Shrinky Dinks + 8 bit gaming = BitKits
by Kevin Kelly 
{ May 22nd 2007 at 8:55PM }
Since the 8 Bit phenom continues to steamroll through current culture, it seems like it was only a matter of time before someone made a DIY kit available to the masses screaming for koopas, goombahs, and shyguys. These kits let you assemble the characters, iron them out to melt the pieces together, and then you glue on magnets for fridge delightment and gaming re-creations. Just don't scorch yourself as you race to re-build your childhood.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
verdigris @ May 22nd 2007 9:04PM
Shrinky Dinks were actually big things you could paint and put in the oven and they would shrink to miniture proportions. These are not shrinky dinks... my childhood gives you -1 point.
Other than that they look interesting enough to go on my fridge!
Kevin Kelly @ May 22nd 2007 9:06PM
Yeah, but you still have to heat these up with an IRON nonetheless to make 'em work, so my childhood gives me +1,000,000 DKP FTW!
A Reader @ May 22nd 2007 9:19PM
Yeah man, fuck facts!
supersocialist @ May 22nd 2007 9:27PM
These sound fun, but they're not Shrinky Dinks, which were also hella fun. You can still get them; a while back my girlfriend and I ordered some and made some hand-drawn Daleks and stuff. Good times.
Kevin Kelly @ May 22nd 2007 9:25PM
Hey, they're little plastic things that you have to heat up to make work. I'm only comparing them to Shrinky Dinks, you fools! GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN! AHHHHH!
Vince @ May 22nd 2007 9:25PM
perler beads. I did some dragon warrior perler spirtes about a year back.
LuigiHann @ May 22nd 2007 10:55PM
I was doing this before there was an internet.
Wait, was there an internet in 1997? Anyway, I had these when I was a kid. They weren't explicitly marketed as "8-bit graphics makers," but that's what I did with them.
Phil @ May 23rd 2007 12:34AM
Wow my 10 year old sisters made these for a craft fair, just video game things. Never thought I would see them on the 'stiq.
Phizzle @ May 23rd 2007 12:36AM
Ment to say "just not video game things" Joystiq you should add a way to edit your comments
OM @ May 23rd 2007 1:50AM
What the hell? This guy just bought a bunch of Perler beads, re-named them, and is going to sell them at a premium. May as well just buy a kit from the Perler website or a craftstore and make dozens of things rather than pay him for one.
Kevin Kelly @ May 23rd 2007 1:57AM
#10 - I guess you could say the same thing about anything. "What the hell? They just took this and applied some common sense to it? Dang!"
He laid out all the guides and packages the proper colors for 'em. Plus, they're pretty cheap. I say all go for capitalism.
BPM @ May 23rd 2007 4:01AM
Haha, very cool.
I think I might try to make my own of Megaman, Protoman, and the original six Robot Masters (aka "The Sinister Six" :P).
OM @ May 23rd 2007 4:05AM
$4 for a kit, $3.50 for the board, glue, and ironing paper, and I dont know how much shipping it is. Where you could get a tray of 4000 beads and 2 boards and ironing paper for $13 off the Perler website.
Kevin Kelly @ May 23rd 2007 5:31AM
Again, he's laid it all out. To me that = priceless.
Phreque @ May 23rd 2007 8:50AM
Shipping is first-class (cheap). The boards are the large clear (not the crummy opaque white ones from the Perler site), and the beads they offer are only in mixed batches. They're priced at just over cost on the site, and the magnets are free. Rare-earth ain't cheap ya know.
Joseph Villalobos @ May 23rd 2007 9:35AM
Nice! I want to get some! I will create an army of goombas! HAhahaah no one can stop me now!
sheppy @ May 23rd 2007 9:38AM
"What the hell? This guy just bought a bunch of Perler beads, re-named them, and is going to sell them at a premium. May as well just buy a kit from the Perler website or a craftstore and make dozens of things rather than pay him for one."
Majority of the work comes from grabbing the sprite, sizing it, color matching, and then sorting out the beads into colors or even ordering them in bulk by colors. When all is said and done, having all the beads you need in one convenient kit WITH a matching guide is well worth the rather small price tag.
Yes, yes you could buy one of the bulk kits, get a cheaper grade board and suddenly find yourself shifting through that huge mess oh beads for yet another red for the shyguy, but why? For $4, Phreque's website does it FOR you. You get all the pleasure of the craft, non of the pain.
sheppy @ May 23rd 2007 9:43AM
Personally, I'm holding out for Sonic and Megaman characters... but that Phanto is very, very tempting...
JodyAnthony @ May 23rd 2007 9:50AM
just ordered the shyguy and phanto. this site is sweet. Ive been wanting to get into perler video game stuff but didn't want to have to order bulk beads and end up missing one or two of a color I need. This is much easier. Thanks kevin!
BPM @ May 23rd 2007 3:45PM
Phanto is, perhaps, one of the most badass characters in the Mario universe (and his Doki Doki Panic counterpart is not).
He's one of the few Mario villians that would send a sense of fear into me, with how that menacing grin would fly at me.
Oh, and the giant Phanto in the Super NES and GBA remakes... Creepy.
OM @ May 24th 2007 12:46AM
Excuse me? I've shopped at the Perler website and I have the exact same boards he's selling. What the hell are you talking about cheaper grade board? You're not digging through piles of beads because the kit I mentioned comes them organized in a plastic tray with compartments. And what happens if you lose -one- bead or screw up fusing? You're screwed out a project and your money. And you dont size anything; you just go pixel by pixel. All you have to do is use MSPaint to zoom in on a .bmp of a sprite.
Phreque @ May 23rd 2007 7:10PM
Looking at their site now all I can find are the white and shaped boards, both of which melt easily if you're not extremely careful (hence the cheaper-grade remark), and to flatten them you have to iron down almost to the board. The only other large clear boards I've found are $3.19 (tax incl.).
Re: lost beads, we include extras for exactly this reason :)
As for sizing, you do indeed have to resize the sprites for the printed guidesheet - you slap it behind the board and use it as a sort've color-by-number. If we left the sprites at 1:1, the image would take the space of about 4 beads. Not really usable!
The BitKits let you make the magnets without having to buy a multimix bucket/tray which leaves you swimming in bead colors you don't need, and lets folks who wouldn't otherwise get crafty do so.