Lunch Bucket Buddies
The starter bucket

Open the lid and it's all there.

A tin bucket, the comic, forty-odd laser-cut balsa pieces, paint, a brush, and a sticker to put on the lid when the build is done. Ages 7 to 12.

Get the starter bucket

The open lunch bucket with the laser-cut balsa pieces packed inside.
Everything in the bucket

Laid out, before anybody glues anything

Kit #1 builds a two-storey house with a peaked roof, cut-out windows, and a front porch. The pieces come out of the sheet clean — no knife, no cutting.

Every piece in Kit #1 laid out: laser-cut balsa panels, twelve pots of paint, and a brush.
20+Laser-cut balsa panelsWalls, roof, gables, porch, window frames
12Paint potsTwo strips of colour, enough for the whole model
1Paint brushFlat tip, sized for small windows
1Wood glueWashable, dries clear
17 ppIssue #1 comicThe Friendship Fort
1Kit #1 stickerGoes on the lid when the build is finished
1Collector's edition badgeNumbered — first 200 buckets only
1The tin bucketSteel, latching lid, folding handle
The laser-cut balsa pieces arranged in rows.
Every panel is cut and ready. No knives, no sawing.
A child painting stars onto the balsa house with a fine brush.
Paint it however you want. Nobody checks it against the picture.
Two kids assembling the balsa model.
Roughly 60–90 minutes at the kitchen table.
Celebrate the finish

A sticker for every kit they finish

Inside the lid there's a square for every kit. Finish a build, peel the sticker, stick it down — the bucket fills up with proof of everything they have tried.

Same reason a scout sews on a patch. The lid becomes the record — this one I loved, this one was hard, this one I want to do again.

  • Collector's
    Edition    first 200
  • Kit 1Framing — done
  • Kit 2next up
  • Kit 3empty
  • Kit 4empty

One sticker per finished build. Seven squares in the lid, and more kits than squares.

Inside the lid: the crew, a reserved square for the collector's edition badge, and a square for every completed kit.

Why there's no instruction sheet

Kit #1 ships with a photo of the finished model and nothing else. Kids get handed the answer to almost everything. Here they study the picture, work out what goes where, get a piece backwards, and fix it.

That's the actual lesson. Later kits add drawings and real measurements as the builds get harder.

Stuck? The Builder Community has a hint thread for every kit.

Ages 7 to 12

Most 7-year-olds can do Kit #1 with an adult on the glue. Older kids finish faster and spend the time on paint.

Adult supervision

Small parts and wood glue. Not for children under 3. Kits with cutting tools or low-voltage parts say so on the box.

Safety in the story

Mrs. Hayes, the retired safety officer, is in every issue for a reason: gloves on, eyes on the mix, tape the frayed cord.

Missing a piece?

Email us the kit number and we'll post a replacement. No receipt, no argument.

See what a kid can try next

The trades, one kit at a time