NOVELTIES

His name is Tobbie II, and although he stands only about 6-7/8” tall, he does sport (6) actual feet, which is why he has such an agile, 360-degree, free-rotation body. You build him yourself (easy-peasy if you’re over 10) and program him on your computer, tablet or smartphone. Comes out of the box pre-programmed with Assembly Checker and Program #1, so the fun starts right away. Use him as a light tracker or thermometer, or to play rock-paper-scissors or bowling, or as a notice board, calculator or compass, or as a pet who will follow you. He’ll do other things, too. Includes a 36-page manual, and all you add is a quartet of “AAA” batteries and some common hand tools.

This goldenesque rubber chicken can talk! Actually, squawk. Known as the Shrilling Chicken, it’s 11” long, in chicken-skin goldish color, complete with goose bumps, a squish me tag and don't forget the gaping mouth. Squeeze it for hours of humorous, attention-grabbing squawks. Work it into your stand-up routine or sneak it into parties. You’re hilarious!

It doesn't get much cooler in the robotic-arm-kit game. The assembled STEM educational arm is 15" tall x 9" long x approx 3-1/2" wide. It's 2-pronged hand opens to 1-3/4", lifts up to 3.5 oz (100g), swings 120 degrees at the wrist, pivots 300 degrees at the elbow, and sits on a base that swings 180 degrees up and down and rotates 270 degrees, like, well, an arm. Controlled by (5) 2-axis joy-sticks and powered by (4) D-Cell batteries that you provide. Includes a hand-mounted search light and over-torque and gear-breakage alarms, which is more than your arm has. Requires a diagonal cutter and Philips screwdriver for assembly of its 200+ pieces and is made for ages 12 and up.

This nifty botanic lab kit from Engino® will appeal to budding (pardon our punning) botanists and youngsters with a mechanical bent. Has (4) projects, including a 14-1/2” x 9-1/2” x 13-1/2” clear plastic greenhouse with a gear-driven window, a pseudo-ox-driven plow, and a cube. Comes with (2) germination trays, a dozen small pots, and a 42-page manual. Mates with other Engino® parts. Made in Cypress, which makes for a nice change, we think. Ages 8-16.

UGears® is the model company that specializes is wooden steampunk versions of otherwise simple objects, perfect for perfectionist painstakers who revel in constructing complicated kits. (You know who you are.) In this case, you pick: the (43) piece Steampunk Clock, a beautiful collection of gears, lacy ornament, flowers, stars and a moon that you make into an imitation clock approx 2" x 3" x 5" when done; or the Wheel Organizer, the world's most delightfully complicated desktop pencil and pen holder. The (51) parts include wheels, gears and slots that deliver the pencil of choice when you turn the big ship-like wheel. Finished model will be 4-1/3" x 3-1/2" x 3-2/3". No glue or special tools needed, and you can paint or stain them if you like.

More fun than a canned ham, this flip-top storage tin has a train set inside, with a plastic steam engine, tender, boxcar and caboose, as well as a 12-piece track that forms a 10" x 22" oval. You add a "AA" battery and you're the engineer. 

About 30-40 highly polished stones, all shiny, translucent, or brightly colored, ranging from 3/4" long to 1/8" long. Great for mosaics, jewelry, or aquariums.

Why yes, it is. There are three kinds of stunts, actually, in this box of (3) styro stunt gliders, complete with nose pieces and (3) sheets of stick-on numbers and aerial decorations. From Dabble Lab™, which says you'll learn engineering, basic physics and forces of flight. We say you'll have fun flinging them around the back yard.

Zivko the Robot is back in stock! Our best selling STEM kit ever! Just call her (or him--it’s unclear and we don’t like to ask) “Zivko” because “the Robot” is her last name. Using just a screwdriver and side cutters, you build Zivko from this 107-piece S.T.E.M. kit. Set the mode for “Follow Me” or “Explore,” and Zivko will, yes, track you, or evade obstacles, respectively, via an infrared sensor and micro-controller programming. Interactive LEDs and sounds abound. Measures approx 5" x 5-1/2" x 6-1/2" when assembled with all (6) legs. You add (4) “AAA”s for power, which is the least you can do for someone this cute. Ages 10+.

Build a more advanced robot with more programming options? Try the Tobbie II!   https://www.sciplus.com/tobbie-ii-diy-coding-robot-kit-65185-p

Pop one of these roughly 1-1/4" dia stones into the toe of a sock, smash it with a hammer, and be the first person ever to see your real-as-Nature-makes-it geode!! Ninety percent of them have the familiar beautiful white crystals inside. Formed by volcanic action, they are found all over the world, but ours are from Mexico. There is no way to tell from the outside if they have crystal centers, but we will send you two just to raise your odds, and we haven't had a dud yet in our stores!! Much much more fun and satisfaction than buying one already cracked.

Imagine a 4” x 3” x 3/4” thick hunk of black-backed clear acrylic with a hologram of the Starship Enterprise inside, against a background of an anonymous planet, not Earth, with a Star Trek…the Next Generation® logo just below it. Now go click on it, and we’ll beam it to you via USPS, warp-speed.

Or the Swanee whistle. Whatever you call it, this little slide whistle (just consider it the smallest trombone in the universe) has an outsized musical history. No elevator has ever fallen in a cartoon without its accompaniment, and no jug band is complete without one, but Louis Armstrong also played one on his Hot Five recordings, and Ravel even required one in an opera score. In assorted plastic colors with a steel slide, 6-7/8" long x 1/2" dia.

Squeeze this squishy version of the eight-legged tardigrade, aks moss piglet, aka water bear, and it takes up to (9) seconds to slowly morph back into shape while you feel your stress disappear like the cashews in a bowl of mixed nuts. Measures 4-1/2” long in green with the squeezability of a marshmallow. You probably don’t even know you need it, but you’ll know you needed it once you start squeezing it.

These pretty, and pretty small, polished semiprecious stones include sodalite, tiger eye, quartz crystal, aventurine, amethyst, red jasper, fluorite, and rose quartz, plus a bonus assortment. You’ll get approx 1/2 oz of each in small corked bottles, 7/8” dia x 1-1/2” tall. The semiprecious pebbles are roughly 1/8” to 3/8” long.

Sometimes fun is like anything else—if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. The Magic Hatchlings are chicken-sized eggs that you put in a glass of water and wait a couple days for them to hatch a baby flamingo, dinosaur or sloth. Ages 4+.

Yes, we have The Amazing Live Sea Monkey® aquarium kit, just like the ones from the comic books. The (9) piece ocean zoo includes brine shrimp eggs, growth food, water purifier, plus an official plastic feeding spoon, 32-page handbook, life insurance policy, growth guarantee, and the plastic aquarium with built-in magnifiers for viewing your little friends, and a vented cover. We'll pick the aquarium color that best matches your decor. Great gift for those budding young marine biologists. Ages 6+.

Just the one, actually, but it’s been sliced in half so the pair is perfectly symmetrical and mighty pretty. Although ammonites have been extinct for 65,000,000 years, we’ve got their approx 1” dia fossils for you. Our each is a book-matched pair of polished ammonites fossils of a single critter halved and polished to a bright symmetrical shininess. The colors vary from light tan to dark brown and we’ll pick because we have impeccable ammonitical color-shade taste. And yes, they’re just screaming to become cuff-links or earrings.

It could have been called an Alabama Buzzer after Alabama Vest, the man who invented it. Or a Clegghorn, after Thaddeus Von Clegg, the clock master who fabricated the first one. But the hand-crafted 4-3/4" long steel instrument was a simple amusement, and the 1840s were a simple time. So it's simply a kazoo.