Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

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Let’s Make A Crystal

Wednesday, June 28th, 2023

I didn’t bring much back from Australia, since I wanted near-empty suitcases for Japan, but I did come home with this:

I ‘won’ this via the points I got spending too much on a DC Comics card-redemption machine in the arcade at Westfield Kotara. I actually got two sets, and gave one to Sue. I wonder if she’s made it?

Considering the quality of the items they usually have in these arcade shops, I had little expectation this would be good or even work at all. But I followed the instructions to the letter to find out.

Start by adding the powder to hot water and stirring until the mixture is clear:

This suspension will form a crystal via evaporation, but a substrate (on which the crystal will grow) is needed, and that’s the little ceramic cone that came with the kit. The instructions were to wait for the mixture to cool, place the cone in it, then let it grow for a week.

The above shows the growth process, with the photos taken about two days apart. As you can see, the crystal grew well and by the last picture some crystals had also formed on the sides of the container. Here’s what the crystal looked like once removed from the mixture and allowed to dry:

It was a little trick to take a good photo since it’s so transparent! It’s also very fragile, and even touching it can cause the crystals to break off. It’s vaguely semi-spherical and about an inch in diameter.

So far so good for the crystal growing part, but does it glow? I shone a torch on it for 10 seconds or so and and turned out the light:

Holy smokes! This thing is positively radioactive. I’ll spare you the details about how this works, but it’s not just glow-in-the-dark, but even acts as a fairly bright green light source:

This little kit far exceeded my expectations. It was simple to make and worked perfectly first go. I’ve paid for worse kits than this one, so this easily gets two thumbs up 🙂

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Dinosaur Models!

Saturday, March 25th, 2023

I recently bought and assembled three dinosaur model kits. Collectively they cost me under $40, which is less than a (single) typical model kit that I usually buy.

The first was this Triceratops which seems to be part of a new line they’re calling Plannosaurus. It’s a beginners kit that allows you to build a skeleton or normal version of the beast.

The instructions are in colour and contain lots of information about the dinosaurs presented in a cute style. The kit is easy to make (you assemble the skeleton first, then if you want you put the skin on) and I finished in about half an hour.

I’m assuming this is aimed at kids, so I think that while it’s well-engineered (you barely need nippers or sand paper), I found I had to use glue to get certain pieces of the skin to stay on. Also the stickers were fiddly to attach, and I think kids would get frustrated with them quickly. But it looked great once I finished.

I also got this Tyrannosaurus kit, from the same line as the Triceratops. It’s extremely similar, only as you can see it has more parts since the assembly (and parts) is slightly different depending on whether you build the normal or ‘feathered’ version.

Here’s proof that model kits can be educational! There’s lots of this sort of thing in the instructions 🙂

I chose the ‘non-feathered’ mode since I didn’t want to put the stickers on. I think he looks even better than the Triceratops, and considering the low price I’m very impressed with the quality.

Lastly, I also made this curio: yet another Triceratops skeleton kit (also from Bandai) but made from a new non-plastic material called Limex. This is an environmentally friendly alternative made from calcium, and they’ve only used it for an extremely small amount of recent kits. This kit was extremely inexpensive at only $7!

It’s a trivial skeleton to assemble – it took me maybe 5 minutes – and the material is extremely white and seems very slightly translucent which is why it appears to glow in the photos. I think it’s well suited to a skeleton kit like this one, but I’m not sure Bandai will be switching their Gundams to Limex any time soon.

While these are all fairly simple kits, I think they were great value and for their intended audience of kids I think they’d be a big success. All three of these will go to work and be displayed on a cabinet in my office next to the other dinosaur skeleton kit I made a year or so back (and a shark kit I bought in Japan). Maybe if I get the other two Dino-related kits I’ll make and bring them to work too 🙂

Posted in Animals, Crafts, Models, Otaku, Science | Comments Closed

Fang Rock

Thursday, December 8th, 2022

I’ve been on a crafting bender recently, digging into my supply of unopened kits. Last weekend, it was time for this:

I got this guy several months back, and since I’d always said “I wish LEGO made a lighthouse” I’m happy they’ve made such a nice one.

Assembly was easy and fun, and it goes together literally from the ground up. The rocky base hides a combination power-supply and motor, which both powers and turns the lamp.

Oh and this is surely the simplest LEGO assembly step ever:

There’s loads of little details in this model that aren’t immediately obvious, such as a secret cave in the base that hides a pirates treasure chest (and the switch for the power), detachable walls/roof for play purposes or that the interior of the house is fully furnished complete with glowing wood stove:

As a child I would have loved playing with this set!

For the lamp LEGO created a fresnel lens element, which focuses the light from an led. It works very well, and in a darkened room the lightdoes produces a bright and somewhat directed beam.

All told it took me about five hours to build and as with many other recent LEGO kits I continue to be impressed by their skill at creating convincing – and in this case working! – models of real life structures. To have done it at minifigure scale is all the more impressive.

This joins the Medieval Blacksmith as one of my favourite LEGO sets of all time. I don’t think I’ll be disassembling this one any time soon 🙂

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‘Imaginary Skeleton’

Sunday, April 17th, 2022

It’s time for another model kit, and yes I know this means two in two days.

This is a new Bandai Imaginary Skeleton kit of a tyrannosaurus. As soon as I saw this I knew I had to have it! (The omission of ‘rex’ from the name is likely due to this kit being an imaginative depiction of what may have been three separate species.)

The kit is notable for almost every piece being the same colour! It also has the biggest piece I’ve ever seen in a model kit (the base, see photos below) and is also one of the biggest kits I’ve ever made.

In addition to an instruction manual (in colour and with English instructions as well as Japanese) the kit also contains this 10-page booklet with the latest science about the tyrannosaurus. For instance, it shows how back in the 1900s we thought tyrannosaurus stood up like kangaroos but now we know they more likely lean forward and are feathered.

The head shown above contains ten individual pieces. While the kit doesn’t need glue, I used a bit here and there to keep the connections nice and tight.

From the booklet I learned that the head of a living tyrannosaur weighed about 500 kg, and had a brain that was unusual large compared to mammals. From this scientists believe they were more intelligent than most mammals, especially related to hunting since they had well developed vision and smell. Their longest teeth were 30 cm and had a serrated inside edge like a steak knife.

Look how long that tail is (and the kit in general)! The tail itself was nine pieces, but the rib cage was many more since each rib pair was a separate piece.

On the underside of the ribcage is a smaller inverted riblike structure called a ‘gastralium’. This supported the internal organs and itself was connected to a bone called the pubis which was likely used for support when the tyrannosaur lowered itself to the ground, since it was probably unable to lie down.

It was once believed that the tyrannosaur was clumsy and even slow, and as a result probably ate carrion. But these days we have a better understanding of the physics of the skeleton, and most researchers agree that tyrannosaurs were in fact agile, and could possibly even leap to attack prey (which this kit depicts). This was a creature up over three times the mass of an elephant that may have been agile and intelligent!

These beasts lived in North America about 66 million years ago. This was the last days of the reign of the dinosaurs, and some theorize that the tyrannosaurs were ultimately unable to achieve their full potential due to premature extinction. In other words, for as fierce a predator as this thing was, it may have only been a prototype of something even more deadly!

I love this kit. It’s easy to build, looks great when assembled and comes with a lot of interesting information. For a dinosaur-loving child, this would be an incredible gift.

Posted in Animals, Crafts, Models, Nature, Otaku, Science, Time | Comments Closed

Shellfish Mermaid and Suicide Gudetama

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

We recently obtained three examples of toys that expand in water. Have you ever had one of these? Do they work as advertised? Let’s see…

First was this shell that contained a cute anime mermaid! Here’s the instructions, handily translated by google:

Couldn’t be easier: submerge the shell in water and wait a few days. So we did, and here’s what happened:

That’s about 72 hours in those photos (and the weird lighting is because our kitchen light broke in the middle). As you can see it worked exactly as advertised, however the… creature that birthed from the shell is quite different from the packaging!

Oh well, maybe this one will be better:

What’s this? A Gudetama comes out of the shell and there’s a chance for a gold one?!! What do the instructions say:

Oh my god there seems to be a clause that requires the user to kill themselves – by hand no less – if something unexpected happens! It also seems to suggest we’d need 81 containers of water and there was something about mold collapsing! It was with no small trepidation therefore that we submerged the egg and waited a few days:

And out popped Gudetama! This one also worked exactly as advertised and the reward was much better than the weird mermaid. He was bigger than the egg as well, so he definitely grew.

If you’ve had one of these you know the instructions say if you dry them out they’ll return to their shrunken size and can be grown over and over. While it’s true they shrink, it’s never to the original size. After a week out of water for instance the (cute anime) mermaid would never fit back into her shell:

We even had a third one, which came as a Christmas gift:

Up to four times his size you say? I’ll spare the montage of growing photos, since it’s hard to appreciate the difference, and instead present this pair of photos:

On the left is immediately before the water, and on the right is after about five days of soaking. Four times the size? I’ll let you be the judge 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Miscellaneous, Science, Toys | Comments Closed

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