Pooping Reindeer Candy Dispenser

This is a reindeer candy dispenser that poops out tasty treats for you to eat!

When you push down on his head, an internal mechanism dispenses a small, measured amount of candy. It works especially well with hard-shell candies like M&Ms and Reeces.

My kids think it's HILARIOUS, but their mom just rolls her eyes because of all the jokes, sounds, and comments that go along with the dispensing of candy.

Read on to see how I made this!

I began with an 8-foot long, 4" wide by 3/4" thick pine board. I cut it into two 4-foot pieces, and used a band saw to rip one of these halves into two approximately 3/8" thick pieces.

There was quite a bit of trial and error involved with making this, but even so I've still got plenty of material left to make at least two or three more.

I drew out some plans, and then re-worked them over a few times until the mechanism looked like it would function the way I wanted. The pattern pieces were traced onto the wood, and all the pieces were cut out using a scroll saw.

I had to continually chisel, carve, and reshape things as I went to make it all work.

The head section pivots downward, pushing a curved piece that shoves the candy out the back end. (Pretty much exactly like real reindeer anatomy.)

You can get a pretty good idea of how this went together and how it works from these photos.

The head section, the candy pusher piece connected to it, and all the black shaded parts were cut from 3/4" pine. The back portion of the head as well as the pusher piece were sanded slightly so they were just a hair less than 3/4".

Dowels were used to create the pivots. I used a dremel to carve out areas to fit the connector piece between the head and pusher pieces.

The whole thing goes together with no visible metal fasteners.

The legs on the reindeer's left side are held in place with dowels to a side piece that is screwed to the rest of the body. The screws are positioned so they are hidden when the legs are in place. The whole left side comes off if I have to fix something or replace the rubber band.

The legs on the right side are permanently glued in place with wood glue.

The antlers were glued into a notch carved into the top of the reindeer's head.

I do not have any printable plans for this candy pooping reindeer, as it was made on-the-fly with a lot of trial and error and constant modifying.

However, I thought I should share the idea for those that are up for a little challenge. Thanks for taking a look!