Arduino Halloween

Had fun with the kids yesterday preparing for Halloween

Ingredients:
1 pumpkin
1 recycled Happy Meal toy (I think)
1 Arduino Duemilanove
1 distance sensor
3 yellow LEDs
3 red LEDs
2 blue LEDs
1 9V battery
1 300 Ohm resistor

I love hacker friendly toys

My old Nabaztag was the first victim.  This time it's the turn of a Nerf Blaster clone:

After removing some standard Phillips screws, I got exactly what I wanted:

• The orange "launch" module in the bottom left of the picture. It's a standalone piece that's originally powered by 3 AA batteries but should work fine on a Arduino friendly 5V (or higher :-). Even the mounts can be recycled for the project I'm working on.
• The orange "piston" at the top of the picture. I had a simpler design in mind but this one is more compact so it will work even better.

I bought this toy in a local store but I usually go to the flea market in Cormano where I can pick up a R/C car / toy without remote control for a few euros. Way cheaper than buying individual components like wheels, engines, and electrical components piece by pice.

Photos / video of the final project should be available "soon".