Transparent canoe
Clear hulls remain a specialty paddling product, with canoe and kayak forms.
Clear Kayaks North America ↗ · DERAMAR ↗New Earth Catalog / science, play and invention
Interesting science toys,
twenty years on.
What became of the objects on Science Hobbyist’s old Interesting Science Toys page? Some are still made. Others are collector finds. Several ideas have grown into better tools.
Research snapshot: 7 October 2026. Stock and resale listings can change.
The catalogue question
These objects matter for more than novelty. A transparent canoe changes how someone sees the water beneath them; a bat detector makes another animal’s world audible; a chemistry set or microscope lets curiosity become practice. This page preserves the original as a historical reference, then points to what a reader can find or do now.
The transparent canoe is real.
The old Hammacher Schlemmer model is historical, while new products are sold by Clear Kayaks North America and DERAMAR. A clear hull has become a small specialty category rather than a vanished novelty.
01 / Obtainable now
Ideas that survived.
These links lead to a current maker or product family. A maker page shows continuing production; it does not guarantee local stock or delivery to Australia.
Fun Fly Stick
The static-electric levitation wand has a current Zero Toys product page.
Zero Toys ↗CHEM C3000
Thames & Kosmos still lists the advanced chemistry set. Check stock before ordering.
Manufacturer ↗Giant microbes
The plush disease collection is still active and much larger.
GIANTmicrobes ↗Solar furnace jewellery
Sundrop Jewelry still sells sun-melted glass jewellery; the exact old earring design may differ.
Sundrop Jewelry ↗Frozen Lightning
Lichtenberg figures captured in acrylic remain available as science art.
Captured Lightning ↗Roomba
Robot vacuums have moved from novelty to ordinary domestic infrastructure.
iRobot models ↗Glass radiometer
The Crookes radiometer is still made as a light-powered demonstration and ornament.
xUmp radiometer ↗Snap Circuits
Elenco still makes snap-together electronics sets, from beginner through larger kits.
Elenco ↗Geiger-counter kit
Current kits still allow the owner to assemble a working radiation detector.
Imagesco kits ↗Bat detector
Ultrasonic listening is now available as handheld detectors, kits and phone accessories.
Batbox Baton ↗ · Franzis kit ↗ZORB
The human rolling-ball experience remains active.
ZORB ↗Airzooka
A handheld vortex cannon continues the old air-blaster idea.
Airzooka ↗Coffee-cup Stirling engine
Low-temperature engines still run from the heat of a cup of tea.
POP Stirling kit ↗Klein-bottle mug
Acme Klein Bottle continues making its topological drinking mugs.
Acme Klein Bottle ↗Nitinol spoon
Grand Illusions still lists a shape-memory teaspoon.
Grand Illusions ↗Record-playing VW van
The tiny record-riding vehicle continues as the Record Runner.
Record Runner ↗High-wheel bicycles
Rideable penny-farthings are still made, including in Australia.
Rideable Bicycle Replicas ↗ · Penny Farthing Dan ↗George Rhoads ball machines
The artist’s kinetic sculpture practice continues through Creative Machines.
George Rhoads / Creative Machines ↗Magnetic Thinking Putty
Magnetic putty remains a tactile way to explore slow flow and magnetic response.
Crazy Aaron's / Puttyworld ↗SpokePOV and Hokey Spokes
Programmable bicycle-wheel light patterns survive as products and maker projects.
Hokey Spokes ↗ · SpokePOV guide ↗Museum and science shirts
The Museum of Jurassic Technology and Homestar Runner still sell their own merchandise; disease-themed ties also persist.
MJT ↗ · Homestar Runner ↗ · Infectious Awareables ↗02 / The capability continues
Replaced by something more useful.
The old model may be gone. These links show a current route to the same experience or a closely related capability.
Infrared goggles
The old EyeClops goggles are collector items. SpyX Night Hawk offers a current toy-grade infrared scope.
Toyworld Australia ↗IntelPlay and Meade microscopes
QX3 and ReadiView are discontinued. Handheld USB and phone-connected microscopes now fill the same role.
IntelPlay history and alternatives ↗LEGO Mindstorms
Robot Inventor retired; LEGO Education SPIKE sales ended in 2026. Raspberry Pi Build HAT supports compatible motors and sensors, while other coding robots continue the learning path.
LEGO retirement notice ↗ · Build HAT ↗Draganflyer
The early VTOL toy has become a family of commercial drones from the same company.
Draganfly aircraft ↗Magnetic and diamagnetic levitation
Levitating globes remain desk gadgets. Pyrolytic-graphite kits make the underlying diamagnetic effect visible.
Graphite kit ↗PowerSkip jumping stilts
The classic PowerSkip is discontinued. Spring and jumping stilts continue as a specialty activity.
PowerSkip status ↗Mini rovers and micro helicopters
Programmable mini robots and small drones now offer greater control and better sensors than the old toys.
Sphero Mini ↗Wooden standing wave
Classroom wave machines and Chladni-plate kits preserve the physical lesson.
Standing-wave kit ↗Foama Lation
The named toy is elusive. Foam-making machines continue in a much larger form.
Little Tikes Foamo ↗DNA and phage jewellery
Small makers now offer DNA-profile jewellery and bacteriophage pendants.
DNA jewellery ↗ · Phage pendant ↗UV invisible-ink pens
UV pen-and-light sets remain widely sold; their exact branding has changed.
Current UV pens ↗Erector, Meccano and steam kits
Construction sets and working model steam engines remain routes into mechanics.
Meccano ↗ · Jensen steam engines ↗03 / Occasional resale
The collector shelf.
These are discontinued originals or period products. The linked listing may sell or expire; it is evidence that the item reaches the resale market, not a standing supply.
RC tarantula
An old Takara remote-control spider appeared in a used eBay listing.
Listing ↗Meade ReadiView
A pocket microscope of the exact vintage still surfaces for resale.
Listing ↗Deja View CamWear Model 100
The camera’s instant replay buffer anticipated modern action cameras. A used example sold on eBay.
Sold example ↗Fisher-Price Pixter
The original electronic drawing toy occasionally appears unopened or used.
Listing ↗Zero Toys Wizard Stick
The theatrical smoke generator is an occasional collector find.
Listing ↗Morph Magic puzzles
The anamorphic mirror puzzles are out of print, but complete copies still turn up.
Noble Knight ↗ · Etsy ↗X10 CCD wireless camera
The original wireless-camera ecosystem is obsolete; working sets remain collectible.
eBay X10 cameras ↗Robotic serenade hand
The translucent mechanical piano hand survives mostly as a novelty collectible.
Listing ↗Wham-O Air Blaster
The original is a vintage toy; Airzooka supplies its modern air-vortex cousin.
Sold vintage example ↗04 / Historical leads
Originals still to trace.
These names appear on the 2000s source page, but current manufacture or a live resale offer was not reliably established. They remain searchable historical leads; some have obvious functional successors, while others were one-off art or jokes.
- Knights of Ni hat and Great Black Beast: Monty Python costume and novelty collectibles.
- Allwaze standing-wave and Hover toys: old woodcraft models; current wave and magnetic demos exist.
- Pixelito micro helicopter: an early ultralight RC craft; current micro flyers differ.
- Hardwood Pirolette: carved optical portrait; custom anamorphic art is its nearest analogue.
- Shrunken Quarter: electromagnetic metal-forming souvenir; original seller unconfirmed.
- Mighty/Zero Blaster and Stench Ray: vintage vortex and joke toys; Airzooka covers the physical effect.
- Corpse Face Reconstruction Kit and Alien Facehugger plush: costume/collector territory, with intermittent merchandise listings.
- Bonsai Potato Kit: old novelty gardening kit, known by ASIN 0966474147.
- Hover Copter and RC hovercraft: old toy models; modern micro aircraft and hovercraft kits differ.
- Magnetoids: discontinued ThinkGeek magnet toy; current magnetic construction toys differ.
- Giant Fresnel lens: the named Goldmine lens is unconfirmed; large Fresnel sheets are still an optics category.
- X-ray dinosaur books: old novelty titles; dinosaur anatomy books continue.
- Skyliner LED message toy: superseded by programmable LED badges and persistence-of-vision displays.
- Spare Brain, Plasma Mug and six-foot army man: collector/prop leads, with no reliable current match.
- 100 Megaparsec Cube: Bathsheba Grossman’s astronomy-data sculpture; exact current edition unconfirmed.
- Neutral-buoyancy frisbee: exact pool toy untraced; an ordinary flying disc is not an equivalent.
- Frida Kahlo and Nietzsche dolls: historical novelty line; exact designs unconfirmed.
- LegWay, Linux Billy Bass and Furby autopsy: maker projects, not products with a stable original seller.
- Tesla business-card shirt and original Russian night-vision scope: exact versions untraced.
- Ultracapacitor, B&W camera and ultrasonic listener kit: the old models are unconfirmed; components and instruments in each category remain available.
- Lewis Carroll anamorphic art: a particular artist’s work rather than a repeatable toy line.