Perler beads and Minecraft

Perler beads seem perfectly made for the pixelated games of the 1980s. But they're also great for the deliberately blocky, pixelated Minecraft. Both my daughters play Minecraft, and my 9 year old requested a Minecraft-themed birthday party when she turned 9 this past spring.

I wanted to buy some themed party favors, but found that none exist, aside from homemade ones. I thought it would be fun to try my hand at making them myself, so I bought a huge container of assorted Perler beads, figuring that way I'd have what I'd need (and not thinking much about how much SORTING that would take).

Long story short, I did end up making the party favors for her party out of Perler beads (and had to get some single color packs from the craft store because I didn't have enough of some). Each attendee got a creeper, Enderman, pig, Steve, Herobrine, Creeper pick axe and sword (I also mixed up the colors on the swords and made some in several different colors, including colors that don't exist in Minecraft, and then let the kids pick which they wanted).

They were a big hit, but they didn't *do* anything. I had intended to make necklaces out of some, but the way the beads melted, there wasn't room to put cord of any kind through most of them. So later, I decided that if I were to make them again, I would remove a bead from the middle and string cord through there for the necklace.

After a few months, I decided to try again. I put together the first one, just like I had for the party favors, and realized a problem. I made them 8x8 squares, which means if I removed just one bead, the hole would not be centered. And, I didn't like the idea of removing two beads because I thought the hole would end up being too big.

So, I modified what I did before and made them 9x9 squares. I could then remove a bead from the middle and they would still hang straight. Overall, I'm happy with how they look with the modifications.

Here is a picture of the four faces:



For the sword, I didn't have to modify anything. I could just take a bead out of the bottom of the hilt and it worked out pretty well. Here is the sword:



Overall, I am happy with them. I did make necklaces of my girls' favorite ones for them. For the record, that's an Enderman for the 12 year old and a pig for the 9 year old.

What is your favorite video game of all time?