or our holiday gift guide this year, the Inventables team decided to take a look at inspirational and fun designs from elsewhere, in addition to favorites from our own shelves. We hope you find something perfect for that maker in your life!
From our catalog:
A good hobby knife set is used nearly every day by some makers, and this kit is intended for just that. You get two grips, one larger and one for precision work. And a wide assortment of blades for pretty much every type of job- cutting paper, whittling wood, cutting traces on a circuit board, fabric and leather work...
These conductive paint pens allow you to draw circuits on paper, fabric or skin, cold-solder components, and repair PCBS. Yes, for real! They're great for teaching and playing with electrical principles or quick prototyping of simple circuits.
Plus, it's skin-safe and water soluble. Works with electrical components, e-textiles and conductive thread, microcontrollers like the Arduino or LilyPad, paper, plastic, and fabrics.
The CAMEO looks like a desktop printer, but it does something very different- cutting flat materials very precisely, from a digital design. Make pop-up holiday cards, cut your own customs stamps, create all kinds of engineered papercraft, cut adhesive stickers and magnets and chalkboard decals. You can seriously do a lot with these and the software is very easy to use.
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From Other Sources:
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This comprehensive screwdriver set comes with two different size handles and a wide assortment of interchangeable bits including Flathead, Phillips, Hex (Allen), Square, Torx, and Socket. The handles are ratcheting for easy tightening/loosening in tight spaces.
From Other Sources:
This walking robot tiger is easy to assemble, but lets you see and understand exactly how all the mechanical linkages work together to produce a loping gait. The Japanese company that makes these, Tamiya, has a ton of different robot designs that mimic the movement of the animal in a fairly realistic way.
You solder together and assemble this toy ray gun, which makes all those awesome/cheesy ray gun noises that dominated the toy industry in the 80's and 90's. So much laser. How future.
This kit by designers Mick Kelly and Sue Williams uses very simple materials to achieve rather complex results. Once assembled, the contraption can be "driven" by differentially controlling the power to each propeller. Pretty cool.
This kit is a great way to get started with both programming and electronics hardware. You get one Arduino, plus a bunch of sensors, motors, buttons, knobs, and a display. Pretty much everything you need to prototype an idea.
This convenient lens turns your smartphone into a much more capable photography tool. Get wider shots in interior spaces, take ultra close-ups of your projects, take in larger vistas during your travels. The lenses are very high quality and hold very firmly to the phone, and it's easy to flip the lens for different shots.
The colors and textures on this Etsy seller's stuff is amazing. These are made from recycled skateboards laminated together and then milled and finished. Good design doesn't have to be high-tech.
Best wishes from the team at Inventables and a happy holiday season to you all!