Inventions you didn't finish building because you lacked the proper technical knowledge, and/or because you were a kid.

1. Age 6: A robot suit, like the one Spike's son wears in Transformers: The Movie (1986). A friend and I started gathering scrap metal around the neighborhood, but never quite figured out how to assemble it into a suit.

2. Age 8: A rocket pack/glider (inspired by the Rocketeer). I drew up a concept for a jetpack with gliding wings and "air holes" in the side (made sense at the time). I lost interest pretty quickly but my brother took it a bit more seriously than I did. Inspired by the Jetpack/glider concept, my brother put together a "test glider" by stretching a towel across his back and wearing a bookbag over it. He tested it by running and jumping off of our front porch and flapping his "wings" as fast as he could for the second or so he was in the air before rolling onto the lawn. He swore up and down that the glider made him stay in the air longer. In typical mean older brother fashion I mocked him mercilessly for it:-/

3. Age 12: My best friend Sean and I wanted to make a video game called "Sweat and Blood". It was to be a combination of Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, and Killer Instinct, but bigger, better and bloodier than all of them put together! We made up all these characters which I drew and developed elaborate back stories for them. Thing was, neither of us knew the first thing about programming.

We bought a huge video game programming book but

to use it you needed to know c ++ or something. Which neither of us knew or had the inclination to learn. The dream was dead ;_;

4. Drew up plans to make miniature tanks/subs/helicopters and stage a revolution aged 10. Possibly overambitious. I had a core of 4 or 5 kids who were in, tho.

Age 6(?): invented my own tasty orange-flavoured beverage by stealing little bits of any orange-based food or drink that I could scavenge from the kitchen, and then collecting them to brew in a bottle I had hidden in the back of my wardrobe. Main ingredients were orange squash, segments of satsumas, chewed-up orange-flavoured Opal Fruits, orange Tic-Tacs, and -crucially- mouthfuls of juice that I would sneak out with and spit directly into the bottle. Even before the bottle was half-full it started to smell pretty bad, so it all went down the toilet. Why did no-one tell me about pasteurisation?

Also age 6: sweets that were good for your teeth - I baked lots of blobs of toothpaste on the radiator, but couldn't come up with decent a method of scraping them off again so they didn't just crumble into minty dust :(

Age 12: A bicycle boosted by compressed air cylinders mounted on the back. Didn't know where to get the cylinders, and the only bike with a platform on the back for mounting them was a small foldaway shopping bike. Also much later I realised that it wouldn't have worked anyway, because the pressure wouldn't have been high enough.

Age 16 never set up the Leaving Cert website idea I had- different sample questions answered each week in detail by teachers and a facility to have test papers sent in through email and corrected. The teachers had already agreed to help out on a local basis as a project for me and everything.

Age 10: giant orbiting UN spaceship carrier, for instant deployment of attack ships towards anyone on earth who isn't TOEING THE LINE. Maybe better that I didn't get beyond the design stage; didn't realise how fascist it was.

• Age 6: Sky Shoes. For a school Invention Fair. Basically, basketball shoes with springs inside the soles under the heel. Years later we have Nike Shox.

• Age ~11: A tube (similar to a toothpaste tube) for dispensing peanut butter (and/or jelly). No knife needed, and no soggy sandwiches. Had a flat nozzle so there was no need to spread. Later marketed by Skippy.

• Age 18: A box installed at drive-thrus next to the window where patrons could swipe their debit cards and enter their PIN, rather than have to hand it to the clerk and take the PIN pad on a long telephone cord. Never bothered to pursue this idea, but I think it's been done since.

• Age ~20: A funnel-shaped, disposable, waxed-paper (similar to a Dixie cup) device that would enable women to stand up to urinate in public restrooms. Anatomically correct, just unfold it and hold it in place. No more having to hover! Later saw an informercial from Europe where this had been invented. I've also seen such things on YouTube as the "Go-Girl" and the "Sheenis".

attempted to create a vehicle that ran on piss. i didn't know how to do that unfortunately so i just peed in my friend's gas tank.

didn't work

Replica proton pack, got as far as cereal box painted grey, empty washing up liquid bottle and a bit of string, couldn't work out how to make particle accelerator so settled for water in washing up liquid bottle.

Age 9 - Pop bottle with built-in straw that automatically pops out when you remove the top. In retrospect this is embarrassingly penis-like!

Also, had almost certainly already been invented.

As a kid I designed a fort/clubhouse that had NO DOOR!!! The top secret entrance was going to be a secret tunnel on the outside that would enter up into the floor of the clubhouse. Drew up all the plans, got tired of all the digging.

I invented a golf boardgame with cards and dice and I still have it. I never wrote the rule down but I still have them *taps side of forehead* up here.

congratulations on combining the two most boring pursuits known to man

thx

it is pretty sweet

I recently came up with the idea for a bracket to mount strap pegs to an iPad, but have decided to give that idea away here…

but I will accept royalties

"My best friend Sean and I wanted to make a video game called "Sweat and Blood". It was to be a combination of Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, and Killer Instinct, but bigger, better and bloodier than all of them put together! We made up all these characters which I drew and developed elaborate back stories for them. Thing was, neither of us knew the first thing about programming."

There is a thing calle MUGEN that lets you make such things without knowing such first things of programming.
NEVER LET YOUR DREAM DIE

Age 8 - wanted to invent taps that turn on automatically when you put your hands under but thought this might require either magic or a remote control.
Age 10 - went to McDonalds and was delighted to find such a thing in the toilets.
Age 18 - a VCR that you could text to tell it to record something. Couldn't resolve the problem of having to have a blank video in the machine, maybe invent a robot to do this? Anyway now such things exist thanks to hard drive recorders.
Last week - an iPhone app that checks local gig listings against your music library and tells you when bands are playing near you. Fantastic idea which has sadly been done several years ago :(

age 7 (?) - I drew a bowtie and row of buttons on a triangular sheet of paper, so that if you held it up to your chest it looked like you were wearing a dress shirt beneath whatever garment you had on. I imagined mass-producing it out of real cloth and peddling it to ambitious slackers. to my great disappointment, my mom told me it had already been invented & was called a dickey.

age 22 - a roll of foil with a strip of saran wrap running down the middle — "tinfoil with a window!" ideal for people who find ordinary plastic wrap flimsy and hard to handle, but struggle with foil because it conceals the very items it wraps. this is a dumb idea for anyone with enough brainpower to just wrap their food w/ foil and ID it w/ post-it notes.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3135/saranfoil.png

I would buy and use that second invention

thx, that means a lot to me

its like the flag of particularly despairing country

Sardinia, iirc

I tried to invent the perpetual motion machine when I was 7 or 8. When I was 9 I found out that it was impossible.

that's what they want you to think

Actually, I think I was the real perpetual motion machine when I was 7 or 8.

age 22 - a roll of foil with a strip of saran wrap running down the middle — "tinfoil with a window!" ideal for people who find ordinary plastic wrap flimsy and hard to handle, but struggle with foil because it conceals the very items it wraps. this is a dumb idea for anyone with enough brainpower to just wrap their food w/ foil and ID it w/ post-it notes.

I work at an As Seen On TV store and this is a way less stupid idea than many of the items we currently sell

is it common for strident mouthbreathers to waltz into your store & pick shit up & act out their "hilarious" Billy Mays/shamwow guy impressions while all their friends giggle and all the employees groan? I'd imagine it to be a daily occurrence, at least.

dumb idea, version 2:

http://i40.tinypic.com/mmbw3t.jpg

I hope these pictures are handmade and also I think we have a possible theme for the next WDYLL thread

handmade thru the magic of MS Paint, yup :)

[private message to anyone w/ half a mind to hijack some of the ideas on this thread and shamelessly iiiijjjj them to their creators, e.g. "you can buy the patent to your own invention for just $5000!": I hope your firstborn child dies in a fire]

I am patenting the idea of having your firstborn child die in a fire

you will be hearing from my lawyers soon, "broa super (unregistered)"

:o :o :o :o :o

I am patenting the idea of you hearing from my lawyers. So after you hear from my lawyers, you will be hearing from my lawyers about you hearing from my lawyers, then shortly after that you will be hearing from my lawyers about hearing from my lawyers about hearing from my lawyers recursion_dude.jpg

PS I will also be patenting the idea of you beating me with sticks...

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

peanut butter and jelly "singles", like american cheese, individually wrapped and ready to put on a sandwich. I just spread pbj on saran wrap and put it in the fridge. Didn't work