Crank the Grump

A desk monster with a bad mood stuck in its mouth. The mood is a chip, and the chip is on a crank. Scroll to turn it.

It starts at the handle

One crank on the monster’s right side. It is the only thing you touch, and everything else on this page follows from it.

The crank is fixed to an axle that runs straight through the head, side to side. Turn one and you turn the other.

Inside the mouth, a U-shaped rotor rides the axle and holds the mood chip between its two arms.

They sit at right angles to each other. A 90° turn rolls the scowl down out of sight and swings the grin up into the mouth.

That is the whole trick. Turn the crank back and the bad mood comes back with it, ready for next time.

Nothing else on the body moves. The eyes stay wide, the teeth stay put, and only the face in the mouth changes, so the joke lands every time.

Pulled apart, the monster is a shell with a drive threaded through it. The four parts on the axle turn together; the rest stay where they are.

Crank, axle, rotor and chip: The drive. One piece of each, all on the same axis.
Body: The monster itself, with the bearing holes the axle runs in.
Eyes and pupils: Two of each, fitted into the brow.
Teeth: Four fangs, two above the chip and two below it.

No batteries, no switch and no sound. The change happens in the face, and a turn back resets it.