WAKOO

Give it a twist. Wake up a friend.

It sleeps with its lids shut and a small, satisfied smile. Hold its back and turn the green collar: the four lilac lobes slide apart, its ears, paws and feet spread out, and a yellow face with two teeth looks up at you. Turn the collar back and it curls up and goes to sleep again.

The WAKOO creature asleep on a pale table: a round lilac body with two ears, two paws and two feet, engraved closed eyelids and a small smile, the green collar just showing underneath.

Asleep

Four lilac lobes meet in the middle, closed lids and a little smile drawn across them. Only a nose peeks through the gap in the centre.

Your hand is the motor

Hold the green back and turn the scalloped collar underneath. That collar is the only part you move. There is no spring, no battery and no motor in it.

Four spiral grooves

The collar has a spiral groove cut for each lobe. A pin on a slider rides in every groove, so as the collar turns, the spiral pushes the four sliders straight out.

Each slider carries a lobe

A guide plate keeps the sliders running in straight lines, and each lobe is fixed to its own slider. Over 70° of twist, every lobe moves out 0.6 in.

Awake

The lobes part, and the face that was hiding underneath looks up: round eyes and a grin with two teeth, cut right through the yellow face and dark behind.

Back to sleep

The same grooves pull as well as push. Turn the collar back and all four lobes come home together, until it's a sleeping lump again.

WAKOO awake, seen from above and to one side: the lilac lobes spread out, the green guide plate showing between them, and the yellow face with round dark eyes and a two-toothed grin in the middle.

A grin you can see from across the desk

The eyes and mouth are real holes in the yellow face, with a black core behind them, so the grin stays dark from any angle. The sleeping lids and smile on the lobes are engraved, so the two faces are different and you can tell which state it's in at a glance.

Same creature, two sizes

WAKOO asleep, lobes closed together.
Asleep 5.5 × 5.3 × 1.6 in
WAKOO awake, the four lobes spread apart around the yellow face.
Awake 6.3 × 6.1 × 1.6 in
Exploded diagram of WAKOO: the green housing at the bottom, the collar with its four spiral grooves above it, four lilac sliders, the green guide plate, the black head and yellow face, then the four lilac lobes and their crowns on top.

1 printed pieces, nothing bought in

Every part is printed. The lobes and the face are fixed in place; only the collar and the four sliders move. From the back:

  • Housing, the green back you hold
  • Collar, the scalloped ring you turn, with the four spiral grooves
  • Sliders, one for each lobe, each with a pin riding in its groove
  • Guide plate, which keeps the sliders running straight
  • Head and face, the black core and the yellow grin
  • Lobes and crowns, four of each, each lobe its own shape with its own ear, paw or foot

The grooves are drawn to keep the push angle under 30°, so the pins slide along the spiral instead of jamming against it.

WAKOO

Asleep
5.5 × 5.3 × 1.6 in
Awake
6.3 × 6.1 × 1.6 in
Weight
4.8 oz
Printed pieces
1, in 14 shapes
Material
Matte PLA in lilac, apple green, lemon and charcoal
Power
Your hand. No batteries, springs or screws.

A handheld desk toy for grown-ups, not for small children. It was designed and motion-checked in CAD; how stiff the twist feels is set by the print.