Zivko the Robot. 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) “AA”s for power, which is the least you can do for someone this cute. Ages 10+.

And we say that with a history of silly that’s virtually unmatched. You slip on this pair of lens-less glasses with the tiny bucket and ball on a string attached, and try, while looking like a demented chipmunk, to swing the little ball on its cord and drop it into the cup. In red and blue plastic, you will be filmed on a smart phone, it will be put on social media, and you will be famous for it for the rest of your life. Best to order a couple so you’re not alone.

Based on drawings from Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, this Pathfinders catapult kit uses a pair of bent wooden arms as springs to launch clay balls (included) over (4) meters at enemy fortifications (not included, go make your own enemies). The assembled model will be approx 9" tall on a 10" x 7-1/4" base. Made from pre-cut, untreated wood from sustainable forests, and built with pegs for added strength and verisimilitude. A 2013 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year Winner and a great resource for STEM activities. For ages 12 and up.

Cutest drone ever. Shaped, and sized, like a chicken egg, just over 2-1/2” tall . Opens up to a 5” wide quad-rotor drone with a range of approx 100 feet, and it’ll fly for approx 6 minutes on a 45-minute charge. Features auto-hover and 360-degree roll, headless remote and (3) speeds. Includes charging cord, spare blades and a small screwdriver. Has a 2.4 GHz transmitter that uses (2) “AAA” batteries.

From the harmonica kings themselves at the Hohner company, comes this 4" long, 3-octave plus, plastic harmonica, in C, the people's key. We'll pick one in an attractive shade of red, green, blue, yellow or whatever color shows up next, and send it in a little vinyl case.

You supply the pot, we'll supply a dozen Venus Fly Trap seeds and a little sack of soil in a 4-3/8" x 2" dia plastic growing tube, plus an instruction sheet on the care and feeding of everyone's favorite meat-eating foliage. Gestation is about (14) weeks, so order early if you're planning a birthday surprise for someone.

The possibilities are endless with this very familiar-looking building-block tape. Yes, Virginia, it’s flexible rubber tape with bumps that will mate with the world’s most popular interlocking building blocks. Rhymes with toaster waffles. Among other things, it means your little brother won’t be able to knock the house you just built off the table. Tape comes in 39” rolls at 5/8” wide, and you’ll get (2) rolls from our selection in red, pink, light green, orange, purple, gray and black. And there’s 3M adhesive on the back of it.

It’s called Thinking Putty® because while you do whatever you want with it, your brain relaxes and opens up to all kinds of creative thinking. Need it? Yes. And you can also knead it. Or bounce it, bend it, tear it, stretch it, snap it, pop it. Pick from the 3.2 oz of dark green magnetic Strange Attractor putty with iron filings infused in it, plus a 1/2” cubed rare earth magnet; the shimmering Mystifying Mermaid that changes colors from the heat of your hands; the sparkly and bounceable Dino Poop: the glow-in-the-dark, neon confetti and golden glitter filled Enchanting Unicorn; the heat morphing orange-to-pink Flamingo Feathers; or the Super Scarab, 3.2 oz. of color-shifting blue/purple/copper/red putty reminesent of Egyptian scarabs. Comes in a 4” dia x 1-3/8” tin.

You may well have wondered where the boneless chicken breasts in your local supermarket come from. The answer is from boneless chickens. And we have some life sized rubber models of the birds to prove it. Modeled from life, they are shown plucked and as they might appear hanging in the poultry store window. Seeing is believing, at least in Missouri, so get one and look.

Our best and prettiest-ever slices of polished agate, showing concentric rings of natural and dyed colors. The slices range from 3" to 4-1/2" across and from 1/8" to 3/16" thick. We've seen samples from milky white to blue, purple, red, yellow and brown. No two alike, by definition. We'll choose. Think scientific specimens, framed art, coasters, trivets, paperweights, or skipping stones for rich kids who don't want to search the beach for flat stones.

Or maybe not. Hotel managers get funny about rocket launches, but this is NASA-level fun for the backyard, or maybe a cheap motel parking lot. The Stomp Rocket™ uses no batteries, fuel, diet cola or anything else but your feet. And good stomp on the 4" X 8" "Blast Pad" can get you 200 feet of lift at speeds up to 100mph. You get (4) bright yellow plastic rockets, 9" long x 7/8" dia, with soft, round nose cones (bulbs?) for safety's sake, and a tripod gantry. Fine adjustments even allow for accuracy contests. If the neighbors have really high roofs, or you manage to achieve orbit, we've got a (2) pack of replacement rockets. For ages 6+.

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.

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. 

Snap Circuits™ has added Brics, their name for little plastic building blocks that are, luckily, compatible with those other little, inerlocking plastic building blocks you have. This award-winning 200-piece Bric Structures set has sheets and blocks plus Snap Circuits connectors, blinking and steady LEDs, a slide switch, a fiber-optic bundle, an incandescent bulb and a melody integrated circuit, along with adapter blocks to mate the Snap Circuits components with the brics. Has instructions to make (26) electrified models, including a house and a tower, on the 10” x 5” base. You add a trio of “AA” batteries. For ages 8+. Winner of Six Toy of the Year Awards!

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.

Too many of your wacky marble-run contraptions are tiny and made to stick on refrigerators, we think. Herewith, the solution: a 60-piece kit with ramps, tracks, funnels, stops, gears, levers, cups, animals and steel balls. Create your own endless versions of wacky contraptions and stick them on the free-standing, 28” x 12” hook-and-loop board. Includes a tip sheet. For ages 8+.

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.

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.