Kanji Transformers

[Gleaves]

This is random, but check out these wickedly awesome toys that transform from kanji into the corresponding animal. The blog Pink Tentacle has a bunch of pictures here. If they can make about 4,000 more of these, I'd give up flashcards.

Has anyone seen other clever Chinese-character-related toys like these?

[jbradfor]

Those are really cool! Wonder if they are available in the USA?

[Embarrassingly enough, my first thought was that the one for 乳 must be really neat....]

[Gleaves]

Pretty sure this is the kind of trinket you would need to inport from Japan.

I think what we clearly need is a 器 that transforms into a robot, a 忍 ninja, and a 盗 pirate. Followed closely by a 僵 that turns into zombie.

[roddy]

I had the one for '无', but it seems to have disappeared.

[Glenn]

Haha, that's pretty awesome! I like that it's called mojibakeru, with its allusions to mojibake, which no one wants (or perhaps more appropriately, 亂碼)!

[trien27]

“....器 that transforms into a robot, a 忍 ninja, and a 盗 pirate. .... a 僵 that turns into zombie.”

器 = a tool in Chinese, whereas "robot" means "worker" from Czech. "Robot" is translated as 机器人 in Mandarin. 忍 = to endure; to keep it in, 忍者 from Japanese = "ninja", 盗 is "to steal", 盗贼 = thief. 海盗 = pirate. 僵 means "stiff". 僵尸 = "vampire"/ "zombie" in Mandarin. 僵尸 = "vampire" in Cantonese and "zombie" = 喪尸 in Cantonese.

The transforming Kanji is from Ban Dai, a Japanese company which produces toys? I used to have a toy by that company which my mother bought in Chinatown, so mojibakeru kanji transformer toys might be imported all over the world soon? Since this is a fairly new toy but I think the concept is very old. [The transformers toys in the USA were an import from Japan in the early 1970's and 80's.]

[trien27]

I had the one for '无', but it seems to have disappeared.

炁 [older form of 气] has lost the "fire" and a bit more, just like in the Simplified Chinese 汽 of 蒸汽, steam/vapo(u)r seem to have lost the 米 from 氣 in Traditional Chinese before adding the water 氵?

[Hofmann]

OT:

气 didn't lose anything. 气 is the oldest form. It looks kind of like Ξ.

[jbradfor]

OT: and 汽 is the current traditional form as well, there is no form (commonly) in use today of 汽 with the 米. [is "current traditional" an oxymoron?]