You can create plinking, plonking renditions of classic game theme tunes with a sweep of your finger using these 3D-printed fidget toys

Every time I see a 3D printer in the flesh, I consider buying one. Trouble is, what would I actually use it for? The answer, it seems, is printing off hundreds of musical fidget toys that play classic gaming theme tunes, both for my own amusement and to annoy various members of my family.

Yes, I'm wonderful to live with. Anyway, Maker World creator Kida has uploaded print designs for a whole host of different game themes, including Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Undertale and Minecraft (via Hackaday). Each print creates the pieces for a clever little musical device, guaranteed to delight and irritate in equal measure.

The individual parts snap together to create a series of tines surrounded by a frame, with a sliding tab mechanism at the top to play them. Sweep your finger across the top of the finished fidget toy, and the striker twangs each tine to play musical notes in sequence.

The results sound... pretty good, actually. It helps that game themes often employ a simple, catchy, and easily-recognisable melody as a thematic hook, and that the audio hardware at the time many of the games were released was limited in its musical vocabulary.

I reckon they'd make great stocking-fillers for the gamer in your life. Of course, the holiday season is months away, but that gives you plenty of time to set up that 3D printer you were looking at buying anyway, doesn't it?

Not only that, but the designs can be modified to create tunes not currently featured on the list. Goodness knows how many trial and error attempts it would take to create a toy that would play the Xenon 2: Megablast theme correctly, but by gosh I'm up for the challenge.

Perhaps you could even go for all 15 styles of the Elden Ring theme song, a task that would certainly be rewarding, yet likely to drive everyone around you to tears as you snap off yet another attempt. Still, these are cool little fidgety-thingamabobs, and a great excuse to start buying many different colours of filament. As if you needed one, right?