Many have seen the novelty windmills people station in thei yards or gardens. These cute birds and other critters have rotating parts that turn in the wind. But that is all.
We at BUNGCO think that windmills should be true to their heritage, and do work. The Windup Windmill Buddy has a spring which is very gradually wound up using gears. When fully wound, the spring discharges. You may have seen our original Windmill Buddy on TV, in which the discharging spring rotates the wind paddles very quickly, enabling the Buddy to rise up 20 or 30 feet above the ground before settling back and recharging.
After our TV special in which a legion of untethered windmill buddies hopped their way across a windy meadow, we had trouble filling all the orders that came in. The unexpected popularity of the Windmill Buddy as a scarecrow, together with adaptations using Legos and other devices, has prompted us to devise the Windmill Buddy Expansion Set. Now instead of simply flying into the air, you can rig your buddy to do any number of activities - limited only by your imagination! Have your buddy flail arms and legs menacingly, sound a horn, loose a stream of hose water, or anything else within the energy capacity of the spring. The faster the wind blows, the more fun you will have.-- bungston, Jul 18 2004 I'm impressed!-- DesertFox, Jul 18 2004 I was hoping there would be more enthusiasm for my poor windmill buddies, who have languished unannoed except for two kind words from [Dfox]. So I am booting it back up to the recent list in hopes that it will do better on a weekday than it did on a weekend.-- bungston, Aug 11 2004 I'm impressed 2.-- spacemoggy, Aug 11 2004 3.-- contracts, Aug 11 2004 HAVE YOU NO SHAME??
(4)-- scubadooper, Aug 11 2004 here's another annotation for you (5)-- zen_tom, Nov 03 2005 I was thinking about this one again. In one incarnation the Buddies shoot up into the air not just by paddling their arms, but by virtue of a spring that discharged against the ground. These Buddies have vanes like lawn darts, descend rapidly and then stick back into the ground with a spike. Given that they do this most when there is a wind, it is possible that stuff in the vicinity might be impaled by a descending windmill buddy. That stuff could be your innards.
Therefore we will incorporate a little bell which rings in the few seconds before a Buddy is primed to take off, giving bystanders a chance to run for cover / open fortified parasol / shriek with fear.-- bungston, Oct 05 2009 I was hoping there would be more enthusiasm for my poor anno, which has languished. So I am booting it back up to the recent list in hopes that it will do better on a weekday than it did on a weekend.-- normzone, Oct 05 2009 I was hoping you could advise me on the best timing for adding an anno that I wish to languish, how long I should expect my anno to languish once it has been added, what method is used for quantifying the level of enthusiasm and the units specified, and where I might be able to get a decent shoe shine and a cup of coffee around here?-- egbert, Oct 05 2009 Well I guess that answers questions 1 & 2.-- egbert, Oct 08 2009 random, halfbakery