What do you get when you combine ingenuity, creativity, a pinch of engineering and woodworking? You get the coolest easy-to-make wooden action toys that can do extraordinary things. Have fun building toys like a Warp-Speed Penny Shooter, a Tissue-Launching Crossbow or a Poparazzi Gumball Machine.

This simple to follow guide includes patterns, step-by-step instructions, and engineering advice on how to make 28 different toys. There is even a section on toy-making basics that offers a supply list, time saving tips and a how-to on doing the projects with small children.

Author Bob Gilsdorf, a father of five boys, guides you through the process of taking an idea that seems like fun, working through the details to create your toy or game, and finally, building it out of wood. He has also included game ideas for some of the projects to help spur the imagination.

The majority of the projects in the book can be completed in an hour, but will be sure to provide hours of entertainment.

I'll warn you now – this book is a lot of fun. Zany Wooden Toys that Whiz, Spin, Pop and Fly is a collection of woodworking projects for making the most dynamic toys you have ever seen: rapid-fire nickel launchers, monkey-tossing gumball machines, marble shooters, ball & socket robots and so many more action-packed, noise-making, motion-propelled goodies.
These entertaining gadgets can be made in just an afternoon's time, with simple materials from the home store, and the easy-to-follow instructions inside Zany Wooden Toys That Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly. The handy guide provides readers with everything they need to complete the projects, including basics like: choosing wood, making cuts, drilling, and painting with lead-free paints and finishes. There's a special section on how to successfully make wheels, and axles, and how to work safely with children.
Each project includes a photo of the finished toy, a tool and materials list, diagrams and instructions for construction, as well as how to operate the completed plaything. The guide is colourful, and charmingly-illustrated - keeping both the woodworker and his young companions on the edge of their seat for playtime. I can't wait to get my daughter in the shop to make some of these fun projects. I think we're going to start with the Tissue-Launching Crossbow.

Got kids in your life? Zany Wooden Toys That Whiz, Spin, Pop alnd Fly by Bob Gilsdorf is as fun - maybe more so - for the parents or grandparents as it is for kids with its plans for some traditional and carnival type toys including shooters, launchers, handheld games, a ball-and-socket robot and gumball machines. It's designed in comic book style, with tips
for success from the cartoon character toy inventor himself.

Become a master toy builder by checking out this book which features 28 projects that you can build on your own!

Divided into fun sections like Shooters, Launchers, Games, Toys, and Gumball Machines, there's something for every creative mind to construct!

A section on Woodworking Basics will help you get started, too!

Written by Bob Gilsdorf, a third-generation woodworker, this 224-page softcover is a collection of woodworking projects for making all sorts of dynamic toys, like marble shooters and monkey-tossing gumball
machines. Each project includes a photo of the finished toy, a tool and materials list, and instructions for construction.

We are at the end of the first week of November and if as a woodworker you have not yet given any thought to making Christmas gifts, here is a friendly reminder. In fact, this week's book review should be a giant hint for gifts for those younger giftees.

A tissue launching crossbow, a pool cue marble shooter, a gumball machine, a golfinator and, 24 more imaginative toys for girls and boys. This is what Bob Gilsdorf's book is all about. The book is full of colour photos and detailed construction illustrations and great ideas to keep your kids entertained and gamed for hours on end. The toys are easily made in any home woodshop from simple materials that you will find in your scrap wood bin. A little glue, a couple of nails and a little paint and you're done. Tools used are very basic and the toys are imaginative and fun. The ping pong ball launcher will keep a child awed and amused. How about a ten cent labyrinth? Put a dime in one end, twist and turn the toy and hope to get it back. Hand baseball can use a wooden ball, a ping pong ball or even a smurf ball to hit a home run. Ah the fun of it all!

Take the book into your shop and have fun building these great toys.

A public library isn't usually the place where you envision pounding hammers, snapping rubber bands or wads of tissue flying through the air.

But that's exactly what kids and their caregivers found Sunday afternoon at the Sand Creek Library as they got a lesson in building their own wooden toys.

'I normally think of Home Depot for this kind of stuff,” said Zeff Gordon, 10. 'But I guess any place is possible.”

About 25 youngsters and their parents or guardians showed up to get a lesson in toy making from Bob Gilsdorf, local author of the book 'Zany Wooden Toys that Whiz, Spin, Pop and Fly.”

He's an electrical engineer by day but has been inventing wooden toys with his five sons for the past 18 years. The book is an accumulation of the various projects they've made together.

Well, most of the projects, anyway.

'It's only the toys that worked,” he said. 'There were quite a few that didn't make the cut.”

He's put on about four similar events in libraries throughout the area.

He said they're popular in the libraries because while the kids are having fun, they're also learning about the invention process, physics and even aerodynamics.

On Sunday, the kids screwed and hammered precut pieces of wood into tissue-launching crossbows, a cool name for a contraption that uses a rubber band and a clothespin to send tissue balls flying.

Andrew Miller, 11, was excited to be working with tools. He built a birdhouse once but hasn't had any new projects since it broke, he said.

His mom, Connie Miller, said she was just happy he could have fun.

'It's nice that they can come to the library and they build something but receive an education at the same time,” she said.