Create your very own platonic solid with this dodecahedron and see the view from 12 different sides.

Howtoons is getting ready to head down to San Diego for the 2010 Comic Con! We will have a full report when we get back.

Check out our latest ‘toon – Cosmic Cooker!

For this ‘toon we experimented with different ways of cooking hotdogs using a homemade solar cooker.  We made three different versions.  The first cosmic cooker was a box cooker – made out of a box, aluminum foil, saran wrap, black construction paper, and a ruler.  The cooker looked great but did not allow the hotdog to heat up beyond 140 degrees after 1 hour of cooking.

The second cosmic cooker – a hooded box cooker made out of a pizza box.  Similar to the box cooker construction with an added hood made out of cardboard and aluminum foil in order to attract more light.  The cooker works well and managed to get the hotdog up to 175 degrees in 1 hour of cooking.

The final cosmic cooker was a parabolic cooker.  Using just a bowl and aluminum foil, I was able to achieve the same speed and heat as the hooded pizza cooker.  In under an hour, the hotdog temperature reached well over 175 degrees.

Making solar ovens are a blast and can be done in a variety of different ways.  Experiment – try using different sized boxes or bowls, or even an umbrella!  Enjoy and send us your tasty cosmic recipes!

Here are a couple of ways to spend your 4th of July weekend!

Ice Cream: cool down with some homemade tasty treats!

Sled On A Thread: Go fly a kite!

Speed Demon: try and catch the world’s fastest paper plate!

Underwater Scope: explore the oceans tide pools.

Pinwheels: find a summer breeze.

We are now selling our latest Howtoons book: Tools of Mass Construction through our online store!  The book is a collection of our web material and includes 15 of our favorite projects and with added pictures and sketches.  Click here to visit our online store.

You can also support us locally and pick up our book at the following stores:

Alameda, Ca. Alameda Sports Cards and Comics

Berkeley, Ca. Comic Relief

San Francisco, Ca. Comix Experience, Isotope Comics, Wink, and Cover To Cover.

If you are interested in distributing our book, please contact us here.