The “FunFlyStick” is a wand-sized Van De Graaf generator capable of keeping a wisp of mylar floating on an invisible bed of static electricity. Hendrik Ball, the owner of retailer Grand-Illusions.com and presumably the man in the video, suggested we post about it. (He sells them for £20 in the UK, though he’ll ship to the US.)
Honestly I don’t find it all that exciting, but there’s something about Hendrik’s video that I just love. “Oh my!” It reminds me that we really need to get Rob on video more — we’ve this perfectly fantastic British accent just waiting to lend us all authority and we’re letting it go to waste!
Catalog Page [Grand-Illusions.com]
Were I wealthy, I’d just order at least one of every darn thing Grand Illusions sell. But I’m not, and their prices are usually on the high side.
The FunFlyStick is available elsewhere, a bit cheaper. Educational Innovations have it for thirty bucks, plus lower postage for US customers than they’d have to pay to get one sent from Grand Illusions in the UK. And here it is even cheaper at Fat Brain.
Hi Daniel
You are absolutely right. We have shipped them over here from the US by air, which pushes the price up quite a bit, and if you are in the US it makes sense to buy from a local retailer, rather than get us to ship it back by air over the ‘pond’ again. Hardly very green!
We just think it is fun, and wanted to share the video. We also think it might help liven up a few school science lessons (which is partly what our site is about), whether people get it from us or not.
If the pound goes down any further against the dollar (a lot of talk of recession here in the UK) than at least it will bring our prices down against the $
Hendrik Ball
Oh, come on — that’s awesome. Floating AND awesome sounds….
mmmm. fun.
I’d love to wave this around in the server room and see what happens….
The guy doing the demonstration is Tim Rowett, who is a great demonstrator of science toys and novelties.
Well I think it’s nice >:(
Screw the mylar, I’d just use the power of the wand! Kneel before the mighty Static wizard, lest ye be shocked!
I love Grand Illusions. They have all the cool stuff.
If you haven’t printed out and put together their FREE 3D dragon illusion, stop reading boingboing and go there RIGHT NOW and do so.
Harry Potter marketting tie-in in 3… 2… 1…
I think that this is pretty cool, but worry that it would get boring after the first 20 minutes of it. I mean, it floats, yes, and it bounces off your arm, but then what?
I don’t think that this is a technology question — the technology seems great. But I think some people will need to put their heads together and work out some actual entertaining one- or multi-player game that uses this. I don’t know what, exactly — can you play volleyball with this? Can you steal control over the mylar and float it over to your home base?
It’s a cool gadget, but with nothing else driving the way people will use it it would be like trying to market a version of Pacman without any ghosts or dots…
Here are my 2 cents…
I purchased the wand. My kid and I played for 3 days and we bought another one. We play sort of tennis with my 10 years old son (they call it Flyball in the manual). There is an instruction booklet with lots of cool stuff in it. He loves the new toy and this makes me happy. We have the wands for about 2 weeks, bought it from Educational Innovations.
My mother-in-law believes in magnetic therapy or something like that and she now bought one for herself. She moves it along her lower back and claims it helps. It is BS obviously, but if it helps her… I do not comment.
One small thing thou, the mylar floaters break. They are so very thin that no matter how carefully you play, they do break.
I went online to see if there are any replacements. The manufacturer says those are going to be out in October. We can’t wait. They also say there will be ring shapes and something else and I, honestly, feel thrilled thinking of flying a wide band like that lady on youtube.