This air-conditioner takeout blower motor assembly has a giant 8-3/4” dia x 4-1/2” squirrel-cage fan slipped onto a 5/16” x 2-1/16” flattened shaft. Motor draws 55W at 115VAC, and spins approx 1800 rpm with 22” leads. Measures 3" x 3-3/4" dia with (4) 3/4” mounting wings and 22” leads. Counterclockwise rotation. You’ll need a 4uF start capacitor. UL.

What mom wouldn’t appreciate walking into the kitchen and seeing these 1-3/4" authentic-looking brown-banded cockroaches scurrying across the linoleum. They move via an internal vibrating motor powered by an included AG-13 battery. While good scurriers, they’re a tad easier to catch than the real thing.

She’s a 6” x 6” purple ladybug bot kit that accepts her instructions from any infrared TV remote controller you have around the house. She has a geared, robotic arm that you design, and don’t worry, there’s an instruction manual. You add a pair of “AA” batteries and a screwdriver. No soldering required. Ages 8+.

And run hot or cold: heat improves circulation, cold reduces inflamation and swelling. This Dual-Speed Therapeutic Massager from Wahl® has a 2-1/4" x 1-3/8" hot and cold plate switchable from 48 to 130 degrees, and (4) 4” x 3” heads that fit around it, including: smooth, ripple and raised bumps. Measures 15" long with a 9-foot power cord. UL/CSA. Full disclosure. These are brand new shelf pulls from a big box retailer but we couldn't tell the difference. Brand New Surplus! That's the ticket. 

Two heads, both in color. Our each is a pack of a dozen colored pencils from Papermate®, all with a different color on each end. You’ll get yellow/green; orange/light green, brown/dark green, gray/brown, purple/pink (our favorite), red/navy, brown/black, red/blue, aqua/salmon, yellow/brown, gold/purple, and peach/green. All pre-sharpened for your convenience.

Wood or wooden you like to never see another pun on wood or wooden? Too bad--we’re not even trying to quit. Meanwhile, you can select your favorite from our collection of wooden automatons that you crank to move, all made from laser-cut pieces that you peg or glue together. You pick: the wooden clapping monkey, approx 6" x 3" when assembled; the wooden wiggling fish, 10-1/4” x 8-1/4” x 4-3/8”; or the wooden drummer drumming, 6-3/4” x 4-1/4” x 2-3/4”. All come with instruction booklets, glue, sandpaper and wax.

We feel your predicament. We’ve all suffered the heartbreak of an oversized yo-yo, too big to fit into your pocket, and bound to be confiscated by a fun-hating fifth-grade teacher, or the TSA. Best get our wooden mini yo-yo, a mere 1-7/8” dia x 1-1/8” wide with a full (3) feet of string for your yo-yo’ing pleasure.

Got thread? You pick black or white, from American & Efird in North Carolina. The white polyester #46 thread (.0025” thick) comes on a 10,000-yard, 6” spool; the black polyester thread, .0025” thick, 16-oz NWP/453GM, has 12,000 yards on a 7” spool, marked #33 or AA. Now that’s a lot of thread.

We feel your marblelessness, and we’re here to help. Click on down and pick from our oceanic marble sets, each with (20) 5/8” dia marbles and (1) 1” dia shooter. You pick: the pearlescent marbles with a jellyfish shooter; the swirly blue-green marbles with the turtle shooter; or the orange-swirl marbles with the clownfish shooter.

First and foremost, it’s an iZoom® lantern--a really handy, collapsible, dual-mode, battery-operated lantern. But it’s also a magic trick because to turn it on, you pull it open, like a pirate’s spy glass. Open it once and its 80-lumen LEDs glow bright-white, constant-on. Close it and pull it open again, and the light is an amber 25-lumen, flame-mimicking flicker. Open it again and it’s back to white. At 3-1/2” dia, it stands approx 5” tall when closed, and a max of approx 7-1/2” when open. Has (2) handles that fold down for storage or up for hanging and carrying. Comes in black or gun-metal gray, and we’ll pick because that’s how we roll. Adding to the magic, the whole shebang runs on (3) “AA” batteries. (Not Included)

Write your own jokes here. This panel-mount SPST duckbill toggle switch is rated for up to 16A at 12V and has a green indicator lamp that draws approx 300mA . Housing is just shy of 1" x 1/2" square with a 5/8" bat, a threaded 1/2" dia shaft and (3) 1/4” quick-disconnect terminals on the bottom.

No, you don’t need Bulgarian shoulders to carry this well used M-36 shoulder bag from the Bulgarian army. Measures a purse-like 12” x 10” x 2+” in a soft cotton (we think) olive drab canvas. Has a 7-1/2” flap, a leather strap/buckle closure, and a buckled 45” shoulder strap. Just the thing for toting a couple hunks of sujuk and a bottle of rakia for your lunch.

Sometimes you need a drone that will work with your phone, and, as always, you’ve come to the right place. The X5UW--FPV Real-Time Drone, a quad-rotor from Syma/Tenergy, features a 1MP photo/video camera that will send real-time video to your iPhone or Android, which will also act as the controller for the drone by just tilting it. Also has headless and flip modes and auto-hover. Measures approx 15” dia x 2-3/4” thick with a second rechargeable battery, so you get (2) 7-minute flights on each 2-hour charge. Comes with spare blades, a USB charger and a 16-page manual. You’ll need (4) “AA”s for the controller if you don’t use your phone, and you’ll need an SD card. Has 720P FPV (first-person view). For ages 12+. Click here to see it in action on our Facebook page!

For gardeners with extremely small apartments. This 1-1/2" dia glass terrarium (that’s a nose-hair smaller than a ping-pong ball) comes with soil and some spider cactus seeds, which ought to germinate in a week or two if you add a drop of water, click your heels together three times and think about Kansas. Surplus factor…the seeds expired in 12/17 but should be fine, or your money back!

Like a switchblade, but optical. Push the button on this 2” x 1” x 1/14” black plastic case and watch a 3/4” dia approx 10X acrylic loupe pop out, ready to rumble. If the Sharks or Jets squared off against the West Side Antique Dealers or Stamp Collectors….

Inventing with Electronics--for Beginners, is an electronics and coding kit from MakeXchange®, and is rightly described as “a starter lab for inventors of the future.” Includes an arduino-compatible microcontroller, 400-port breadboard, 2GB thumb drive, USB cable, (80) jumper cords, a dozen each of red, green and yellow LEDs, (10) RGB LEDs, (25) each of 330 and 10K Ohm resistors, a 6-AA battery holder, (10) push-button switches, (5) trimmer pots, a piezo buzzer, temp sensor, (4) each NPN and PNP transistors, (12) diodes, a shift register, (2) DC motors, a servo motor, screws, nuts, driver and a 62-page manual with (14) projects. All in a nice book-shaped box that’s designed to close and hold your project in place, keeping parts from falling out or getting lost.

This 50-page book has the materials and plans for making a total of (11) Harry Potter fliers, including the above-mentioned plus the Chinese Fireball, Harry and Draco Quidditch, the Golden Snitch, Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback, Hedwig the Snowy Owl, Fawkes the Phoenix and Gringotts Dragon. Includes lavish illustrations and a flight log.

Get over it and face the fact that even U.S. car-makers are using metric, so you can stop thinking in 11/16ths and 27/32nds. Start with this 8-piece set of drop-forged metric combination wrenches (one open end, one box end) at 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, 9mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm.

How about 68.5 watts worth of money every time you turn on these bulbs? Our 120V medium-base floodlights draw just 16.5W but light up with the equivalent of an 85W incandescent. Measure 4-5/8” across the lens, and rated for 1300 lumens with instant-on. They’re also dimmable and suitable for damp locations. You pick the 2700K soft white or the 5000K daylight color

It makes laptops run. (Absolutely.) This inline universal laptop charger from Targus® is compatible with Lenovo, Acer, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP and Toshiba. Puts out 19.5VDC at up to 4.62A via a 6-foot output cord with choke and (5) specialized polarized plugs for the listed brands. Caveat Laptopper: your laptop must require more than 16VDC. 90W max output. UL.

When your basic prom-dress, pants-repairing, pipe-wrapping duct tape isn’t enough, it’s time to grab 3M’s super-heavy duct tape. Rated for use in shipbuilding, steel fabrication and nuclear power plants (no joke!), it comes in 60-yard rolls of deep red tape, 2” wide x .012” thick. UV and weather resistant for up to a year, we’ll admit it’s past the U.S. Gummint’s expiration date, so please don’t use it on your home nuclear reactor. Everything else is fine, though.

You don’t have to be a medic to appreciate this rubberized medic’s bag from, we suspect but aren’t posilutely sure, Uncle Sam. In deep olive drab, 8" x 5" x 4-3/4", with a hook-and-loop closure on top, an adjustable 64” shoulder strap and 1-3/8” belt loops on two sides. We like it for toting lunch or anything else you need to keep dry (your powder?) in the woods.

A real desktop mesmerizer. This 7"x 5" moving sand sculpture creates endless sand-dune vistas, and can be so easily flipped to start over that you need never go back to actually working. The sand is so fine it's nearly liquid, and comes in varying shades, plus a little glitter. Black base and frame. We'll pick sand in shades of orange, purple, green or red for you.

Good things come in (2) different small packages. Our pocket microscopes are compact and perfect for a clear, close look at stamps, coins, flora, insects or assorted minutiae. The 30X version measures 5-3/4" x 1-5/8" x 3/4" in black plastic with a focus knob, on/off switch, small LED for illumination, and a vinyl carrying case. Requires (2) "AA"s. The 60X version is a microscopic 3-1/4" x 1-3/16" x 3/4" and has a built-in white LED illuminator powered by (3) coin-cell batteries that are included. Magnifies from 60-100X, with coarse- and fine-focus knobs, and has a vinyl carrying case.

Could be. You could put ten of them in there, plus a little bowling ball from the Pocket Bowling game. Features (10) 1-1/4” tall pins and a 5/8” dia steel ball, ready to roll down the 11-1/4” long x 4-5/8” wide rubberized lane. The good news? No foul line!

If the question is whether to tie a bunch of these giant latex professional weather balloons to a lawn chair, the answer is no. (They burst at about 82,000 feet anyway.) Besides, this is a true weather balloon, with plenty of fun, nonfatal uses. The cream-colored latex balloon is approx 40" dia when flaccid, you should pardon the expression, but has an 8-foot dia when inflated. The neck is 9" long x 1" dia. Scientists, meteorologists, inventors, teachers and the imaginative filmmaker are warned to launch the balloon carefully. The material is delicate and not made to survive brushes with pavement, pine branches, or clumsy physics students.

Red not available and only available in egg shell/cream color only. 

This deluxe ABS storage case is called a Store-It-ALL, and it does. But it could be called a Carry-It-ALL, for the sturdy handle and locking clasp, or it could be called a See-It-ALL, for its translucent lid. Or a Fits-It-ALL, for the removable dividers that let you configure it with any number of compartments from 5 to 26. But the 12" x 18" x 3" OA case should really be called ALL-I-Ever-Needed-To-Get-Organized!

An advanced kit compared to the others, a little more deluxe and a little more complicated. It is an AM/FM radio kit from Elenco with over 80 pieces divided into lesson groups. PC board shows component placement to help learning and to minimize errors. It has (14) transistors and (4) diodes and the case measures 11"x 5"x2-1/4" Soldering required.

Big glass lens, measures 109mm (4.29”) dia, with a 255mm (approx 10”) focal length. No use for a lens? It makes a lovely desktop magnifier, plus it’s convex on both sides which makes it very satisfying to spin during introspective moments.

Faux leopard-skin, among others. And from faux animals in a wide variety of non-animal colors, like green and fuchsia. Perfect for the senorita flirting at a post-modern bullfight, these accordion-style folding fans have plastic frames that hold accordioned cloth with a top edge of black lace because they’re for flirting, remember? Measure approx 9” long and open to 13”. We’ll pick the colors because we have really good taste.

Made for your home darkroom, but loaded with dozens of uses for you creative types, this is a set of (5) 3/4" alligator clips, each on a 2" length of fine steel cable and strung on another 12" cable. Mount the 12" length, using the small ring or the removable 1-5/8" suction cup at each end. Hang pix to dry, multiple phone messages on a glass door, holiday/birthday cards on a mirror, freshly washed socks on a motel bathroom wall. Or buy several and accessorize any room in the house. It's a look that will drive that Crockery Barn bunch crazy with envy.

Compress your own air, then let this emergency air horn rip. Why pay for cans of compressed (it’s air, for Pete’s sake) that will probably be empty when you need them anyway. This 5-1/4” tall x 2-3/16” dia pump mates with a red 6-1/2” long x 3” dia horn. Just push the plunger and it screams at 140dB, which means it’s a real emergency-only horn, not for use at those big games where you could make someone deaf, and definitely get tossed out.

Power Poppers™ are today's answer to the ping-pong ball guns of yesteryear, except these shoot smaller orange balls that look a little like cheesy snacks, but don't be fooled. You pick from an arsenal that includes the pump-action pistol, 9" long and shoots, yes, (6) balls; the foot-long+ popper rifle with a payload of a dozen rounds. Extra ammo available in packs of (12) 1-1/16" orange balls, because the cat will hide these.

Nice little chunky 12VDC 1.5A wall adapter. Has a 6-foot cord, and a right-angle 5.5mm (2.5mm) center-positive female plug. UL.

They're back! Those of a certain age will remember being taught to crouch under their school desks in case of nuclear attack. Shortly thereafter, the gov't, in its infinite wisdom zoomed about the cityscape plastering black and yellow signs on buildings with basements to designate them as fallout shelters wherein it stored cans of water and radiation meters which were so insensitive that any reading could only mean the past tense of crispiness. We have a quantity of these signs, brand new in the sense that they have never been plastered, but antique in the sense that they are Cold War originals and may show slight wear from being stored. 10" x 14" , 25 ga. galvanized steel. They have a black base coat on the front over sprayed with orange/yellow reflective paint in the familiar design rendered nearby by our faithful artist. This is a true collector's item fetching $50 and up in antique stores! A tasteful addition to even the dullest basement hangout.

Well, if you had a crystal ball, you'd be able to see that there's a crystal ball in your future, and you'd know not to pass up this very, very nice glass gazing ball. It's 4-1/4" dia (and heavy) and comes with a footed dark-wood stand that spins smoothly. The stand is just over 3" dia. Together, the ball and stand are 6-1/4" tall. Comes in a presentation and storage box. The perfect accessory for your next fortune-telling gig.

Steampunk alert! Also…model and jewelry maker alert! This pair of 10X acrylic doublet loupes is mounted on black eyeglass frames and flanked by LED lights powered by (2) included CR1620 button cell batteries. These are for close work only, from 1" to 1-1/2", and can focus only one lens at a time (not both on the same object) so if you’re a steampunker looking for a new accessory, plan on perching this rig on your pate or chapeau.

Or unsuture self, actually, with this pair of 4-1/2" long stainless steel suture scissors. Fulcrum is 1-1/4" from the tip. What makes them suture scissors is the little hook in the bottom blade, for getting under and lifting the stitch, but there's no law that says you can't cut anything else with them. From Pakistan, like a whole bunch of surgical stuff.

This take-out solenoid valve is a simple open/closed solenoid valve that is normally closed. It draws 100mA at 12VDC. Has 3/16" OD inlet and outlet at right angles to each other. Housing measures 1-3/16" long x 15/16" dia with terminals at the back end.

The smart cutters and choppers these days are using ceramic knives because they stay so sharp for so long, and who remembers to have their knives sharpened? Ours measure 7" long over all, with a red, green, or deep aqua handle, a 3" blade and a sheath. Don't go into the kitchen without one. Slice, dice, chop and mince, and forget about sharpening. Like you always do.