This is for all you kids out there, or at least kids at heart! If you like UFO’s, and my family does, why not build your own UFO toy? Gimmick For Kids – Build Your Own Toy UFO!!!
Agents Equellus, Dolphina, and Fox (as our little green Earthnaut guests call them) really pulled out all the stops to help with this! Fox and I went to two stores this evening while the girls got the art supplies, including a hot melt glue gun together. We came back to the store with this:
The items on the left or plastic plates, plastic bowls, clear plastic cups, some stick on “bling”, straws, and tea lights. On the right is a standard pack to make “alien” creatures for the UFO ships.
For mine, the Gimmick Commander, I helped set the pace for the kids projects. For the bottom of the saucer, you want to take the small end of the clear cup, and use a sharpie to trace a circle around the bottom.
And important know if you want to make sure that the plate is facing upwards when you trace the bottom of the small end of the clear cup. It will make it easier to cut later. You didn’t take a utility knife and a cutting board, set the plate down, and score out the area in the middle.
You’re probably wondering why were using a clear cup? From the picture above, you will see that it holds the saucer in the air, and it will play well into a special effect utilizing a tea light on the top. More on that in a second.
This is the top of the clear cup sticking to the bottom of the saucer. Fox is holding the tea light on the right-hand side of the picture. I am marking the center of the cup with a black dot. I then took a knife and scored out a middle section to allow the point on the tea like to stick through.
So the purpose of these items? The cup and the tea light together form the “light and tractor beam” effect of the flying saucer, and it’s a spends the saucer call off the ground”. It gets even more fun as we go . . .
Now, to start gluing the sections of the flying saucer together. Dolphina is using a hot melt glue gun to allow both sides of the saucer plates to go together firmly. Please note, for younger children, you want to make sure you have a parent or another adult with you to make sure you do this safely as well as the other steps involved in using sharp knives.
The three kids wanted to do their own variations of the saucers. I think that’s great. I don’t believe they have to do everything exactly like I do on this. I’m helping my son making some cuts on the flying saucer he’s working on.
Now here are the sections of my flying saucer go together. One thing to note, is to make sure that you do NOT glue the clear plastic cup to the bottom of the saucer. The reason for this is that you want to make sure you’re able to pull that off to be able to turn the tea light on or off at will. The shape of the car will keep the saucer from falling in on the cup or vice versa.
Just adding some final touches to my flying saucer. I went with some silver tape, cut them into square pieces, and made the windows.
Here is the final result of mine. I added some of my sons Army soldiers and put them under the cup to make it look like they were being scanned by “aliens”.
Here are the kids. Besides making the saucers, the girls wanted to try their hand at making some “aliens” too.
Equellus is adding her own embellishments to her flying saucer and aliens.
Dolphina is there any variation to her father’s version of a flying saucer. She’s using a second clear cup to serve as the “cockpit” for the aliens she’s built.
Fox is experimenting with the tea lights, and wait to decorate flying saucer he’s building in the upper right-hand corner. He thought he wasn’t doing well, until his sisters and I encouraged him. Always encourage each other, especially your children.
Here’s our for UFOs! Equellus’ one is on the left, Dolphina’s second from left, then mine, and Luke’s last. You’ll notice that we got some small plastic animals and soldiers as standings for the alien “scanning” under the plastic cups. And you’ll notice in the UFOs that have clear cockpits, you will see the “aliens” that my girls put together. Very creative! For the full on effect, we now turn off the lights . . .
And there you have it! Your own UFO toys made from simple disposable kitchen items!
Ben, Dolphina, Equellus, Fox, and Earthnauts Sneak and Union!
My kids and I hope that you will give this a try sometime. Maybe even your own versions! We would love to see them, and if we get enough sun and we like to put an article together showing what toy UFO’s you and your kids have put together. E-mail us at Greatgalacticspacegimmick@gmail.com, and we’ll get a gallery going (NOTE: Ask your parents’ permission and help to do so).
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, we’re Agents Equellus, Dolphina, Fox, and their Dad (Gimmick Commander) Ben Faltinowski! 🙂
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