Chico Bicalho's Wind-Up Robots

Z and I were killing some spare time in Houston a while back and took a stroll through the Contemporary Art Museum, which often has colorful, attention-grabbing exhibits that give us something to talk about. Z was most interested in the museum's basement gift shop, and although I was happy to indulge her, I wasn't expecting much from the experience. So when I happened upon a display of Brazilian artist and activist Chico Bicalho's small mechanical toys, wound one up, and fell in love, I was more than a little surprised.
That's Awika. Those feet (12 in all) are the little rubber tips you sometimes see on sharp pieces of metal. Winding the key tightens the metal coil, which then releases its tension, spins its gears and legs, and emits sparks from a frictiony bit in its back end. Awika is about 4" long, has plastic gears and leg mounts but otherwise all-metal parts, and, for a piece of true contemporary art that tries frantically to escape from your clutches, is surprisingly cheap fun at about $12.
This is Le Pinch, which crawls in an inchworm-like motion - its body opens and closes like a hinge as it walks. Mine just broke, and the fix seems to have shifted a couple of its plastic gears out of alignment, so I can't say this design is quite as durable.

Although these toys are officially "mine" - something I explained and made Z repeat back to me when we bought them from that gift shop in Houston - Z is constantly negotiating opportunities to play with them, and when I bring them out she really can't keep her hands off them. They're marketed as "desk sculptures," and I could see how a person might benefit from having one at the office - they are arresting, fun, and a conversation piece, as well as being a nice way to waste a few minutes being a kid again. They're also a little delicate, which means I'm not ready to leave Z unattended with one yet, but she's quite competent to handle them - she just needs reminders of which way to turn the key.

As for me, I want more of these, and luckily he's made about a dozen models. Our encounter with Bicalho's robots was a key step in our inspiration to create our own homemade robots - our Jumping Robot was modeled after his creatures that jump and skitter around, particularly Spinney (pictured), and he also has a pull-string powered design that inspired our Walking Robot. I'd still like to make robots more like the wonderful Critter and Cosmojetz models, and wish he'd come out with something that can draw on paper.

Bicalho's wind-up robots are distributed in the U.S. by Kikkerland, and can be purchased there as well as on Amazon.com.