DIY Toys: Uncle Steve's Gift

A long time ago, my Uncle Steve made me a birthday present. When I say a long time, I mean maybe 40 years ago. I was little, maybe 5, maybe 8, I’m not sure. And I assume it was a birthday present because I remember playing with it outside in warm weather, and my birthday is in the middle of July.


The present was handmade, and simple enough: a pair of ‘D’ batteries, soldered together; a toggle switch; and an incandescent lamp with a cylindrical amber lens. These three items were wired together so the switch turned the lamp on and off. The whole thing was enclosed in a small cardboard box wrapped in black electrical tape. It couldn't have been simpler.

Today, I suppose you’d call such a thing a "Busy Box" or a “Do Nothing” box. That’s no insult; it's a class of gadgets whose primary purpose it to entertain and stimulate the imagination.

That it did.

That little box was anything I wanted it to be. It was a communicator from Star Trek, a walkie-talkie, a remote control for a rocket or a robot or whatever else I could imagine – and I could imagine a lot. It was a homing device, and a treasure detector, and a night light, too. Quite honestly, it was one of my favorite toys of all time. I was heartbroken when the batteries finally died, but I (clearly) never forgot it.

I have no idea where that most wonderful of toys ended up - probably in a landfill somewhere. What you see in the pictures is a replica I made just for this blog. There are a couple of differences:

• Though still wrapped in electrical tape, the enclosure is a plastic project box, not cardboard.
• The batteries are in a battery holder, not soldered together.
• The incandescent lamp has been replaced by a warm white LED (but I still managed to find an amber lamp holder, thanks to You-Do-It Electronics in Needham, MA!).

I decided to make a slightly updated version of the same toy, as a gift for Uncle Steve, but that's a whole different post. Stay tuned! In the meantime,

Beam me up, Scotty!!

About Uncle Steve

For as long as I can remember, my Uncle Steve has operated an Office Machine shop. When I was little, that meant typewriters and cash registers and a never-ending supply of gears and levers and other little mechanical bits and pieces. Then word processors began to move in, sometime in the 80s, I think, and not long thereafter, computers and printers.

My Uncle has had to stay abreast of technology as it pertained to office machines, just so he could stay in business and support his family. He's the guy that turned me on to Nuts & Volts magazine, for example. He also let me borrow his Heathkit Electronics Training Course materials & hardware way back before I could ever afford such a thing on my own.

As one of the only technically-inclined members of the family, he always encouraged me in my own geeky interests, and is one of the only adults I could talk to about such things that actually understood what I was talking about. For that, Uncle, I am eternally grateful!