Institute of ImaginationRobot LabRobot Lab
Build a body

Matchbox automata

Make a card box with a paper clip handle and a character on top that rides up and down, and forwards and back.

  • About 45 minutes
  • 6 steps
Step by step

One step at a time, in big writing.

A small card box with a blue paper clip handle through its side, a purple paper boat on top and strips of pale blue paper across the top as waves

Before you start

What you need

Tools

To print

Materials

Make it

The steps

How it works

The square bump in the paper clip is a crank. It turns your hand going round into your character going up and down, and forwards and back. The heavy lump under the bead hangs down and keeps your character upright.

The open box from the front, with the paper clip crank through both walls and a handle outside that turns; the bead on the bump carries the straw and a paper boat up and down. Seen from the end, the bead goes round in a circle while the plasticine hangs below it.

  1. A pencil pushed down through a piece of card into a lump of Blu Tack underneath

    Cut out the box and make the holes

    Cut round the solid lines of your box template. While the card is flat, lay each hole mark on a lump of Blu Tack and push a pencil point through. Wiggle it until the paper clip can turn in the hole.

  2. The box template flat, with a hole marked on each long wall, then folded up into an open box

    Fold up the box

    Fold along the dashed lines. Glue each tab to the end wall, then fold the end down inside over the tabs and glue it. Leave the top open. Look through one hole. Can you see the other one straight across?

  3. A straightened paper clip with a bead in the middle; then the same clip with a square bump bent either side of the bead, so the bead sits on top of the bump

    Bend the crank

    Straighten the paper clip and slide the bead to the middle. Bend the wire up and down either side of the bead to make a square bump, no taller than 1cm, so the bead sits on top. Bend the wire over the edge of your ruler for sharp corners.

  4. The open box seen from above, with the paper clip across the middle and the bead on it; each end of the clip comes out through a hole in a long wall; one end is bent flat against the outside of the wall, the other is bent into a handle

    Thread the crank through the box

    Hold the crank inside the box and push one end out through a hole. Gently bend the other wall to push the other end out. Bend one end into a handle, and bend the other flat against the box so the crank stays in. Turn the handle. Does it turn freely?

  5. Left, the open box from one end, cut away: the paper clip crank goes through both walls with a bead on the bump, a short straw on the bead holds a paper boat above the rim, and turning the handle moves the boat up and down. Right, the box from the side with the bead at the bottom of its turn: a flat sausage of plasticine under the bead runs along the box and still clears the floor.

    Balance your character

    Press a lump of Blu Tack under the bead and squash it into a flat sausage along the box, no more than 1cm deep, so it clears the floor. Keep it off the wire. Fix the straw on top of the bead with another small lump, and your character on the straw. Turn the handle. Does your character stay upright?

  6. Two paper boxes from the front, one blue and one yellow, each with a home-made plasticine character on a wire crank and the handle sticking out of the side

    Invent your own

    Make a character from paper, pipe cleaners, straws or plasticine, and give it something to move past. How does it move when you turn the handle?

After the steps

Use it on your robot

Put a paper clip crank through two holes in your robot's body, with a head or antenna on the bead. Turn the handle and it bobs.

For ideas

  • The paper boat automaton from above: the boat sits on the crank in the middle of the box, with paper waves across the top and the blue handle sticking out of one side
  • Three test boxes from above: a big cardboard box with a pipe cleaner crank and a bead, a pink box with a paper boat on a wire crank, and a small box with an orange bead on a bent paper clip
  • A pale blue paper box with a green plasticine rim and a plasticine bee riding on a red wire crank, with a blue bead as the handle
  • A pale green paper box full of beads, straws and pipe cleaners threaded on a blue wire crank, with the handle sticking out of the side

Your turn

Ideas to try

Make something else

  • A robot headpopping up out of the box.
  • A swimmerdiving in and out.
  • A birdwith pipe cleaner wings.
  • A rockettaking off and landing.

Then change something

  1. Bend the bump lower. How high does your character go now?
  2. Move the lump towards one end. What happens?
  3. Stand waves, clouds or a road behind the box. Where is your character going?

iOi challenge

Make a character that tells a short story as you turn the handle.

More to make

  • Build a body

    Kaleidoscope boxes

    Put a small cube head on the bead, and it bobs as you turn.

    • About 45 minutes
  • Build a body

    Kinetic shapes

    Tape an arm with an elbow on the bead, and it waves as it bobs.

    • About 40 minutes
  • Build a body

    Make it roll!

    Put a crank through a box with wheels, and your robot rolls and bobs.

    • About 40 minutes