Improvised Throw-able Microphone

Inserting microphone into soft toy,
Photo by Tom Worthington, CC-BY 2022

In a large classroom it can be difficult to get a microphone to a participant. So there are throw-able microphones available. These consist of a wireless lapel microphone inside a soft foam ball.

These throwable microphones can cost hundreds of dollars. So I made my own throw-able from a $10 soft toy. The toy has a zip, so I inserted a wireless lapel microphone into the fiber fill of the toy. I removed the metal tag from the zip on the toy, and replaced that with string, to reduce the risk of injury.

The idea is you can throw the unit to someone, without damage to the microphone. Some will automatically mute the sound while being thrown. But the improvised unit worked fine. The only problem was some of the toy's stuffing clung to the microphone, when I removed it.

ps: The soft toy is a "Boba Plush", from Toymate. I later obtained a Sheep toy from Kmart. This has a pouch n the underside for electronic to make a bleating sound, which I replaced with a microphone.