Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 24, 2010

Who knew it needed batteries?

Get your toolbox out, Calvin. Or to be precise, the tools you ordered on your Dad’s credit card. You are going to need them now.

Aw, c’mon batteries??

Batteries? Calvin’s energy should be enough to power the flying beanie!

Aww… another one of those flight delays… :-(

So near, yet so far.

Beanie caps never needed batteries before. You stand in the wind or you run. Never heard of such. Didn’t Bill Watterson ever see “The Little Rascals” ? My beanie cap as a kid was wind powered, as were all my friends. It was nothing but a little propeller fixed to the top….

What’s to assemble?

More waiting, Calvin!

kreole’s right, a little breeze was all you needed.

ah, well, kreole. how technology changes, eh? Today it’d probably have a built in mp3 player or something. solar panels to power the beanie.

Carmy– Insert 2 AA batteries into battery chamber. insert propeller, A, onto post B. Insert post B into receptacle C, making sure to engage locking ring D. How’s that? :)

ah, well, kreole. how technology changes, eh? Today it’d probably have a built in mp3 player or something. solar panels to power the beanie.

Carmy– Insert 2 AA batteries into battery chamber. insert propeller, A, onto post B. Insert post B into receptacle C, making sure to engage locking ring D. How’s that? :)

oops, forgive the double post

“Batteries not included” - Ha, I’ve gone through that kind of disappointments with some of my childhood toys.

And to kreole, relax dude. Read the previous panels - Calvin wanted the battery powered beanie so bad because he thinks it’ll let him FLY.

I’m glad I never wanted a Beannie hat. (Sorry Calvin & Nerwin)

Love the look in panel three.

They’re special batteries. To get them you need to send in two more box tops with 50 cents and wait six more weeks.

Don’t you love the look on Calvin’s face in the third panel? Obsession will do that to you!

Oh no! Poor Calvin! Hope, his mother has some batteries.

Better let someone else take care of those details, Calvin. The way you build plastic models, your beanie will never survive your tender loving care.

Yikes—the same hands that just ripped into that box are expected to give life to what’s in it??

I’ll save you beanie boy…AHHHHH! Cecil the Seasick Sea Sepent…haven’t thought of him in several decades.

That didn’t take as long as I thought, or remembered.

Morning Marg! Morning Fran! Morning Shepherd mix mutt!

Good morning, all good Calvin and Hobbs comic strip readers, and be welcomed to a Saturday morning!

YAY!

1 beanie = 1 tool kit + 2 batteries

I knew something like this would happen…probably needs some weird batteries sold only in China or Pakistan…

For a six year old boy, he sure reads well!!

Does this whole beanie theme have to do with “instant gratification”?

Calvin, throw those instructions away. Real men don’t——.

Junk drawer. Triple As. C’s 9 volt, Hearing aid,, Nope no double As. Ah, the smoke alarm!

What time is it? Send dad to get some batteries….quick. The wait is killing.

Battery operated toys were extremely rare when I was a kid. Usually in erector sets and science toys. Late 1940’s and 1950’s.

Erector sets were coool

furniture, you’re dragging me down Memory Lane! I loved that show. Oh, geez, there’s Hobo Kelly, and Sheriff John…

“What’s to assemble?”

The last panel is suppose to be an anti-climatic joke, DUH!

Have a great week end all.

From panel 2 : one calvin = ten Jack Russell Puppies

I’m very happy that Calvin will have the pleasure of assembling and powering…

I knew it needed batteries. The question is, how many minutes will it work before it breaks, and disappoints Calvin?

You’d think Mom could have taken some initiative and had the thing ready for him, but NO!

At the time this was drawn, believe it or not, battery powered beanies were actually back on the market for some reason. I thought of buying one for my collection of stuff, but I managed to resist the urge.

Hi everybody! Saturday! Bloomfan, don’t worry, it happens but just so you know, we’ve been given a delete button by the good folks at GoComics in case you want to get rid of something. There’s an edit button too. Moving along, 2 things: one is that Waterson is a comic genius! To be able to play with our sense of anticipation like he did for the last couple of days and many of us already know the outcome! Two is that we’ll have to wait till Monday to see the blessed beanie as Sunday’s comic doesn’t follow the line. Keep on anticipating!

If my kid had waited with such eager anticipation for something, I would have been sitting beside him when he opened it. Wouldn’t have missed the big moment for anything. Come on, Mom, step up!

“all sanity is lost.”

Mom gives Calvin the opportunity to learn how things work without her interference and she gets blamed for not putting it together for him. If she’d have done that, somebody would blame her for interfering.

I love Calvin’s expression in panel 3 - and the appearance of about four hands digging into that package.

“At last my love has come along My lonely days are over And life is like a song…” At least that’s what Calvin had hoped. Quoted lyrics of “At Last” are dedicated to “thebird55” in hopes of reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend if it’s God’s will.

Of course it needs batteries. How else is Calvin supposed to fly. He can’t rely just on wind power.

Hobbes you can come out of hiding, Calvin does not need you to run around to see the propeller turn or blow on it to make it work. Assembling is a word the dictionary really dont sound right to a 6 yr old waiting for his first motorized beanie .

Yukoner said: Love the look in panel three.

They’re special batteries. To get them you need to send in two more box tops with 50 cents and wait six more weeks.

Wouldn’t that just be a hoot for us and a huge disappointment for Calvin?!?!?!

treBsdrawkcaB, Thank you. I found the physics exchange between you and Poindexter interesting yesterday. Since Poindexter teaches high school physics, I’m sure he knows more physics than even a precocious six-year-old. I’m not sure that a coffee insufficiency should be the ‘scapegoat’, however. Perhaps he said it with tongue-in-cheek. I look forward to more exchanges between you two, and possibly others. Physics is a fascinating subject.

I think Calvin would be happier with a jet Engine beanie

All ya have to do is take a regular beanie and attach a few large model rocket engines.. then whoosh your OFF

to the emergency room

My Dad would have taken care of it in a jiff and had extra batteries in the workshop too. Thanks Dad for always being there for me!

Flagged!

I had a beanie when I was a kid in the 1940s. I thought I was really something wearing that hat with a propeller on top. I would run to make the propeller spin. The only bad thing is that with the hat on my head I couldn’t see it spin. But my younger brother got one too and at least I could see his spin. Of course ours were not battery powered.

Why are some people so sure that Calvin’s mom is not standing just off panel watching?

Batteries, is it? This, no doubt, is a hybrid beanie. Just wait ‘til Spiff the Spaceman get ahold of it - it will be full nuclear and then some. Just set the mertilizer to deep fat fry and awaaaay you go!

GretchensMom said,

They’re special batteries. To get them you need to send in two more box tops with 50 cents and wait six more weeks.

That’s evil. Really evil.

I like that in a person.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggg. WHAT???? Assembly????? Batteries?????? Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Helppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another…it’s always something. Loved that crazed look in panel three!

poor calvin! he was so excited!

attyush – fat chance Dad is going to the store to get batteries, and I hope Cal doesn’t have to rely on him for “assembly” either.

I too got my laptop :^)

poor kid

The art is great, great, great. Four totally different faces, and lots of action. Every bit of it spot-on convincing. Perfect.

It could be rated R too