Anyone else making toys?

[dennis thompson]

Lately I've been making toys for my grandson. Here are some
Pictures of a jeep ,a school bus and a tow truck I made for him. Anyone else making toys?412441412442412443

[Jim Colombo]

I make a simple thing for my great grandson every Christmas but nothing as complex and good looking as yours. Are they your design or do you get plans from somewhere? I would definitely be interested in plans if you have a recommendation. Great work,

[Bill Lyman]

A grandson asked to build a train - which started a project. Grand children played with for years and one family has one on a shelf in their living room.
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[dennis thompson]

I make a simple thing for my great grandson every Christmas but nothing as complex and good looking as yours. Are they your design or do you get plans from somewhere? I would definitely be interested in plans if you have a recommendation. Great work,

Jim
Thanks for the compliment.
The jeep & tow truck are based on plans from "Toys and Joys", delivered on paper by U.S. mail. The school bus is from "toymakingplans.com", downloaded online and printed from your computer. The Toys and Joys plans come with no instructions at all, while the toymaking plans come with excellent instructions. I've made many toys from the toymakingplans group and much prefer their plans. The have some very simple plans and some more complex ones, like the school bus. I prefer the more complex plans. I also have made a lighthouse birdhouse from a Forest Designs plan, you can see it on this site under projects. Forest plans are not really toys but are meant to be models to exhibit, I'm currently starting their fire engine which is considerably more complex than anything I've done before.

[kevin nee]

I am in a group that makes toys every Tuesday 10-12. Here is a video of a prototype that we are working on now. We have 4 cut out in maple when they are done we will move to something else. Toys are tricky.
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[Tony Pisano]

The last thing I made was a mastermind game. It's been a big hit with everyone from my grandson who is 7, to the nieces who are high school age.

[dennis thompson]

The last thing I made was a mastermind game. It's been a big hit with everyone from my grandson who is 7, to the nieces who are high school age.
Tony
My grandson just turned seven,sounds like a great project. What is a mastermind game?

[Tony Pisano]

Its a game with colored "code" pcs, a board and some pegs. There are many ways you can make it and it could even be played with a pc of paper and colored pencils.
The object is for one person, the codemaker to set a code of, in this case, 4 colors in a particular order using 6 colors to choose from. A cover hides the code from the codebreaker.
The other player, the code breaker, makes a random guess by placing 4 playing pcs on the board.
The codemaker then uses up to 4 pegs placed in holes to indicate whether or not the guess is correct, or close. For my game, each peg with a white top means you have a correct color in the correct place. Each unpainted peg means you have a correct color, but in the wrong place. No peg means a wrong color.
Using this information, the code breaker places 4 more pcs on the board, trying to break the code, and get feedback, until eventually, the codemaker places 4 white pegs and reveals the code.
I will post some pictures of my game later.I used parts of a found headboard to make the gameboard, scraps for the main box, wood from a downed tree for the code cover and box that holds the game pieces, and used support pins from beehive frames for my pegs.



I made mine out of various materials I had on hand. I started out with scrap maple

[Jim Colombo]

Jim
Thanks for the compliment.
The jeep & tow truck are based on plans from "Toys and Joys", delivered on paper by U.S. mail. The school bus is from "toymakingplans.com", downloaded online and printed from your computer. The Toys and Joys plans come with no instructions at all, while the toymaking plans come with excellent instructions. I've made many toys from the toymakingplans group and much prefer their plans. The have some very simple plans and some more complex ones, like the school bus. I prefer the more complex plans. I also have made a lighthouse birdhouse from a Forest Designs plan, you can see it on this site under projects. Forest plans are not really toys but are meant to be models to exhibit, I'm currently starting their fire engine which is considerably more complex than anything I've done before.

Thanks Dennis
Jim

[Tony Pisano]

I had a previous post about some round scrap maple glue ups. I cut them into rectangles, but then the crescent shaped pcs seemed too nice to burn so I cut them into strips. I was thinking how the original Risk game had wooden playing pcs, and got the idea to build a Mastermind board and make nice hardwood playing pcs. It kind of evolved from there. After painting the maple strips I cut them then painted the ends. Then I decided to make a box to store them in. It was a good reason to get more practice using the incra box joint jig.
The board was made in 3 pcs cut from a damaged headboard salvaged from a junk pile. While making maple syrup this spring, I burned some old bee frames. When I finished, I used a magnet to salvage the metal split pins, cut them to length with nippers and tumbled them with wood pellets in a small parts tumbler It was a really fun project.
This past weekend we had a family reunion, and I brought the game. It was a big hit, and the next day all of the nieces and nephews swarmed me at the door asking if I brought the Mastermind back.