When you took the battery cover off, I imagined the thing start running and batteries flying all over the room. I couldn’t stop laughing.

I’ve only ever seen one child interact with those toys. It scared the poo out of him and he threw it in the lake. We all fell about laughing. Little man was quite proud of himself for having smited the evil thing.

I can't believe they put so much engineering into a kids toy, that's a remarkable amount of protection.

This brought back memories, a colleague at the RNIB had a new Guide Dog and we had one of these in the toy library and we sacrificed it for the amusement of the dog. She would walk around the office with it in her mouth head vibrating wildly.

...and some kid somewhere is crying in horror as they watch you perform an autopsy on what appears to be their beloved bumble ball

The staple of every KB Toys front of store display. Right next to the yapping dogs and staircase slides.

Electronics in that toy so well protected that even that Freudian slip cannot penetrate it.

My daughter (now 27) had one of these as a toddler. No one in the house can say where it came from, and we had no idea what it was, until I figured out it could be opened, bought batteries and....my mother in law nearly had a fit laughing at the bloody thing. What a weird toy! As in the beginning, we have no idea what happened to it, it just as mysteriously disappeared from the house...

The shape seems reminiscent of a naval mine.

I bet the PTC is also protection against kids pushing the button too often. Good for the motor and the parents!

My eldest son had this as a lad. He adored it, made him cackle and belly laugh as a toddler. Who knew the tecbnology inside. For the record..I changed the batteries often ,as it brought joy to the eventual 4 more sons I had. 😊

I had a bumble ball years ago, it even played the song “Wipeout” by the Safaris as it bounced around. This video took me back

It all started when I realised is more fun taking my toys apart, than it is playing with them. Thats how my journey into electronics started, and I never looked back❤

That looks nicely made for a change.

"A term used in the Catholic church..." Oh Clive, you rogue!

I believe the capacitors on the motor also act to reduce the actual sparking, increasing the life of the motor brushes. A small capacitor on brushed motors was quite common a long time before anyone cared much about generating stray RF noise, though portable AM radios were more common back then.

I used to have one of these, loved it and used it as often as any of my other toys. In my mind it had a rudimentary form of artificial intelligence as with enough coaxing and prodding it could navigate a maze of books, lego and other assorted childhood flotsam. I don’t remember what it had inside exactly but it was nowhere near as complex as this, and had to be turned off after use. I remember rigging up a string to the switch so that I could hide it in a box and activate it remotely, much to the annoyance of my parents.

That thing looks like a combination of an everlasting gobstopper and a naval mine.

I wish I still had my 1st Gen Bumble Ball! The original was a few inches larger in diameter, it had a simple on-off switch with no timer, a battery pack (I can't recall if it was AAs or C cells...) and a huge 1/3rd radius lead counterweight. Mmm, lead... That rowdy sunovabitch would randomly proink itself a foot in the air without warning, and I'm still convinced that the obscene amount of headshots I took from that thing are the reason I struggle with math. LOL

What a fascinating teardown and its just a children's toy. When you started I was just imagining a motor driving just an off weighted geared housing, then boooom!!!! EM suppression, circuit board, caps, resistors wow, great tear down Clive.

You just know that someone, somewhere, has already been to Casualty with one of these rattling around in their arse.

Great to see you have reached over a million subscribers. Well deserved Clive. Great content as usual.

I HAD A BUMBLE BALL. The teardown I didn't know I needed.

20/30 odd years ago when "brushed" motors were the norm in the RC car/plane world, very common to see capacitors and Schottky diodes used this way. Anything to keep arcing of the brushes to a minimum, I suspect to try and eliminate radio signal interference.

What a mind blower.. your video brought back this long forgotten toy. I had one of these back in the 70's. Although they were certainly much bigger back then and didn't "time out" which is probably an added feature by the modern health and safety worriers of our modern times. I have no idea as to what happened to mine. There's a good chance that I disassembled it and later threw it out.

The amount of circuitry is truly amazing!

I wonder how many parents who do change the batteries just force the screws back in and strip more of the plastic each time.

Earlier versions of these were also used as alien props in 'The Fifth Element'. (When the two stoners were clearing out the space cruiser). Peace All

OMG we'd drive a friend's dogs absolutely crazy with these things! They had hardwood floors too LOL! Ours also had a speaker in them and would do this eerie munchkin laugh while bouncing. And, me being me, discovered if the power switch is in between the OFF and ON positions just right, it would only do that laugh repeately and never bounce (so we could leave it in that "Easter egg mode" for hours without draining the batteries). We creeped out some jerk neighbor kids with that one night 😈

Nice surprise to see this, I bought 2 for the kids this Christmas and they both love it! Glad to see it’s got some decent internals!

Clive such a nice video. Who would have thought there would be such circuitry. Once worked in a pitch black warehouse yard at night. In a country area so no light pollution and local church graveyard was only some 200 meters away. Double deck trailers arrived with boxes of toys loose packed on the top deck. These were pushed off onnto ground below , to be palletise and sorted. The impact caused any toys like this to activate. So in the pitch black of night one often heard weird noises. Some like a cackling witch voice or the Chucky dolls allways had hair on back of necks standing up.

How refreshing to see actually well-thought-out schematics' and with so much RF protection too! Thanks for sharing the video. 👍

My son had this when he was a baby! He used to hold it in his arms and his chubby little belly would jiggle 😂

As my school work experience I repaired particle accelerator components and nobody there had your mesmerizing voice! So much so mosfet is now my favorite piece of electronics! You make it sound like a race of fae!!😊

That thing is really well built for such a simple toy. All screws, no glue or clips, and not skimping on the electronics either.

i LOVED these things as a kid...first time actually seeing it on a simple push button timer...i remember them being this hard to use on and off switch, always having to hand it to my grandfather (god rest his soul) to turn it on and off for me haha!

My toddler pointed at your thumbnail, so the design of the toy is quite effective!

Just a few weeks ago I was givng an explanation to my friends about the amazing toy (the Bumble Ball) I had as a kid. They had a good laugh (and I, a shock) when we looked it up, only to find out it was made for dogs! Thanks Clive, for confirming I didn't simply receive a dog toy for Christmas one day.

When they first came out in the nineties, we brought one for our eldest( she was 2yrs old at the time) for Xmas . Set it off in the hallway and she ran,screaming in the other direction. Bloody thing terrified her 😂😂😂

Gave one of these to our son when he was a toddler.... scared the crap out of him but the dog loved it - memories of a very soft affectionate dobermann running around the house with it in her mouth, ears and jowls flapping all over the place 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Holy crap, I need to get this for our dogs! They would go mental if they saw this!

great teardown and explanation!

In the very early 1980's there was a weird spinning disk toy made from heavy plastic and two nylon strings. You twisted it around a good few times and then pulled outwards on the strings. The effect was to spin the disk which rewound the strings. You could keep it going, getting faster and faster if you were suitably coordinated. The disk itself had some lights a bit of circuitry and a couple of batteries inside. When you had it spinning fast enough a weight inside was centrifugally (centripetally?) pressed against a spring switch and caused the lights to begin flashing. Very cool!!! Unfortunately they were shoddy made and frequently when their operator got them going _really_ fast the weight of the batteries caused the plastic to fail and the whole thing exploded into the child's face with drastic results... I recall 'Watchdog' or its precursor had a VERY SERIOUS TALK with the British Public about them. This thing brought that experience to mind!

Woah I had one of these as a kid, green ball, with highlighter trio bumps. I also took mine apart, great to see it basically hasn't changed. This is something I had completely forgotten about till I saw this video. man. good stuff.

That's crazy circuitry ... Very nice.😊

I had a similarly-constructed ball (but without rubber feet, just a ball) with a slim, long hairy little rag with button eyes attached. THe battery pack actually also had a few metal rods in it for extra weight. And that thing was supposed to look like that rag thingy was a little animal playing with the ball, although it was in reality the ball that played with the rag thingy.

Scared my cat! Nicely built and I like the EMI suppression.

I remember them being a big thing back in the 90s, never had one, but they were always in the Argos catalogue, had I actually been given one as a child, I'd have probably taken it to bits because I'd be too curious as to how the heck it worked... :P

Very interesting analysis Thank you Clive

You constantly amaze me. Always finding things I've never seen before. Anyone purchasing that thing for their kid must be a rich masochist. 🙂

Everlasting Gobstopper

I remember that, its old school! Thanks for breaking it down

My daughters loved the bumble ball and Daddy ( me) did replace the batteries. 😊

"the child is going to have learn to expect explosions." LOL

My kids loved it and so did my pets.

Dogs toy > kids toy...pretty much interchangeable :)

lol. i couldn't stop sniggering when you called it a 'bumble boy' for a second time right at the end.

I lost it at the the Bumble boy / catholic church comment @ 9'25'' - hilarious

I haven't seen one of these in years, probably two decades lol

I had one of these that we got from Cracker Barrel waaaaaaaaay back in the day. My American Eskimo *loved* to chase it. Fast forward 10 years and I showed it to my shiba inu... I'd never seen her run so fast in my life. 🤣

Awesome Video Big Clive 😊

More complex than I expected!

How many of these have been surgically removed in A+E?

I feel this toy explains the generations that had to play with it.

I had one of those as a child. My dog loved it and figured out how to work the little switch with her teeth.

"Bumbleboy" is actually a Marvel character: an Insect-powered mutant and member of the X-Men in the future

My goodness! Funny video today! Thanks for the giggles. That church comment had me rolling.

Busy little children bumble about like bees having a bumble ball.

Good stuff

You get all the best toys

Put this on your snare drum for your avant garde jazz solo.

The offspring had one of these years ago, loved it!

He's got his hands on the everlasting gobstopper.

Looks like it could be used for shaking spray paint saving your wrist or attached to a mold table to help remove the air bubbles from the mold, or even for candle makers, removing the air bubbles from the wax.

A great teardown! In my experience the PTC devices typically comes in low voltage ranges only - probably a 1 Amp device at 35V max. And as for the things I can say regarding the vibrating kids toy, I shall stick to "kids" of all ages... with protection!

The excessive protection may be due to the motor constantly cycling between heavy and light(occasionally maybe negative) load, which may be throwing nasty transients onto the power feed that would cause annoyance to the stability of the onboard electronics. I am not 100% sure the motor would see a negative load from when gravity pulls down the pack on the occasion that the axle is perpendicular to gravity so that the motor to pull directly against gravity on one half and brakes against gravity on the other half of the rotation of the pack. What I am sure of is that the amperage and feedback are going to be swinging all over the place as the motor loads and unloads, mostly when the axle is not oriented parallel to gravity but also when there is solid resistance to motion of the toy in one direction and less resistance in the other direction.

Nice of Clive to sacrifice his toys for us.

"🎶Bumble around with the Bumble Ball, baby, Bumble bumble bumble around! Silly little ball and I don't mean maybe, Makes you laugh when you pick it up or put it down!🎶"

Dang, this brings back memories of a red and yellow one I had as a kid.

Wow. always thought it was just an offset weight, not the whole mech an battery!

The young nephew had one of those. His was set off when it was dropped. Nice construction 😎

Tom Paxton wrote a song about a similar toy he called the song "The Marvelous Toy". Brings back tearful memories.

✅ - I remember this as a toy when I was a child, I even remember dad taking it apart to help me replace the batteries

If you're looking for interesting toys to disassemble, (and possibly unable to reassemble) check out the old Armatron toy from the 80s. A robot arm with six degrees of motion controlled by two joysticks that can be twisted. All powered by a single toy motor, and an ungodly amount of gearing. No electronics to speak of, but the mechanical operation is a pretty amazing feat for an old children's toy.

We had one of these as kids in the 90s, It looked exactly the same but darker colors

Have you um ...... "tried it out", Clive? I like how it moves, just imagine that in the right places 😃

I totally forgot about those. I had one as a kid. But mine just had a button, pressed is on, pulled is off.

That thing is realy well made for a toy

It's a real-time clock away from being an alarm clock of the sort to be banned under the Hague Conventions.

I bought my daughter one of the original of that toy over 30 years ago! Wow! Did I get in trouble... 🤣

I worked in the toy industry for many years. Years ago(1984) in an area that was away from the big names was an innovation area that drew little foot fall. I talked to an elderly gentleman that was promoting his Jumping Ball. I think I was the only person that spoke to him. His design and concept was eventually bought by Hasbro.

Oh, I so want to tell about the time an acquaintance visited after having ingested some horrid hallucinogenic concoction.. I gave him my child’s Bumbleball to see what would happen… You should’ve been there..🤣

These contraptions have existed for at least three decades, as I remember my brother and sister (now in their late 20s) having one as toddlers. I don't recall if it turned itself off after a certain time period or if it just jumped across the floor until somebody caught up to it and turned it off. Clearly one of the better designs, if you can stil buy them! The fact that I find that level of interference suppression and stall protection surprising suggests I'm far too used to the sorts of absolute barebones designs used by modern consumer goods - it's definitely refreshing to see a piece of plastic tat that's actually got some level of care in the design for once

I remember these being at K•B Toys when I was kid, almost 25 years ago!

That remark at 1:00 is too true. I've met quite a few families that had one of these in their home but I really only remember one that actually worked. In fact, I remember one that was designated to the duties of a bath toy.

We had them here in the US about 20 years ago and called a Giggly Wiggly. On/Off was not limited to a duration of time - it kept running until you pushed the switch again. Very soft vinyl nubs. They were marketed as a dog toy. Unfortunately it was too much for my jack russel. It became obvious that it was bad for the mental heath of my dog. Far too over stimulating. It was either going to be a mental breakdown or a heart attack. If you could turn it off with a remote control it would have been ok but as long as it was running, Sprocket was insanely convinced that he had to kill it and protect everybody else from it.

8:52 Nah, it's a 135 amp, 1 volt component. It says so right on the package! 🤣

Using the batteries as a counterweight makes me wonder how well it'd work if someone used cheapo ZnCl cells, as they don't weigh anywhere near as much as decent Alkalines!

OMG, so 90's. They actually still make them?

I had loads of these as a kid, along with the orange and purple ball with furry squirrel like bit attached that would roll about, dismantled and reassembled many a time!