: Make your own Brown Jenkin from H.P. Lovecraft's stories

This tutorial shows you how you can make a stop motion puppet modeled after Brown Jenkin, the eldritch horror that features in in the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Brown Jenkin is a rat familiar with a human face, and this video shows you how to pull off this incredily creepy character.

How To: Make a Chinese-style boffer jian sword

Playing an Asian-style character for your next boffer larp? If you're looking for a good way to make a jian, or Chinese boffer sword, this is the right tutorial for you! It lays out all the steps, including preplanning, to get precisely the jian you want.

How To: Make LARP-safe werewolf claws or monster claws

This tutorial shows you how you create a boffer larp safe pair of werewolf claws. Start with some basic heavy gloves, like gardening gloves, then cut out your claws from foam (at least three inches long!), and then follow along with the tutorial to end up with your own awesome monster claws!

How To: Build a Lego vending machine for any urban model setting

If you're building an office model, or are looking to add a little something extra to a street model, you might give this great vending machine model a try! In this detailed video from brickboys518 you will get brief over view of the bricks that you will need for the model and then a great tutorial on the building process and build order.

How To: Build a couch with Legos

What's a house model if you don't have a couch in the living room, right? Where would the minifigures sit to watch TV? Can't be on the floor! In this video you will get a quick glimpse of the different bricks that you will need to complete the model as well as a detailed tutorial on the construction process all the way into a finished couch!

How To: Make an Internally Lit Ice Sculpture with LED Lights

Why not make the best of an icy cold winter day and make something even cooler? In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a natural ice sculpture in your yard and light it up with LED lights for a cool, nighttime effect. You will definitely have the best house on the block once you start lighting up your ice, so check this video out and get started! This project is super quick and cheap to create, too!

How To: Modify your laser pointer

In this video, learn how to modify your laser pointer to make fun, new shapes. This video will show you how to make an extremely cool new toy and impress everyone. Imagine what your class reaction will be when you start pointing to things with a funky shape instead of a typical pointer. Laser pointers are great for presentations, cat toys and just general fun. Why not modify yours and make it your own?

How To: Make your own mylar balloon

Mylar balloons are the best party favors. They are big and shiny and last longer than normal latex balloons. In this tutorial, learn how to make a mylar balloon at home, from scratch. Stop spending so much money at the party store, and next time you have a big event, make your own! Not only will you save money, but it will give your party a cool personal touch.

How To: Make a Lego boomerang

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make a LEGO boomerang. LEGO is a line of construction toys manufactured by the LEGO Group. This is a very simple LEGO construction. It only consists of 8 LEGO pieces and 2 optional LEGO pieces. It doesn't matter about the color of the pieces. The video provides a visual demonstration and step-by-step instructions for viewers to easily understand and follow along. The video is descriptive and explains all the instructions. This video will benefit th...

How To: Build a LEGO stroller

In this video you will learn how to build a LEGO stroller. The materials you will need are 4 of the small slanted bricks, one two by four thin brick, 3 two by 1 thick bricks, 2 one by one thin bricks, 2 one by one by four studded bricks, a small smooth brick, two odd angled smoothed bricks, 4 wheels, one one by two with dot in center bricks, and one one by two handle bricks. Then after carefully assembling the bricks as shown he will show you a example of what it will look like when you're fi...

How To: Build hot air balloon out of a garbage bag

This is a simple and easy tutorial, and anybody can build a hot air balloon out of a garbage bag by following the instructions in it. All one needs is a garbage bag, some stiff industrial wire and fire starter bars. The important thing, according to the author, is to judge how many fire starter bars will be required to make the balloon rise without melting its plastic body. First, two long wires are twisted together in the middle to make an 'X'. A smaller wire is twisted onto the middle of th...

How To: Take apart a laser pointer

Have you ever had a combination of extreme boredom and an unrelenting curiosity? If so one thing you may have attempted to do is to take apart or "de-engineer" a common office laser pointer. In this online video we are shown how to take apart a cheap laser pointer. It should be noted if you are going to attempt to do this you should only try it on a laser pointer that is inexpensive so your loss will not be great if you should make an error.

How To: Make a paperclip bow

Want to make bows and arrows with paperclips, tape, a rubber band, and some Q-Tips?

How To: Build a K'NEX AK-47 gun

K'NEX is the world's most famous constructive toy, which means you can build just about anything. You can take the K'NEX plastic pieces and build all kinds of contraptions, everything from boats to airplanes to robots to weapons.

How To: Make a sling shot with a stick and soccer ball

This video demonstrates how to construct a sling shot out of a soccer ball. You will need an old soccer ball or tire tube, a "Y" shaped stick, and a pair of scissors. Slice the soccer ball open to remove the rubber lining. Next, cut two thin strips of the rubber lining. Cut out one hexagon shaped piece of leather from the deflated soccer ball. You can use this for the sling shot pouch. These visual guidelines depict how to use these materials to construct a sturdy slingshot in a matter of min...