Altoids upstaged by gift card tins
posted Feb 7th 2010 6:41am by Phil Burgessfiled under: misc hacks, toy hacks
Nothing Earth-shattering here. Just, dare we say it, really cute!
The venerable Altoids mint tin has become an icon of the maker culture. Browsing through past articles on Hack a Day, Adafruit or Instructables, you’ll find project after project for which these pocket-sized enclosures provided just the right fit. Eminently practical, affordable, but the aesthetics have occasionally left something to be desired.
We recently stumbled upon these nifty gift card holders that resemble miniature versions of current-generation game consoles. They might be the perfect housing for your next microcontroller project…
These were acquired from our local GameStop retail store and unfortunately do not appear to be available online. Each will set you back $2.99 — about a buck more than the mints, and without the added benefit of fresh breath. Such is the price of style.
The shapes are varied, but all are a bit larger than the traditional Altoids tin, allowing ample space for a battery pack, breadboard or microcontroller setup. As with the mint tins, of course you’ll want to insulate your project from the interior metal surface. A bit of contact paper or even some index cards are usually sufficient.
In addition to the Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 3 tins depicted here, portable consoles — the PSP and Nintendo DS Lite — are also available in miniature form.
Oh me oh my