Toys from Trash | Hacker News Reader

Toys from Trash

arvindguptatoys.com

139 pointsthe-mitr15 comments

This takes me back quite a few years. Arvind Gupta[1] is the same guy who used to host a kids program in the early 90's called Tarang which was broadcast on national television (Doordarshan), teaching how to make toys from easily found household items. Watching this show was the highlight of my day as my family couldn't afford cable (we could barely afford electricity haha).

I remember quite a few of my summer vacations involved watching this show in the morning and spending the rest of the day trying to find the materials for building what he had built. He had quite an impression on me when I was young, I largely attribute the maker enthusiasm I had to him.

Just googled him, seems like he has an YouTube[2] channel now.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvind_Gupta

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/user/arvindguptatoys

“His popular TED Talk: Turning Trash into Toys for learning gives an insight into his work and philosophy. This talk was among the 10 best TED talks compiled by Sir Ken Robinson and Sugata Mitra's 5 favorite education talks.” (Wikipedia)

It’s worth directly linking to. http://www.ted.com/talks/arvind_gupta_turning_trash_into_toy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnCqR2yUXoU

He shows some amazing toy demos like (small spoilers) a drawing tool for blind children and a ¢5 electric motor.

Same here. I remember watching this via satellite because we didn't get Doordarshan normally in Nepal. Thanks for sharing his channel, I would have never thought to find him on youtube.

Related (somewhat) :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Garden_of_Chandigarh

Nek Chand Saini, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today it is spread over an area of 40 acres (16 ha). It is completely built from industrial and home waste and discarded items.

Really cool. Super interesting projects and really fun for kids.

If I can add something, I would maybe rebrand the "toys from trash" to "low tech toys" or something similar, that does not have the negative context of "trash". That's just my opinion.

Nice job anyway

I dunno, I like the title, it has a nice ring to it. But that also might be because the "trash" part reminds me more of Toy Story 4 than anything negative.

VERY cool! Kids love when you create fun toys from seemingly nothing. The accompanying Android app seems to be free with tons of instructional videos.

I'm looking to make kids toys from United States recycling products since they are being moved to landfills. Almost no progress so far, my 400 level polymer chemistry book only has 2 paragraphs on recycling.

So far I'm trying to figure out mechanical solutions. Thinking lots of boxes so kids can make forts.

Hard website to use, unfortunate.

Have you had a look at the scientific literature? Something like this? https://dacemirror.sci-hub.tw/journal-article/fdab0294ddc3bd...

Contains the "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" book, which is an excellent book by Soto Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. I remebered his name from where I had found the book online.

And then there's stuff that you can make out of trashy toys:

circuit bending...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHDL9iGxDPM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Q9Ij7oUHM

Lately, I've been recycling gummy tins into magnetic portable board games.

Show these, please.

Still on the early prototype phase. Step 1: sand off the painted labelling Step 2: repaint with game board (since prototype, draw on with sharpie) Step 3: make game pieces out of magnetic tape and "resource cubes"

The irony of this project is that I am in the US, and I'm taking covid lockdown seriously, ergo, I don't need portable anything.

Due to the small size of the tins, small board games are preferable: Bobail, small board capture Go, Alquerque, Fanorona, etc. Fortunately, many of these games have common boards and pieces.

Wow, that's a really good idea. Please post back here like GP said with pictures if you could!

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