Frog SnapCatch the fly!

Two frogs, one fly, and a knob that picks the moment. The nest throws the fly up on a click nobody can predict. Slap your flower first and your frog swings its open mouth underneath.

Wind it up by hand

Swing each frog back until it clicks. That winds the spiral spring under its arm. Then drop the fly in the tube and push it down: a second spiral inside the nest winds behind it. Nothing else powers the game.

Take turns on the knob

One click each. The knob has 8 rests a turn and 16 identical flutes, so nobody can see which click hides the fire lobe. Give it a spin before each round and even you won't know.

The nest lets go

On that click the knob's cam pulls the sear. The spring swings the lever, the lever drives the piston up its bore, and the fly carries on alone, about 10.6 in above the frogs' mouths.

First slap wins

Your flower knocks your frog's catch free and, on the way down, shoves a pin under the other flower. That flower can't go down this round. It works like a quiz buzzer.

The whole frog lunges

The arm's spring swings the frog 84° into the middle in a fraction of a second. It stops with its mouth right over the tube, under the falling fly.

Mouth full of fly

The mouth is a 2.5 in cup and the fly is hollow with a loose slug inside, so it lands dead instead of bouncing out. That's a point. First to 5 wins.

The mud-brown nest between the two lily pads, seen from one end: the yellow fluted knob on its face, a blue flower behind it, a blue release bud on the pad, and the frog's spiral spring set into the pad.
The nest from the knob's end. The flowers stand at the far end, one for each player.

One flower goes down. The other can't.

A pin runs between the two flowers, under the nest. The first flower down pushes it sideways into the other's groove and stays latched until the next set-up. Two players would have to slap within a few milliseconds of each other to tie.

Jump the gun and you lose anyway. Slap before the fly is up and your frog swings in early, chin over the tube. The fly hits the chin and bounces off. The false-start rule is built into the shape.

Both frogs on their lily pads seen from the flowers' end: one frog has lunged over the nest, the other is still swung back, with a red and a blue flower between them.

How a round goes

  1. Set up. Spin the knob a few turns. Drop the fly in the tube and push it down until it clicks. Swing both frogs back, pull both flowers up.
  2. Click. Take turns turning the knob one click.
  3. Slap. When the fly pops, slap your flower.
  4. Score. A fly in your frog's mouth is a point.
  5. Reset. Press the round bud beside your frog to free it, swing it home, set up again.

Springs and all, it's PLA

The springs, the arms and both catches are PLA, built into the lily pads and the nest. No metal springs, no batteries, no screws.

The frogs change colour from chin to crown: a yellow chin, a green body, white eyes with black pupils on top. Each pink mouth is a separate insert glued into the head.

Looking down into a frog's pink mouth, with the black fly resting in the bottom of the cup and the frog's white eyes either side.
Caught. The fly settles beside the cone in the bottom of the cup.

Frog Snap: Catch the Fly!

Players
Two, face to face
Size, set up
12.2 × 7.5 × 4.9 in
Weight
14.5 oz
Power
Your hands: spiral springs, wound at every set-up. No batteries
Material
PLA
Small parts
The fly is 0.8 in across. Keep it from small children