Secret Agent Spy Kids

December 3, 2018 7:04 AM

I have a 9 and 7 year old who are both wanting spy paraphernalia. Everything looks so cheap when I go looking. Does anyone have any recommendations for anything that is actually useful and worth buying?
posted by cmm to Shopping (24 answers total)

You might not actually want your kids to have spy stuff that looks real. But one thing you can give them that is useful, fun and free is invisible ink.
posted by ubiquity at 7:22 AM on December 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

Walkie talkies!
posted by DTMFA at 7:28 AM on December 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

100% walkie talkies, get adult ones and they'll actually work and be usable for family trips/split vehicle drives and such.

Motorola makes (or did) make some quality ones in their talkabout line that might check all the boxes I'd want them to check. Just make sure the kids know they're special toys and not to lose them and you should be good to go with a great piece of kit that they'll enjoy/treasure and will work a bazillion times better and be more robust than a kid/toy version of the same.

I had some of the latter growing up and they were pieces of crap that were zero fun because they just didn't work right/ever.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:32 AM on December 3, 2018

If you're interested in invisible ink, consider a cheap/easy/accessible way to get equivalent is with Frixion pens. They erase with heat and become visible with cold, so you can write a message, blow on it with a hair dryer to make invisible and then put it in the freezer to reveal.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:35 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

The search criteria for non-sucky walkie-talkies is FRS, or "family radio service."
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:36 AM on December 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

Also, why not go to a spy store (one of those find-out-if-your-wife-is-cheating) places and see if they have anything cool.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:36 AM on December 3, 2018

Also possibly a good set of binoculars, even a pocket set, that's adult oriented will be pretty robust and affordable.

Would a pocket knife count? I had one or two to my name by that age and I'd say they taught me a lot about responsibility.

A non-digital, by that I mean uses film, camera might be another option if they show interest.

I always wanted some night vision stuff when I was younger but that's pricey, even today, probably.

A flashlight with a shutter/blinker/red filter/etc and a morse code sheet was fun to communicate "in secret" to the neighbor friend across the street after dusk.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:36 AM on December 3, 2018

This isn't quite "paraphernalia," but my then-8 year old really liked this "Spy Science Kit"; you do fun, hands-on experiments to solve a mystery.
posted by Empidonax at 7:37 AM on December 3, 2018

Every spy has a camera. I think any point & shoot camera would do, but you might be able to find one with special features.

Edit: searching "spy camera" brings up some really small ones for covert picture-taking.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:38 AM on December 3, 2018

Look for a good secret compartment box. Teach them to write in code - letter substitution, pig Latin etc.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:42 AM on December 3, 2018

Start by buying the Usborne ‘KnowHow Book of Spycraft’. No, it's not 'paraphernalia', but it was acknowledged in court (Word doc file) by KGB/MI6 double-agent Oleg Gordievsky as containing many of the details of tradecraft and is thus pretty damn cool in itself. Read through it before you wrap it and buy as many of the supplies it mentions as you can, many of which are general-purpose and won't look cheap like the kiddie spy merchandise you've already seen. For example:

• invisible ink
• a child's arm sling
• cushion and towel for changing body shape
• glasses
• make-up
• hair gel
• a potato
• anything with a secret compartment
• matchboxes
• not in the book, but a small voice activated recorder would be great

Here's a description of the book with some scanned pages to give you an idea of how fantastic it is.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 7:43 AM on December 3, 2018 [11 favorites]

My now-11-year-old was similarly into spy stuff at that age (still is, actually, but his standards are higher now). I concur with the walkie-talkie recommendation; we have a ~$30 set from Midland that work fine in our neighborhood and are actually useful for calling him home when he's out on his bike, etc.

He's also spent some of his own money on "Spy Gear" brand stuff, and while it isn't what I'd describe as "high quality" it does mostly work. He's had a lot of fun with the pen that records sound and plays it back, and uses the "night vision" (not really) goggles for reading under the covers after lights-out.
posted by spamloaf at 7:43 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

A UV torch and UV pen? Might require supervision because it's bad for your eyes to look directly at the torch
posted by stillnocturnal at 7:47 AM on December 3, 2018

The Spy Museum in Washington, DC, has an online store.
posted by fso at 7:51 AM on December 3, 2018

Cheap options we've gotten a lot of play time out of:

My kid got one of these invisible ink markers (or similar) from a friend at a sleepover party and they had a blast dropping silly messages in secret places. (I am still finding cards demanding $4000 and stuff like that.)

He also has glasses similar to these--the outer half of the lenses are mirrored so you can look behind you while still seeing ahead. He wears them a ton.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:59 AM on December 3, 2018

Have they read Harriet the Spy? What I remember her always having was a super secret notebook. Kit them out with fun small spiral notebooks and pens!
posted by jillithd at 8:23 AM on December 3, 2018

Make a hollowed-out book. Reader's Digest Condensed Books are good for this.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:42 AM on December 3, 2018 [6 favorites]

The Spy Museum in Washington, DC, has an online store.

I'm sad to report that a good chunk of what they sell is the same cheap crap available elsewhere. That's not all they carry, but it's not a slam dunk.

I'd look at good flashlights or headlamps (one that you can put directly into red mode without first blowing out your night vision would be especially nice) and/or maybe some decent binoculars. And since there are two of them, a good set of walkie talkies does seem like a nice choice. Get them headsets for extra stealth.
posted by fedward at 8:55 AM on December 3, 2018

nmap?
posted by Glomar response at 8:56 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

This might not work as a gift or a toy, but might work as an "activity". When my brother and I were about that age (long before the internet was a thing) we made a "spy catalog", which was like a fake mail order catalog that James Bond might use to order various things from "Q". We would cut out various pictures of things from magazines, the newspaper, or the Sears catalog, and paste them into a notebook, and then write a description of the the special features. For example, I remember we cut out a picture of a Toyota minivan, and then described it as having machine guns, oil slick dispenser, smoke screen, laser headlights, satellite communications, etc. or a picture of a watch or a pen with various special features. The catalog itself wasn't exactly fun, but *making* it was a lot of fun.
posted by smcameron at 8:57 AM on December 3, 2018

Might something from the Secret Agent Supply Company in Chicago be of interest? It's not "real" spy stuff - that is one of a handful of stores that the nonprofit "826" came up with, where they have a storefront selling wacky novelty stuff on a theme but also have a reading-and-literacy program for area kids. (There's a superhero one in Brooklyn, a time traveler one in L.A., etc.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:00 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Our local Home Depot does free monthly projects for kids where they get to build a little kit of something and then decorate it. A few weeks ago we went (I think the project was a little wooden helicopter) but we noticed that they had crates of unopened project packs from previous months. One of the employees noticed us eyeing them and told us we could take whatever we wanted from the leftovers, and one of the ones we snagged was a make-your-own periscope kit that my daughters built and absolutely LOVE. I'd definitely call your local Home Depot and ask if they still have any of the periscope kits they were giving out free to kids a few months ago, because there's at least a decent chance that A) they do and B) they'd be very stoked to unload some on you for free.

If you strike out there I think we may have one more unopened one in our garage, which I'd be happy to send along to you. My contact info is in my profile.
posted by saladin at 10:20 AM on December 3, 2018

For good measure - if you consider getting walkie talkies, you might think of going a step further and getting water-proof ones. We always end up taking our walkie camping with us now, which inevitably involves water. Wish we'd known to think about that when we bought ours.
posted by vignettist at 4:22 PM on December 3, 2018

A parabolic microphone is an intriguing spy gadget. Ranging from the cheap but toylike to the low-pro level to mid-range pro and on up. Waaay up. There's also the DIY option.
posted by bz at 7:52 AM on December 5, 2018 [1 favorite]