The Naughty Ninja!
BIG & Small have acquired a massive obsession with all things Ninja..
This is mainly down to the brilliant Ninjago series of toys, games, DVDs and the like from LEGO and also due to them having some Wing-Tschun Ju-Jitsu self defence classes after a spate of rather nasty bullying at school ( more about that another time...)
Anyway, on a recent trip to the SwissToy Expo in Bern, the boys fell in love with a rather cheap Ninja costume. A plastic bag containing a little smock, Ninja face mask, plastic swords, throwing stars and nunchucks. Mrs S and I decided that as they had been extremely well behaved on our jaunt around thousands of toy exhibitors, without making any demands or throwing any tantrums, we would indulge them in their little wish.
The two matching costumes were duly purchased and quickly put on, just as soon as they could get through the front door upon our return home.
All well and good until one particularly vicious breakfast time Ninja battle which saw BIG, snap his plastic sword on small's head and small then retaliating with a swift plastic nunchuck to BIG's head, resulting in non-recoverable damage to both toys....
There were tears of pain and tears of sadness as they realised their most prized toys were broken, then tears from the reprimand they received for getting way out of hand!
After a couple of days, I could no longer stand the misery of them wandering around in their Ninja costumes with no weaponry, and decided I had to do something to bring the smile
back to their little faces.
I hatched a plan and made a trip to the local DIY store and collected the following assortment .
3x lengths of foam pipe insulation
3x lengths of wooden dowel
1 x packet of wooden discs
1x roll of Gold foil
1xroll of Silver foil
2 large sheets of thick card
50cms of bath plug chain
1x roll Red Ribbon
2x Rolls Gaffa Tape
The two matching costumes were duly purchased and quickly put on, just as soon as they could get through the front door upon our return home.
All well and good until one particularly vicious breakfast time Ninja battle which saw BIG, snap his plastic sword on small's head and small then retaliating with a swift plastic nunchuck to BIG's head, resulting in non-recoverable damage to both toys....
There were tears of pain and tears of sadness as they realised their most prized toys were broken, then tears from the reprimand they received for getting way out of hand!
After a couple of days, I could no longer stand the misery of them wandering around in their Ninja costumes with no weaponry, and decided I had to do something to bring the smile
back to their little faces.
I hatched a plan and made a trip to the local DIY store and collected the following assortment .
3x lengths of foam pipe insulation
3x lengths of wooden dowel
1 x packet of wooden discs
1x roll of Gold foil
1xroll of Silver foil
2 large sheets of thick card
50cms of bath plug chain
1x roll Red Ribbon
2x Rolls Gaffa Tape
when the boys came home from Kindergarten we had a great afternoon building...
The Virtually Indestructible (Safe Play) Ninja Collection
The Sword
1. Cut the lengths of dowel to 60cms
2. Trim length of pipe insulation to 50cms
3. Slide dowel into pipe insulation and fix with tape, leave at least 15cms dowel sticking out for a handle and be sure that you have at least 5cms of just foam at the tip of your sword. Squash the excess foam together into a point and secure with tape.
4. Drill a hole in the centre of 2x wooden discs so they can slide onto the dowel handle.
5. Slide one disc up to meet the end of the foam blade and fix with tape
6. fix the other disc to the very end of the dowel with glue and cover with tape.
7. Wrap the foam blade in silver or gold foil then cover with clear sellotape.
8. Wrap the dowel handle with tape and build up a thick handle.
9. Wrap the tape grip you just made with red ribbon and fasten top and bottom with tape. .
The Nunchucks
1. Cut 2x20cm lengths of pipe insulation
2. Fasten 2 foam elements inside with 25cms bath chain, leaving 5-6cms between each foam element, fix well with tape.
3. Cover Foam elements in Tape/Ribbon stripes for decoration.
Throwing Stars
1. Cut out some star shapes from thick card
2. Trim or round off sharp points
3. Cover star shapes with gold or silver foil
4. Secure and cover with clear sellotape
The soft foam swords and nunchucks have provided literally months of intense and safe Ninja battles, so much so, that I had to build one for myself to mount some form of defence!
LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE!
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