Arlington Man Offers to Turn Your Starbucks Gift Cards into a Robot

ARLINGTON, VA — There are a lot of odd projects on Kickstarter begging for funding, but this new offering from an Arlington man is certainly up there: he'll turn your old Starbucks gift cards into a robot.

No, not the kind that will walk around and do your chores, but something that might make a nice, quirky gift for someone that's hard to buy for this Christmas. The project had 10 backers and $134 pledged as of Thursday afternoon, exceeding its $100 goal.

The "Coffee Card Robot" is made from two gift cards, which are cut up and heated to form into a shape. Holes are then punched for bolts to hold the figure together, according to the Kickstarter campaign posted by Phil Foss.

"Each robot is made from 16 pieces of gift card plastic and 14 bolts," the campaign's site states. "The robot comes unassembled. The included screwdriver makes for easy assembly. Got your own cards? Let's upcycle them! Backers will be given a shipping address if you want to send in your own spent gift cards."

According to the campaign, six have been created and 44 have been backed.

It doesn't have to be from Starbucks gift cards. Foss says that he is also offering bots for Crate & Barrel gift cards and Best Buy gift cards.

A couple of commenters to the project have affectionately dubbed it the "robojava."

Image via Coffee Card Robot Kickstarter campaign website