Our medieval forefathers certainly had a swinging good time in the fields, and I don’t mean sitting down idly while watching the different constellations with a horn of wine in one hand. No sir, they loved swinging their weapons around – ranging from a heavy two-handed battle axe to a huge sword. Casualties on the battlefield back then were really high, and there was no CNN in those days to tally up the daily death total for the masses to know, and hence the King (or whoever was in charge) had nothing to worry about in terms of popularity polls unlike today. The machines of war in those days were also extremely brutal, with battering rams, catapults, and trebuchets causing even the most battle hardened person quake in his knees when these come knocking on your city walls. We today have much more advanced weaponry that minimizes the loss of life (for the assault party), but thankfully the weapons of yore are preserved with this Desktop Trebuchet from Firebox.

This mother of all catapults was often the “door knocker” of a marauding army, capable of knocking over a tough castle wall with a well placed hit. It was used to great effect in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by both good and evil forces, and all this walloping power has been condensed into a toy that fits on your desktop snugly. While it might not be able to knock your boss out cold with a carefully aimed shot, at the very least you get to have some office fun with colleagues by flinging soggy bits of paper or tissue at each other. It is somewhat like a real time game of Worms, save for the scenario being in the office.

You’ll need to have a logical brain to build one of these though, as it comes in 40 pre-cut, pre-drilled wooden components and a fabric sling. For those who love trivia, they’ll be thrilled to know that the Desktop Trebuchet pays homage to Edward 1’s fearsome siege engine known as Warwolf which reduced men to quivering jelly back in the 13th century. This is definitely far more interesting than a slingshot, and at the very least you’ll have more experience when it comes to D.I.Y. kits. The Desktop Trebuchet can be picked up for £14.95 from Firebox.

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