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The Humble Velocipede Kinetic Sculpture by Small Wonder Toys

08.29.12 | By
The Humble Velocipede Kinetic Sculpture by Small Wonder Toys

The Humble Velocipede, by Small Wonder Toys, is described as “a desktop bamboo walking machine.” You may have seen Strandbeest, the massive kinetic sculpture by Theo Jansen… well, these guys decided to do a small-scale version of it. This fascinating little toy is designed to crawl across tables with the help of a bit of human power.

The trio at Small Wonder Toys originally built a life-size Standbeest out of plywood. The thing was so big that they couldn’t really take it anywhere, so this desktop toy was born.

The mechanism that drives the entire toy is a single bent steel rod that acts as a crankshaft. Bamboo triangles and rectangles are threaded on in a particular fashion to act as the legs.

The project has been funded more than 5x over the original amount needed so they’ve closed off orders for the time being. You can sign up on their site to get news as to when you can order your very own toy.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.