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Title: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on October 06, 2003, 05:42:44 PM The previous thread about Jar Jar Binks toys got me thinking.....
I used to melt those green & tan colored army men into puddles of goo with a lighter or a candle when I was a kid. I would pretend that the soldiers had a voice and as I would put their heads near the flame I would say out loud, "Oh please God NOOO....don't burn me!!" Then I would make gurgling sounds as they melted. They were the only toys I ever had the heart to destroy. Probably because they were cheap and I could buy a new bag or bucket of 'em for a few bucks. Back in high school an old friend of mine & I took one of those M-500's I think they were called...they look like a stick of dynamite only with a fraction of the power and blew up an old toilet out in the country! We actually took the time to load the thing into my trunk, which would not close all the way...we had to bungee cord it to keep it shut. I remember that we were laughing the entire time. Nearly half of the toilet was disintegrated by the blast. We were smart to hide behind my car...it threw shards of porcelain everywhere. Even in our hair. I remember showering that night and picking pieces of it out. I was one of those kids who was also fascinated with a magnifying glass. I remember going to the store with my dad when I was about 12 and buying a big one with the sole purpose of dealing death to all insects with it. He said to me in the checkout line, "What do you need a magnifying glass for?" "So I can burn bugs with it." I said. He shook his head and laughed. I thought for a minute there he was going to make me put it back but he didn't. My guess is that he probably did the same thing when he was a kid. I would then proceed to burn any bug I could find and observe their death throes. Usually I had to pull a wing or a leg off so they would hold still. Daddy Long Legs or Harvestmen were a favorite because their legs keep twitching after they're yanked off. We would get a kick out of watching a daddy long legs try to stumble about with only one leg. Daddy 1 Leg! I guess I got off on some kind of power trip by being able to harness the heat of the sun and fry things with it. The only downside is the disgusting smell of burned bugs. As soon as I saw the smoke start to rise from them I held my breath. The side of my dad's house was always crawling with Boxelder bugs so they were the most obvious target. My stepbrother and I would also take BB guns and pump them up with just air...no BB's and shoot insects point blank with a blast of air. The impact would literally destroy them. I remember one time when there was a huge spider about the size of a 50 cent piece on the side of the woodshed..it was a grotesque orange colored one and I blasted it. We both had our faces splattered by it's guts! I actually got some of it in my mouth! YUCK!! Did any of you do things like this as a kid? Any particular funny stories? Post Edited (10-06-03 18:17) Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: wuggles451 on October 06, 2003, 06:06:03 PM I have lots of stories like this. Most memorably a few years ago a friend and I decided to burn an action figure of mine. We poured paint thinner on it and lit it on this tinny piece of patio under his parents bed room. When we were satisfied with our charged creation he instructed me to pour water on it. This was at 1:00 am and were about 13 at the time it didn't occur that the water would spread the fire. Long story short we almost burned his house down. Its funny, at least to me, in retrospect.
That same year I also made a batch of napalm, from a recipe in the Anarchist Cookbook. Yeah, I was a total pyro. Things haven't changed much over three years of "maturing". Just yesterday I filmed a friend in a Twinkie costume, riding a scooter armed with roman candles, chasing a fat kid. Good Times Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: raj on October 06, 2003, 06:32:51 PM wuggles451 wrote:
> Things haven't changed much over three years of "maturing". > Just yesterday I filmed a friend in a Twinkie costume, riding > a scooter armed with roman candles, chasing a fat kid. Sounds like a fun movie. Once in a while I would have at my model collection with BB gun & firecrackers. Needed to clear space to build more. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ellie on October 06, 2003, 07:42:53 PM That sure takes me back.
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: wuggles451 on October 06, 2003, 08:40:04 PM It was fun raj. We also cut some melons up with my sword. Swords are fun.
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Susan on October 06, 2003, 09:26:39 PM >>>used to melt those green & tan colored army men into puddles of goo with a lighter or a candle when I was a kid. I would pretend that the soldiers had a voice and as I would put their heads near the flame I would say out loud, "Oh please God NOOO....don't burn me!!"
Then I would make gurgling sounds as they melted. They were the only toys I ever had the heart to destroy. Probably because they were cheap and I could buy a new bag or bucket of 'em for a few bucks.<<< Now I know who they based that neighbor kid on in "Toy Story" >>Daddy Long Legs or Harvestmen were a favorite because their legs keep twitching after they're yanked off. We would get a kick out of watching a daddy long legs try to stumble about with only one leg. << You know my very first pet was a daddy long legs, I'm deeply offended. I hope you are never reincarnated as a bug my friend. boys really are evil! Post Edited (10-06-03 21:34) Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Brother Ragnarok on October 06, 2003, 10:04:30 PM Firebombing anthills with that homemade napalm was always a favorite of mine. A buddy and I also forgot that "water spreads chemical fires" rule once and started a large portion of his garage on fire with a huge fireball.
Black cats and matchbox cars still provide a great deal of entertainment. And, to sharpen my marksmanship, I enjoy shooting grasshoppers in half with a pellet gun (loaded, and quite a bit farther than point blank range). Grasshoppers in the mating season are very docile and will sit happily on a firecracker with a lit fuse. Dumb insects. And myself and another friend managed to engineer a huge fireball to shoot out of a toilet with some spraypaint. Brother R Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: NightFlight on October 06, 2003, 10:15:44 PM I guess girls can be evil too. I used to cut worms in half and watch each part squirm around. I also smashed ants with my fingers, and would destroy ant hills by covering up the hole and then wiping all the dirt away to bury them. I still don't know why I did that. I had enough toys to keep my occupied.
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: AndyC on October 07, 2003, 09:25:03 AM We used to have loads of fun in high school, and in the following years. My buddy, Paul (the one who could always be counted on for this kind of fun), once brought over a bag of bottle rockets. We duct taped a hockey puck into the end of a two-foot length of carpet tube. Driving around in his dad's Omni, we would light the rockets, drop them into the tube, and shoot them over the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians. We then took some over to a nearby bridge, and shot them down into the water. At night, the flash would be a pale orange under the water, and the report was a muffled thump.
As for firearms, besides blowing away Gobots, My Little Ponies and pictures of Boy George, we actually did a bit of hunting. One winter morning, looking for rabits, we walked across a frozen pond on his property. The ice was thick enough, and the pond was pretty shallow, so I took a shot at it. I guess there was enough pressure for water to come gushing up. So, I went to a new spot, called Paul over, and did it again. "....then one day, he was shootin' at some food" Bang. And Paul laughed his ass off. In case you're wondering, we did both take firearm safety courses, and were observing all the safety rules. As for rules about safety on frozen ponds, I'm not so sure. Shooting pop cans and bottles, we discovered, was much more fun when they were unopened and full of pop. I once took a two-litre plastic bottle of club soda, got it nice and warm in the sun, bounced it off the ground a couple of times, put it at the end of an outdoor range, and shot with a .303 from 100 feet. There was a huge splash, the bottle shot up in the air, and everything around it was soaked. When I retrieved it, the whole back of the bottle was split open. I did a bit of the burning ants with a magnifying glass (at a much earlier age), and found that a Bic lighter did a nice job on a spider in a web, but I was never very big on cruelty, even to tiny, creepy creatures. Well, there was a toad, on the ground, shot with a 12-gauge at a range of about 18 inches. Aside from a smoking hole in the ground and dirt raining down on me, there wasn't much to see. This was all in my teens. I haven't even owned a gun in years. Never had the time or the patience for hunting, suitable places for target shooting are hard to come by, and the gun laws in Canada are pretty strict. Mainly, I just kind of lost interest. I'm just as happy not having the things around the house anyway. Title: Re: Green Army Men Post by: Andrew on October 07, 2003, 06:59:56 PM I have no idea how many of these I went through in my youth.
We used to go into the fields near our house and create elaborate bases, trenchworks, bunkers, you name it. Then we would step back ten yards or so and start shelling the positions with dirt clods. And once there was an atomic attack on a green army man base. I took a milk jug and filled it with either gasoline or kerosene. To that I added shredded paraffin, because it soaks into things, burns hot, and burns for a long time. The top was sealed in with a wad of rocket fuse and a homemade firework of fair size. What occurred was a "whump" followed by the flaming mixture spilling out and filling the nearby trenches. The poor little men turned into a literal Dante's Inferno of half-melted bodies, some seeming to reach up out of the green morasses. Title: Sparky Post by: Ash on October 07, 2003, 09:09:41 PM Another funny story I forgot to add was when in high school, my friend Larry made this device he nicknamed "Sparky" out of a blue colored transistor radio casing.
I'm not sure how it worked exactly, I remember him taking it apart, showing me it's inner parts and explaining it to me. It had a photo cell and whenever you switched it on, it made that super high pitch whining sound that cameras make. Attached to the casing was a white 2 foot regular electrical cord with a standard 2 prong plug-in (the kind you find on all electrical devices) at the end of it. He filed the prongs down so they were small metal nubs. Once the thing was fully charged, all you had to do was touch the metal nubs to something and ZAP!! He took it to school and touched it to my metal locker and the resulting !!BANG!! and flash made everyone around us jump! Smoke even rose up from the spot where he touched it to the metal. It left a huge black mark that stayed on my locker for the entire remainder of my stay at high school. I tried rubbing it off but it wouldn't go away. As far as I know, it's still there. We used to pour a small amount of water on the ground and place an insect in the puddle. They would squirm around in it trying to escape. That's when we'd take "Sparky" and touch it to the water. The bugs' legs would contract and you could visibly see them shaking from the electricity! We would laugh our asses off!! I talked to him recently for the first time in over 5 years and he told me he still has good 'ol Sparky! Post Edited (10-07-03 22:32) Title: Re: Sparky Post by: Andrew on October 07, 2003, 09:32:19 PM Storage capacitors! Your friend made some sort of homemade discharge system, but what he pulled out of that camera (or bought at an electronics supply store) was a storage capacitor. They can be pretty dangerous. I remember some fellow was salvaging the capacitors out of disposable camera bodies so that he could do something with them. The story was on Slashdot, but I cannot find it now.
Found it, here is the story: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/11/0451236&mode=thread&tid=137 Post Edited (10-07-03 21:33) Title: Re: Sparky Post by: Ash on October 07, 2003, 10:46:51 PM Now that you mention it, I do remember him using the word "capacitor" several times.
I also forgot to add that one of the biggest, toughest guys in our class named Kyle saw us messing with it in shop class and thought he was tough enough to take a "hit" from it. He rolled up his sleeve and my friend stuck it right on his left bicep! I will never forget the expression on his face. He literally screamed like a girl! Sparky left a rather bad burn on his arm. It bled and at the end of that class he said something like, "f**kin' A dude! That hurt like a son of a b***h!" I ran into Kyle about a year ago at a house party and asked him if he remembered taking that shocking blast. He did. He sat down his beer and showed me his arm. The scar is still there! Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: JohnL on October 07, 2003, 11:25:31 PM >I talked to him recently for the first time in over 5 years and he told me he still has
>good 'ol Sparky! Get him to post the plans! Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on October 07, 2003, 11:43:29 PM I'll ask him for the plans.
I'll see if I can get a webcam shot of both the outside & inside of it. He works really odd hours and out of all my friends, he's probably the hardest to get ahold of. Someone here mentioned ants. I still, at age 29 like to hock up big lugies...especially the big nasty slow dropping one's and spit them right down onto the top of large anthills! I can just imagine if they could talk. They'd be screaming, "Look out!! Here it comes!! Emergency stations!!! LOL!! Post Edited (10-08-03 00:25) Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: AndyC on October 08, 2003, 10:20:59 AM ASHTHECAT wrote:
> I can just imagine if they could talk. > > They'd be screaming, "Look out!! Here it comes!! Emergency > stations!!! Reminds me of last year, when I fumigated the house for fleas (the people we bought it from were pigs). I hate using chemicals, but everything else failed. I was watching through the front window as the little cans started going off, spewing permethrin in a billowing plume right up to the ceiling. I couldn't help but think that from a flea's point of view, it would probably look like a nuclear attack. Not a bad analogy, when you think of it. I was pretty amazed by the dead spiders, flies, and big male mosquitoes lying around afterward that I wasn't even aware of. Haven't seen a flea since, by the way. I used to be quite creative at hunting bugs with whatever was at hand. One time, a spider scurried across the counter while I was in the bathroom. I grabbed the hairspray, and gave him a shot of it. It was really interesting to watch the thing continue to run, then gradually slow down and harden up. We also used to have these really disgusting centipedes at my old office. Every once in a while, we'd see one in the downstairs kitchen. These things looked almost like a spiny feather moving rhythmically across the floor, and were almost too big to grab with a Kleenex. It's almost hard to believe they're from this planet. We were jokingly blaming them on the local chemical plant. Anyway, I spotted one going across the counter, and made kind of a clumsy swat at it. It took off, and managed to crawl down a gap between the backsplash and one of the mortar joints of the block wall. I grabbed the bottle of dish soap from beside the sink, shoved the point right up to the gap, and squeezed as hard as I could. Probably sent a quarter of the bottle down after him. Can't say I ever built anything like old sparky, but I used to mess around with transformers and old electronic parts as a kid. Blown circuit breakers were not unheard of around our house. I still have a pair of needle-nosed pliers somewhere with copper melted into them. Post Edited (10-08-03 10:29) Title: Re: Sparky Post by: raj on October 08, 2003, 03:11:45 PM And today you & your friend would be expelled from school & prosecuted as terrorists. Hell, I would be too for bringing in just a squirt gun.
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Flangepart on October 08, 2003, 05:54:18 PM "Ol sparky sounds like a McGiver . Thats one kick ass stun gun!
Blowing up models, i learned from The Goule. "Camera 4!" would zoom in on a model car, and the Gould "Made with the boombooms!" Once made a bazooka with a drain pipe, and a model rocket....not much accuracy, but they laughed their Cleveland butts off. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: JohnL on October 09, 2003, 12:59:15 AM >I used to be quite creative at hunting bugs with whatever was at hand.
I once used oven cleaner on some wasps in the attic. It didn't kill them right away but they sure didn't like it. I had to use oven cleaner because we didn't have any brake cleaner handy. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: wickednick on October 09, 2003, 02:04:44 AM Oh man did I ever do this stuff.I actually had the fire department called on me a few times for burning things like microwaves, vcrs, toys,radios basiclly anything electronic.One time I set my neighbors tree on fire when some transitors exploded (I don't know if you know this but transitors go off like fireworks, ive seen some explode like cherry bombs)and flew into there tree.
One of the things I loved doing was shooting up random peoples cars with my paintball gun, or sticking mice that I caught in there mail boxes. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: AndyC on October 09, 2003, 06:47:54 AM Capacitors can make a pretty nice bang too, if you get the polarity wrong. Learned that first hand when I built my first power supply out of odds and ends.
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on August 28, 2006, 09:31:02 AM Loyal's insect thread got me thinking that I'd written about that electrical device "Sparky" before.
Yep, sure enough I had...in this old classic and hilarious thread written in 2003. I'm anxious to hear what some of our newer members have done! So, what have you done? Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: dean on August 30, 2006, 03:21:34 AM Not done anything new or different, but considering I didn't reply on this a while ago, I should probably say:
" used to melt those green & tan colored army men into puddles of goo with a lighter or a candle when I was a kid. I would pretend that the soldiers had a voice and as I would put their heads near the flame I would say out loud, "Oh please God NOOO....don't burn me!!" Then I would make gurgling sounds as they melted. " That does explain alot... Mwahahahaha! Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on August 30, 2006, 03:39:09 AM AndyC wrote:
Well, there was a toad, on the ground, shot with a 12-gauge at a range of about 18 inches. Aside from a smoking hole in the ground and dirt raining down on me, there wasn't much to see. That has to be one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time! I can just picture it happening. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: RCMerchant on August 30, 2006, 06:02:08 AM I hadda Charlie McCarthy dummy...I put him in a barrel that we usta burn papers in.I set him on fire to watch his face bubble and melt.My dad found some of my Johnny West figures out in the yard and shot 'em up with a pistol. Me and a buddy made a small pipe bomb and blew up an old grill in a junk yard.The dam lid musta blew 20 feet into the air!So cool! I used to swat wasps just enuff to disable them,then set them on an ant hill to watch the ants kill and dismember it...ALIVE!!! "YES-I like to TORTURE!!!"(Bela Lugosi-the RAVEN(1935).
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Flangepart on August 30, 2006, 03:44:58 PM Old model airplanes + M-80s = BOOM!
My friend Steve was real good with useing Cigs as delay fuses...through an M-80 down a sewer once...big steel sewer lids rattled up and down the block! Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: loyal1 on August 30, 2006, 11:01:53 PM Yes a great thread indeed. I am glad my bug thread brought it forth. Maybe I should finish my psych degree...I could hear a lot more stories like these! I have to say my fav line is by wuggles451 "Things haven't changed much over three years of "maturing". Just yesterday I filmed a friend in a Twinkie costume, riding a scooter armed with roman candles, chasing a fat kid." Classic!
On another note...where are all these people like wuggles and susan? I know I was introduced to this board the same night that M Night doc came out on Sci Fi before the opening of The Village. I googled it and Badmovies was right up there on the list. I have been on and off ever since. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on August 31, 2006, 12:56:14 AM loyal1 Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > On another note...where are all these people like > wuggles and susan? I'm not sure. Susan used to come up with some of the greatest threads. Maybe she has a boyfriend now. I've noticed that girls who post here constantly often disappear altogether when a man enters their life. I just couldn't imagine never posting to a board again that I had invested so much time into...like those people who are here all the time and then are never heard from again. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: loyal1 on August 31, 2006, 05:57:29 AM Ash wrote
"I've noticed that girls who post here constantly often disappear altogether when a man enters their life. I just couldn't imagine never posting to a board again that I had invested so much time into...like those people who are here all the time and then are never heard from again." That makes sense. I did the same thing. I suppose it's a time issue. When I am with someone I rarely go online except to check email. How typically girly of me...lol. I may not be a typical girl by any means, but there are some traits I cannot deny. But somehow, I always come back. :) Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Shadowphile on September 01, 2006, 03:35:24 PM Burning ants with a magnifying glass is an old favourite. I used to do it on the sidewalk in front of my grandparents house. I had no access to firecrackers. They were banned in Canada before I had a chance to appreciate them and I doubt they would have let me into Buffalo to buy them. I had to content myself with other destructive techniques. I recall finding a box of Barbies in my sister's closet. I gnawed on several of them and let the dog take the rap...
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Susan on October 01, 2006, 03:22:51 PM Wow, I vanish and suddenly I have a man in my life? lol
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: trekgeezer on October 01, 2006, 06:42:49 PM Back when I was kid (in the stone age) one our favorites was to get and old plastic jug (usually the one from Purex) and cut it into pieces. We would then take a piece and hold it in a pair of pliers and light it on fire. The little gobs of melting plastic made a cool "zzzziiitt" sound as they fell. We would proceed to bombard ant hills with gobs of hot dripping melted plastic.
My Dad actually showe us how to make a cannon using a old paint can and some carbide. Carbide for those who don't know what it is , is a soft mineral which when it meet water produces acetalyne gas. They used it for those lights miners used to wear on their helmets before battery powered flash lights. Anyway, to make a cannon you punch a nail hole on the side of an old paint can near the bottom , then throw in some carbide and tap the lid down on the can really tight. Place the can on something angled so you can get some elevation, pour a tiny bit of water through the nail hole, let it set a few seconds for the acetalyne to build up and then touch a match to the hole. You know it's wonder I have any hearing left from doing this, but it was sure cool hearing that big KaBoom! and watching that lid fly . Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: loyal1 on October 01, 2006, 11:10:58 PM I''m not worthy! I'm not worthy! Where have you been? Or more, I hope things are going well...your threads are surely missed!
Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Ash on October 02, 2006, 02:59:10 AM Susan Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- Wow, I vanish and suddenly I have a man in my > life? lol LoL! We were speculating as to what happened to you. You used to post here pretty much everyday and then you disappeared. Title: Re: OT: Toy, Toilet & Critter Destruction Post by: Susan on October 11, 2006, 10:27:11 PM Also I hate to say it, but I didn't like the new forum layout, I miss the old board. ;-/ But I'll still try and frequent here more, I think it helps to break from something for awhile. You come back with a fresh perspective, new ideas and topics.
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