(Theme music)
Animated introduction featuring Ruben and Bernie.
MAN: The ExperiMENTALS! Test tubes and fantastic discoveries of the world! Droppin' science on 'em. Dr-dr-dr-droppin' science on 'em. The experiMENTALS!
Sped-up shot of hands putting together a design on a piece of cardboard. The design includes a drawing of a building block with the words 'The Other Block' on it, and the words 'DIY TOYS with Bernie and Ruben'.
Bernie and Ruben, wearing hardhats, and with Ruben holding a chainsaw, burst through the cardboard sign.
Shot of Bernie and Ruben behind a table on which are a large assortment of items. Behind them is hanging the cardboard sign from the introduction.
BERNIE: Hey there, tool lovers! We've got a terrific show lined up for you this week!
Bernie holds up a bird-shaped balancing toy in one hand, then a blue wind twister in her other hand.
BERNIE: I'm gonna show you how to make an amazing balancing toy and a spacey spinning spiral that you can use to decorate your room with.
Ruben points to a green lava lamp and holds up a wooden boomerang with a kangaroo design on it.
RUBEN: And I'm gonna show you how to make a great DIY lava lamp and a cardboard boomerang that really comes back.
Bernie holds up a doll made out of cardboard tube, tissue paper and red tinsel.
BERNIE: 'Cause, like we always say, why buy something when you can spend twice as long making something half as good?
RUBEN: That's the DIY spirit, Bernie.
Bernie holds up the balancing toy bird.
BERNIE: Now, you may have seen one of these balancing toys in your classy 'toy shops'. But I'm gonna show you how to make a balancing toy with just some things you can steal from around the house.
Series of still shots of Bernie holding up a ball of wool, a coathanger and a cork.
BERNIE: Now, your shop one's a balancing bird, but we're gonna make a balancing tightrope walker like you see at the circus.
BERNIE: First, you're just gonna need a coathanger and a set of pliers. You'll need to get some help.
Bernie snips a piece of wire off the coathanger.
BERNIE: Then come down the other end there — same thing. OK, bend the small piece of wire and make a hole through the side of a cork. You might need some help with that. Now thread the wire through.
Bernie holds up the cork with the piece of wire curving through it.
BERNIE: That's the body of the tightrope walker and that's his little balancing pole. To help it balance, put equal amounts of plasticine on each end of the wire. Then twist a screw into the bottom of the cork. You can even add a face to the top of the cork if you like. Grab a bit of wool and we're just gonna line up the groove in the screw with the wool.
Series of shots of the balancing tightrope walker as it slides down the wool yarn without falling off.
BERNIE: It's the DIY tightrope walker. Took twice as long and it's half as good. No contest, really. And now it's over to Ruby for a really mesmerising experience.
RUBEN: That's right, Bernie.
Close-up shot of the green lava lamp on the table.
RUBEN: I'm making a do-it-yourself lava lamp.
RUBEN: If you want to make a lava lamp but you haven't got a plastics plant or a plastic injection moulding facility at home, you can still get the same effect using some simple stuff lying around the house.
Ruben holds up each item.
RUBEN: All you need is some baking soda, some white vinegar, a glass and some uncooked popping corn and you'll have a groovy little lava lamp. Let's see how it goes. So, fill up your glass with water, not right to the top — gotta leave a bit of room for the vinegar. Next thing, add a good tablespoon of baking soda to your glass of water. Give that a good stir around. Stir, stir, stir. Now that it's nice and clear, throw in a few pieces of uncooked popping corn.
The corn kernels sink to the bottom of the cloudy baking soda solution.
RUBY: Now the fun starts. We're gonna pour in some vinegar, which is gonna react with the baking soda to form heaps of bubbles. Here we go.
As the vinegar is poured into the glass, the baking soda solution foams and bubbles up to the rim.
BERNIE: Wow!
RUBEN: Whoa! Just watch him! There he goes over the top a bit. And have a look at what's happening to our corn here. It's all floating at the moment, but in just a little while, the show begins.
Close-up shot of the corn kernels repeatedly floating to the top of the glass, then sinking to the bottom again.
RUBEN: OK, now let's have a look at what's going on here. We've got bubbles of carbon dioxide forming in our water because of the reaction between vinegar and baking soda. Those little bubbles get stuck to our bits of popcorn, which make them float.
Close-up of the kernels in the glass, covered in tiny air bubbles.
RUBY: When they float all the way to the top, the bubbles pop. Then there's more bubbles underneath, so our popcorn spins around. Those bubbles pop and the popcorn sinks again.
Shot of a normal lava lamp next Ruben's DIY 'lava lamp'.
RUBEN: There you go. The commercial version, the do-it-yourselfer. Spot the difference!
Bernie holds up a blue wind spinner.
BERNIE: Hey, have you ever marvelled at one of these spinny things? Well, what I say is, why would you spend 80 cents on one at the shop, when with just a handful of quite expensive things you can make one at home in just a few hours? Now, you'll just need some paper, a candle, some matches and someone to look out for you while you light them, a bit of cotton, some scissors and a tiny bit of sticky tape. Alrighty, this is so easy and yet amazing.
Bernie holds up a piece of orange paper. Drawn on it is circle with a spiral in it.
BERNIE: OK, all you gotta do is draw a circle by tracing around something round. A CD's a good size. And then just draw a spiral on it. Now, very carefully, try and stay with the lines and cut around your little spiral.
Bernie holds up a paper spiral that has already been cut out. It is attached to a string.
BERNIE: Now, I've already done one. And it comes out like this.
The spiral dangles, twisting slowly, from a piece of string.
BERNIE: We're just gonna get something to hang it off.
Bernie hangs the paper spiral on a microphone stand. She lights a candle beneath the spiral. The spiral begins to spin.
BERNIE: Now you've got the candle sending the heat straight up there. All that hot air rising — it's making it spin, with the hot air going through the spiral there.
Bernie holds up a blue wind spinner next to her DIY spinner.
BERNIE: Honestly. Your slick, shiny new thing from the shop — 80 cents. But the satisfaction of building one for yourself from scratch — priceless.
Shot of Bernie and Ruben. Ruben is holding a boomerang.
RUBEN: Aren't boomerangs great?
Ruben throws the boomerang offscreen.
(Crash!)
(Cat yowls)
RUBEN: But let's face it, they're not real good indoors. So here's a really cool way to make a cheap boomerang out of cardboard that's safe to use indoors.
Ruben holds up a piece of red cardboard with a cross drawn on it.
RUBEN: All you need is a bit of cardboard. Draw a cross on it. Cut the cross out. And you've got yourself a little cardboard boomerang. Now, to fly it, lay it on the edge of a book, like this, then just flick it and away we go.
Ruben rests his cardboard boomerang on the edge of a book and then flicks it. The cardboard boomerang flies off and then doubles back, like a real boomerang.
Shot of Ruben just failing to catch the cardboard boomerang as it returns.
BERNIE: Ooooh! Oh!
RUBEN: Nearly caught him.
BERNIE: Is there nothing DIY can't do?
RUBEN: Nothing. Hey, Bernie?
BERNIE: Yeah, Ruby.
RUBEN: What's a boomerang that doesn't come back called?
BERNIE: Don't know, what is it?
RUBEN: A stick!
(Both laugh)
RUBEN: Well, that's it for this week, tool lovers!
Still photos of the Sydney Opera House and a kitten appear as Bernie mentions them. She then holds up a humanoid 'puppet' made out of vegetables.
BERNIE: Yeah. And next week we'll show you how to build a working model of the Sydney Opera House, a kitten and this beaut little puppet that you can eat.
BOTH: See you then!
Onscreen text reads 'Presenter/scientists — Bernie Hobbs, Ruben Meerman. Design — Michelle French. Editor — Darmyn Calderon. Producer — Chrissie McIntyre. Executive producer — Ian Allen. abc.net.au/experimentals'.
