DIY PRO MOD Lawn Darts (for grown-ups)
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- Thanks to Brent Bandhauer.
Channel: / brentbear1
Source video: • Lawn Darts
*****
A funny thought had occurred to me while filming this video. Since this one was already ankle-deep in satire, the compulsion to wade in further began to build pressure. Only the cosmos knows why I want to subject myself to it, especially since I already know so well how bad it sucks to be misinterpreted. Anyway, here's the thought: take a look at the statistics, and you'll see that-over the last decade-Horseshoes have killed, maimed, and destroyed far more than Lawn Darts have. And here you, sensible viewer, roll your eyes and chuckle, because you understand that Lawn Darts, having become the pariah of risky backyard toys, no longer have a comparable market share. It's no longer funny when I explain it, but that's why I'm now giving you THIS explanation, because neither is IT funny; the pressure to include everyone in the joke is real, and it sucks. Satire leaves the thick behind, but we can't have that.
Note that in my most recent video, the one that you didn't watch in its entirety, a rather well-crafted but subtle argument was presented to a distribution of video game players. The argument was difficult to conceptualize at its theoretical far end, enough so that I'm somewhat uncertain about its validity. But one thing about which I am certain is that if the argument was off base, it isn't because of some simple, three-word dismissal like 'your just nostalgic.' Chances are that I'm wrong, alright. But not because of some simple, glaring omission; I'm wrong because the actual case is too complex for me to account for, too deep for me to entirely see, and just too downright complicated for me to ever be able to understand. Remember, by all realistic measures, the causal chain that you and I operate on is de facto endless, and as such, the only consistent worldview is one that requires infinite elaboration. Anyone who believes otherwise was probably beaned on the head by a horseshoe as a kid.
Just remember, as you ingest your daily sensational-but-empty media content, that it's the fairness crabs who are pulling the risqué back down into the bucket. Don't call this tendency by an 'ism,' because such would be a gross miscategorization and an over-simplifying generalization. What's really going on here is the emergence of a natural order that preferences an inclusive distribution, not for any idealistic reason, but simply for the sake of economy, and thus, for self-preservation. Content (and that means jokes & satire) is made for the masses, and that mass is mostly made of the dullard of double-digit IQ, with an extra point thrown in for good measure. Media aim for the center of the bullseye. Aim at a different target at your own risk. Ay me, to be misunderstood! Lol. I'm not really so selfish as the previous sentiments express, nor as arrogant as the following Schopenhauer quotation suggests:
“talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”
No, my own self-regard is somewhat more dismal and depreciative. I'm just here to entertain you by lobbing some clever media through the air. Yes, at times, an innocent gets hurt in the process. And that's the price you pay to preserve the option: risk. If you don't like it, vote me down and back into the bucket. But don't ask me to put away my sharp objects because you don't understand how to use them.
My friends and I used to play a game similar to lawn darts, but with a bow and arrows. Sometimes the target was only about ten meters or so away, so we'd be aiming the bow almost directly up, and the arrow would go so high that we would often loose sight of it and couldn't be sure where it would land. I was lucky to survive my childhood.
My brother and I used to play that game. One of my arrows landed in his leg. I went over to help remove the arrow, and asked him if it hurt much. He pulled out his Boy Scout knife and stabbed me in the leg, saying "this is how it feels". Good times.
Once (long before I had any sort of crafty history with golf balls), a buddy, J.H., and I played a similar game in a cornfield using a slingshot and a white golf ball. The player aims almost as vertically as possible, but while also attempting to hit the other player on re-entry, forcing them to move.
It DOES go out of sight, but it's a non-lethal game of nerves. Chicken, as they call it: you can clearly see the ball come back into view, and it seems to fall slowly enough that one may simply take a single step to the side to avoid being hit. Naturally, both of us toughguys stepped no more than once, lest we lose any right to our machismo.
God, I loved that kid. We lost touch as he grew an increasing fondness for a certain white powder, but I've heard that he has since married into wealth, and is now a multi-millionaire and successful businessman. Make no mistake, kids: games that require balls _do_ tend to confer developmental benefit.
@@pocket83squared We used apples and a three person slingshot (like the ones for water balloons) at night early in college. Feel real dumb about that. Trying not to tell my nephew, but he loves hearing how dumb his uncle was lol
My dad used to do that! He and his brother stopped playing when an arrow pierced my uncle's shirt sleeve under his armpit
I was thinking a camera trick would be used for the danger shot but that's even more ingenious
I'm old enough that my family actually owned some lawn darts. We also had a bow and arrow set, which I recall someone did once shoot directly up into the air once before deciding that was a bad idea.
And I confess, you kind of momentarily got me at 11:03 but then the payoff at 11:25. 😁
(and I've now read the comments to see that throwing/shooting/whatever things near vertically seems to be a common childhood event... Humans....)
The opening shot of the kids throwing lawn darts directly up shot my stomach to my throat..
This video brought back some memories! I had lawn darts as a kid and they were fun to play with. My best friend and I also had sling shots with the medical tubing on them and arm braces. We would shoot pears at each other across the yard with them. What a time to be alive!
I love that ending with Mrs. Pocket and the dog right in the firing line, it rounds out the video perfectly!
Brilliant video - my neighbour at the cottage still regularly use their original metal lawn darts as I watch with envy lol - now I have the instructions to create my own! Thank you
I'm a 80 baby. Literally 10980 birth year. Ford memories with my family using these. I still play/enjoy using them. When ever I see an original set I buy them. 42 years old and I have more sets of jarts that eye balls. Thanks for taking the time to video and post this. Later.
Man, I can really watch anything you put on here.
My memory of lawn darts:
Two kids were playing with lawn darts they found in the garage at a small park near where we lived. My sister was on a swing and looking back now (I was 4) I think they were intentionally trying to scare her and she was ignoring them to prove she wasn't scared. Then a lawn dart came down on her face. The kid's parents, who were there and kind of ignoring what their kids were doing, were scared to death. It broke the orbital socket/nose, and the doctor said she avoided being blind or dead by about a quarter inch. I remember getting lots of ice cream while I was being shuffled around as the adults managed things.
That story was haunting enough that it'll probably stay with me.
My own experience of the game was comparatively unremarkable. The memory is that of a fourth-of-July party, thrown by the notorious neighborhood bloviator: and how the parents all watched on hesitantly but didn't interrupt as I and the other kids played Lawn Darts inside of a loose corridor of onlookers. Looking back now (I was around 10), I think we were all intentionally trying to have fun for the sake of looking mature, despite the game being obviously un-fun and inappropriate for children. Shame that kids usually have to take the hit for parental negligence. One slip of my sweaty little hand, and irony could have had that day.
The kids in the clip. Priceless fun. Fantastic video.
I remember when this whole thing happened, and I went out to the garage and looked at the hanging hedge trimmers, the brush cutters, the containers of highly volatile fuel, cords hanging all coiled up at children-neck-height, my bicycle which I rode down this huuuuuuge hill that was basically a T-bone into a ditch/stream/gully, and I thought...
"Yeah. Lawn Darts was the issue."
(I was actually very small when this all happened, so the above is meant strictly in joking-terms, but man it is super duper silly that outside darts were banned but inside darts were still okie dokie.)
So true. Just outside, have you ever stopped to notice how many pointy sticks there are? You could lose an eye.
As for the darts, "banned" is a bit of a misleading emphasis. Really, it's just that companies stopped selling them because of the CPSC safety alert. So far as I can tell, there's no federal law prohibiting adults from using, making, and/or throwing around sharp objects in their own yard. Yet.
I absolutely loved lawn darts, but accidents happened. See, the way we played was one or two of us stood next to each ring. That way nobody had to walk. One team person/throws, then the other. That said, depending on who you’re playing with, you’d better pay attention when they’re flying. Still, the worst that ever happened was a scrape or bruise. Nobody that I know ever died from a lawn dart. It’s not like it was a toy like a “bag of glass”sold by Irwin Mainway (Dan Akroyd SNL skit). Toys for back when kids left home to play outside during summer at 8am, and returned a home when the street lights came on (and usually built multiple structures or biked dozens of miles a day). Must’ve been great to be a parent back then - unless the gang of kids was closest to your house at lunch time.
As a kid I remember making what we called 'french arrows'. Basically a piece of cane with the thick end split cross ways and cardboard flights inserted. A bit of string with a knot in the end wrapped around and down to the end was used to throw them. Got pretty good distance but the accuracy was terrible.
This is the first time I see this toy and I have a question about it, I don't know if it's relevant to the design or not, but why aren't the wings fixed to the bar ? Does it help to make the toy fly more smoothly ?
Also I did watch your essay on video games, 3 times x)
Still thinking about it. I think that I might have a slightly more optimistic view than you on one particular point that you made, I will put that in a proper response later :)
The design is really quite clever. The flag is forward/down and out of the way as you throw underhand. As it leaves the hand and the jerk of acceleration grabs it, the flag moves back and against the rear bumper-handle, where it helps to stabilize the soon descending dart, as do the flights on an arrow.
Note that the other bumpers also serve their functions: the nose bumper helps to brake on impact, and the center bumper disperses the force of the flag as it crashes into the front.
That was a fun video, and now I've got the urge to go impale one of my friends! Seriously though, that was entertaining, I never tire of seeing you create!
We just played with these today at a family event. While the actual Jarts are banned, I don’t believe making your own is illegal.
Why are the flights loose on the shaft? Wouldn't it be better to epoxy them at the end of the rod?
11:04 Dog: I’m not going to watch …
Lawn Darts are freedom. Being FREE to choose a bad idea along with FULLY ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY for your choice and its repercussions. FREEDOM is a LAWN DART.
Freedom has become a meaningless marketing word. In terms of agency, you are still "FREE" to brandish a lawn dart in order to rob a liquor store, but it doesn't make preserving the possibility an ideal. Take that Randian super-autonomy nonsense and stow it. We've disallowed lawn darts in the marketplace because most consumers are stupid. When all of you start to act like grown-ups, then such impediments to perfect liberty will be removed. Guess when that'll happen.
Tell me, are the guide rails on roads also an incursion upon freedom? Why are my tax dollars "ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY" for your deadbeat family's inability to keep their car on the bridge? Natural selection, right?
We threw normal darts, they buried themselves, and I remember making a metal detector from a pocket radio and a calculator just to get it back. Got the idea from a Kipkay video.
Have you played Crokinole? I bet you would like it.
Tool worship - Where is MATT the axe - Long live MATT
Honestly you can probably have the tip even duller than what you made here. I remember the lawn darts I used as a kid in the 90s were barely any pointier than just a straight rod and they worked fine.
What about a golf ball as a handle!
10/10
Nice way to work in some very good tips!
Pun intended...
Jarts!!
My parents had a set and we used them with no problems except maybe when aunt Sarah walked out in front of a throw.
Yes,probably one of the worst "toys" to give young unsupervised boys.
Downloading this video for archive, before it gets deleted. :D
That probably won't happen. I've rather deftly presented this as satire. Even the most puritanical can't seem to get that streak off of their window. Yin, here's a yang; since I have to suffer so many moralities of superstition, in return, you will all have to endure my incessant scoffing.
The endmade me chuckel
This is a great video... you are the man...
Have you thought about possibility selling a set if so I'm interested in purchasing a set you just made. This brought back the child in me, good times!
Even if I did sell my projects, which I do not, it's no longer legal to sell lawn darts. You can't even use the search term on many platforms. If you want them, you'll have to make them.
I remember that my girlfriend's teenaged grandson had a hand launched arrow slinger.
One of the darts kept bouncing off a tree so the solution was to get closer to the tree. The next arrow bounced off the tree and came within two inches of his younger brother's face.
Being at a party no one else noticed and when I told his grandmother what had happened it didn't take long for it to get exiled from the party.
I survived the real thing :)
"Max out manliness like a real boss" - but think of the children!!!!
the nose cone is actually only there to slow the dart down.
SA
ND
Susan Wojcicki is gonna be livid
👍
Nice toys.
Have you played Petanque? You have plenty of room for a court.
Edit: Pétanque.
No, I have not. Though Croquet and Bocce are both common enough here that I've played them.
@@pocket83squared My parents live im Breton, not far from Carnac. We loose many evenings to Pétanque.
@@jimphubar That sounds nice. Not only the game, but to imagine visiting your part of the world, as well.
@@pocket83squared You and Mrs P would be welcome anytime. I'm in London but it's only a couple of hours to the folks.
I can't believe you used a PLASTIC STRAW!!!1
In days of old when men were bold and straws were not invented,
we drilled some holes in coconut bowls and sucked them quite contented.
When I was a kid I loved playing that game and I was pretty good at it but better at horseshoes I would win money on horseshoes
Dog once again placing way too much trust in its human…
In the case of my dog, her trust is warranted. Perhaps you've made an incorrect assessment of your own? You know-like, that she was ever at risk?
@@pocket83squared
actually, I was making a joke. Cool project tho.
@@slackjaw703 And your joke's sort of funny, too. Had the dog actually been in danger, her reaction _still_ would've been exactly the same.
@@pocket83squared
Lol. I think are dogs must be related.
Yeah, lawn darts are so dangerous and stupid.
* Proceeds to shoot bow and throw knives at own garden.
Yo pock