Monday, January 23, 2012

Ninja Party Toy Nunchucks


If someone would have told me that the sweet little bundle of baby love that was blessed to me 7 years ago would someday ask me to make him nunchucks, I would have been speechless in disbelief. Yet here I am, doing that very thing! 


How To's

The first thing I had to learn was that nunchucks aren't really called "numchucks." I decided to stop reading after that, deciding that I'd stick with a seven year old's interpretation of their use-- for "banging each other and stuff."  I found inspiration on the web (check out Empire of Mayhem's nunchucks here (no directions) or these firecrackers but similar design here).


I still had the foam pipe insulation from last year's joust party. And hey, if we didn't get around to putting them to their proper purpose in a year, I might as well put them to another use!  I cut the pipe into 7.5" sections (or so). 


Poke a bamboo skewer through the pipe to make holes.  Keep the skewer in until you are ready to push the string through because it can be hard to find the holes once the skewer is out!


To connect the pipes, I settled on pony bead string from the craft store. It had fun elasticity and a bit of sturdy thickness.  I used lengths of 12 inches.


Poke the string  all the way through one of the tubes.


On the second tube, poke the strings from outside to center so that the two ends are "inside" the pipe.


Knot the two ends together.  The knot will stay inside the pipes.  Now, add some tape around the ends for decoration.  Whala!

UPDATE: it has been 36 hours since the nunchucks were "in use" and I am adding a small bit of duct tape to the design as needed, folding it over the tube so that you poke the skewer through them and then run the thread through.  Some nunchuck strings have been ripping through the pipe insulation. Hopefully, the duct tape will extend their life a bit.

Party Games with Nunchucks

My first plan was to have the boys hit/battle torches.  I practiced setting them up on metal skewers that I had poked into the ground. I liked the idea of how you had to hit it right (towards the top) to knock it off balance.  A perfect situation for teaching about center of gravity!  The torch idea was aligned with a Ninjago-based story line I had going for the party (we were going to slide dragons into the underworld).  Then came the weather forecast.  Thunder and rain and lots of it!  This would have to be an inside party!  But I already had the nunchucks and torches made...  So, we ended up with nunchuck bowling and stealthy walking through the hall of flames.... More posts to follow! 

Please let me know if you use these and what great ideas you come up with!  I'm here to share and learn with you!  Your comments keep me inspired!  

5 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see more pictures!

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  2. Great Idea! I'm gonna use those swim noddles. They seel at the dollar store and think i can get 2 pair per noddle.

    Also think the thicker noddle will stand up to the bashing they are going to take hahaha

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    1. Pool noodles should be awesome!! I couldn't get any in January :)! Good luck with everything and link back with some photos??

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    2. *Love* this idea (and several others that you've done like the kick bag pinata)! My daughters party is this Saturday, but we've decided to use the colored tape on the nunchucks like the belt system in karate and they'll earn their stripes for each fun activity that they do. I'll let you know how it goes and we'll post pics of our activities and food ideas on my page. So, so wish you'd tell me how to make the stuffed shurikens ;-)

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  3. Any word on how the pool noodles worked? I might try that if you guys give good feedback. Thanks!

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