Hasta La Gadget!

I have one question for you, God, and I want a straight answer: Why wasn’t the Makedo around when I was a kid? I’m serious. Back then I was like most kids of the 1970s, and the box a toy came in was more exciting than the toy itself (often the toys were the same drab beige as these boxes). The day my parents got a new washing machine was one of the best in my so-far short life.

And with Makedo that day would have been around one zillion times better. Mekedo is a pack of parts to help you to make anything from the scraps plastic and card around the house. There are three different pieces. One tool, which is a saw made from plastic with a spike in the handle to drill holes in card.

The other two are fixings. There’s a two-part pin-and-clip for joining sheets together, which works like a cross between a zip-tie and a rivet. Then there’s a lock-hinge, which is joined to two pieces of card with the pins and does what you think, letting you lock it open at any angle. And that’s it.

But like that washing machine box, which had the potential to become anything, these simple tools and fixings extend the possibilities even further. They let you put in doors, add heads to robots, put (spinning) rotors onto helicopters. I can honestly say that Mekedo would have been the best toy I could have gotten back in the dreary 1970s.

Thanks a lot, God. If time travel is ever invented, I’m going back to my six-year-old self and telling him to skip Sunday-school. Total frikkin’ waste of time.

Kits start from $25.

Mekedo Store [Makedo]

See Also:

• Disposable Cardboard Trolley Lets You Walk Home from Ikea
• Safety Fail: Cardboard Box with Built-In Box-Cutter
• Homemade Bamboo Jeep
• Home Made Circuit Board Razor