NeoPixels Give This Toy Hand Grenade That Extra Bit of Style

There is literally nothing in this world that can’t be made better with the addition of blinky lights. In ye olden days, makers would used regular old LEDs. But, Adafruit’s NeoPixel individually-addressable RGB LEDs have revolutionized the blinky light industry. Twitterer Chad Vavra has proven just how great they are in a recent series of tweets about his NeoPixel toy hand grenade.

The body of the grenade comes from an inexpensive toy set that can be found on Amazon, and probably in toy stores all around the world. After taking that apart, Vavra drilled holes in the plastic body for the NeoPixel LEDs to shine through. There are a total of 48 of those NeoPixels evenly distributed around the grenade. They are controlled by an ESP8266-based Adafruit Feather Huzzah. When Vavra pulls the pin on the grenade and depresses the plunger, the LEDs go through a series of fun effects.

Sure, it’s just a silly toy, but it proves that NeoPixels make everything better.