Five guys playing the electric brobdingnag? No, just gigantic red rubber bands, made to hold stuff on pallets together. Striated along their lengths, they measure 48" long x 3/4" wide x 3/32" thick and will stretch to a 7- or 8-foot circle, or more, depending on your nerve.

These are the split rings with the beveled profile, the good ones. The bevel and the largeness of these rings translate to fewer chipped fingernails and blurted-out obscenities. Measure 1-1/2" dia x 1/8" thick, in steel, and hold a bunch of keys.

Drop some coins into this dog's dish and watch him get all wiggly wacky with barely controlled excitement while he gobbles your change and stores it in the base of the bank. You add a pair of "AA" batteries because animatronic dogs don't eat Alpo®. Pup is 3-1/2" tall on a 5-7/8" x 3-1/8" x 2-1/2" base. We'll pick a pup from our litter of assorted mongrels. See it in action. Click

Veterans will know this as an entrenching tool, but to everyone else it's a folding camp shovel. Our hardened steel version is 22-1/2" long when open, folds to a measly 9-1/2", and weighs just over 2-1/2 lbs. Blade is 8-1/4" long x 6" wide, serrated on one side. Fits into the light canvas pouch, which you can carry on your belt because you never know when you'll need to dig a hole.

You get (3) of these stainless steel surgical scissors, which have a shorter working length (with the hinge closer to the jaws) than regular snippers, but you still shouldn't try to remove your own appendix. Measure 4-3/8" long and are quite sharp.

Or gear down-for the science fair or for any number of hobby projects. This hard-to-find set of (3) combination spur/beveled gears-for when you want gears set either straight or at 90° to one another-also has one small spur gear, plus three bushings. All in red, green, or blue plastic (we'll pick). The combo-beveled gears are 1-5/8", 1-1/4" and 27/32" dia with 3/16" bores to accept the bushings, which are 3/16" OD, 3/32" ID. The straight gear is 17/32" dia with a 1/16" half-bore. All are 24 pitch.

How to shoot an azimuth for fun and profit: Get the ultimate direction finder, a lensatic compass. It has a 2-1/8" dia face marked in 5-degree increments, a 1/4" dia sight lens, 9/16" dia bubble level, and a 1-1/2" sight with crosshairs. Measures 3-1/4" x 2-1/2" x 1-1/8" when folded and comes with an 18" long cord and an olive drab belt pouch. For instructions, go to www.armystudyguide.com, click on "prep for basic" then "land navigation," then click on "determine a magnetic azimuth using a lensatic compass." Piece o' cake.

Nifty device that takes maxi air and squeezes it down into a mini condition. The device is roughly 6-1/2"" long x 6" tall x 4" wide. It has a 10 ft. cord that plugs into an auto lighter socket: i.e. it runs on 12VDC @ 10 amps. Air output is via a 12" hose with a variety of valve adapters for tires, soccer balls, rubber rafts, and just dusting off the environment. Complete with a 0-250 psi gauge. Which should be plenty of pressure to explode a weak bike tire or flimsy beach ball, so please be careful!

We wouldn't try to capture 'gators with it, but this 4-ft x 6-ft black nylon, elastic (not-un-bungie-like) cargo net should trap anything else in the back of the pickup, van or kids' bedrooms. Stretches to about 6' x 9', with openings that are 7" square, stretching to maybe a foot, and 16 carabiner-style plastic hooks. Or just hang a couple on a wall for a nice Spiderman effect.

Our each is a pack of (10) common cathode 5mm dia red/green/blue LEDs. Clear lens, 20mA rated for 100K hour life. 3V supply will work for all. You also get 100 Ohm and 510 Ohm resistors to step down 5 and 12VDC respectively. Luminous intensity is 4,000 mcd.

Attention robotics boffins: Here's a nice, powerful 12-24VDC Mabuchi brush motor with a gearbox and pulley attached. At its nominal 24DC, it spins 45rpm, draws 280mA no load, and stalls a 750mA. 7.5 in-lbs of torque and is rated for continuous duty. Has a 3/4" long x 5/16" flattened shaft with a 4-5/8" dia x 5/16" wide (3/16" ID) single-sheave pulley attached, with a matching O-ring. The gearbox measures 2-3/4" x 3" x 9-1/16". The motor measures 1-1/16"dia x 1-5/8" long and comes with 7" leads and a 2-pin Molex connector.

In another triumph of good taste, let us introduce our first squirting toilet bowl trick. Measures 3-1/2" tall x 3-3/4" deep and shoots over (5) feet when some unsuspecting person lifts the little lid. Perfect for mom's birthday. And no batteries required!

These large momentary SPDT push-button switches are rated 10A at 125/250VAC and are mounted to a 2-7/16"dia lens plate with a 1-1/8" long x 15/16 - 2 shaft that comes with a plastic washer and nut. There's also an internal 12V 3W replaceable indicator bulb. Needs 3" of rear clearance. You pick a red, green or yellow lens.

Pair of alnico bar magnets, each 7/16" x 1/4" x 3". Magnetized end to end with the North pole marked, the North end painted red and the South pole painted blue. Come with a pair of keepers and a wood separator bar.

Blank dog tags, ready to punch. Each set measures 2" x 1-1/8" x 1/32" thick in matte stainless steel with (2) ball chains, one 24" long and one 4-1/2" long. You get (2) sets of (2) tags, with (4) chains altogether. Made in the USA.

Nice little pulley unit kit includes (1) pulley each at 50, 30, 25 and 20mm and (3) pulleys at 11mm, plus myriad bushings, a 3VDC motor, (2) belts and a belt guide, base, mounts and assorted hardware. Includes graphic assembly instructions, plus a couple of rudimentary drawings with suggested projects. It's a mechanical science project waiting for a home.

This 5-pin socket is already wired with 9" leads in black, red, white, yellow and blue to its quick-disconnect sockets, ready for your 1/4" or 7mm spade terminals. Measures 1-1/4" x 1-1/16" x 1" thick. Matches our 94746 relay.

For pre-soldering-age kids with electronic interests (and maybe an artistic bent), this swell kit has hunks of conductive clay in orange, black, green and blue plus some ordinary white clay for insulation. Includes (20) assorted blue, yellow, green and white LEDs, a battery holder and a 52-page book for making (15) projects, although they’ll just be a start. You add a quartet of “AA” batteries and an inventive kid.