Solar Toys

When we consider the crop of solar toys that are available these days, we have to fondly pay a brief tribute to that grand pappy of them all, the solar radiometer toy. Looking much like a humble clear light bulb with a small weather-vane inside, it amazed many a child with its ability to rotate the internal vane without a battery.

Of course, all of that was about a half century ago and now solar powered toys are far more sophisticated. For instance, if you're searching for a solar toy kit that you can assemble yourself and then have fun playing with, try the Photon solar toy car. It is made for kids from nine-years-old upwards and it can be put together in less than an hour. Sporting a solar panel rated at half an amp, this sleek thunderbolt of solar toy device can go up to ten feet in a mere three seconds. The non-solar panel parts on the Photon are suitable for painting or customizing.

If you're more inclined for a Roswell-style experience, consider the Solar UFO, which looks somewhat akin to an other-worldly bagel. It contains a solar cell that generates power to a small motor that spins the five and a half inch saucer on its base.

Would you like to mix recycling with solar fun? Then you should get the Solar Powered Pop Bottle Boat, an innovative kit that allows you to construct a solar powered speedboat from your own empty pop bottle. You get a half-watt solar cell, a motor, propellers, mounting tape and instructions to make your own speedboat.

Great Britain has quite a selection of solar toys for their kids (and budding physicists and engineers). There's a solar airplane metal toy that can also be constructed to become a helicopter. The rotor spins when exposed to sunlight or placed near a light bulb. There's an alien solar robot that walks along a flat surface, and creepiest of all to behold, there's the Sun Spider robot kit, a spider that begins scuttling along when exposed to sunlight.

Meanwhile, back here in the USA, we have the Solar Air Shuttle XXXL and it's actually fifty feet long! You inflate this long tube by running with one end of it open, filling it up with air, tying off the loose end and letting it set in the sun for a few minutes. After the sun heats the air in the tube the inflated bag will begin to rise. Better tie some kite string to it, or it will float away towards the sun!