Hit Stix facts for kids
Hit Stix are cool toy musical instruments from the 1980s. They were made by companies called Nasta and Radio Shack. Imagine holding two drumsticks that make sounds just by moving them! That's what Hit Stix do.
Each set of Hit Stix comes with two special drum sticks. These sticks are connected by wires to a small speaker, called an amplifier. When you wave the sticks forward in the air, like you're playing a real drum, you hear a snare drum sound. If you wave them really fast, it sounds like a drum roll!
Many people thought you had to hit something with Hit Stix to make noise. But that's not true! The sounds are made just by the motion of your drumming. You don't need to hit any surface at all. The Nasta company first advertised Hit Stix on TV in 1987. When they first came out in 1980, a set of Hit Stix cost about $20.
Hit Stix 2: What's New?
The original Hit Stix got an upgrade called Hit Stix 2. This newer version let you choose different sounds. Each drumstick had sliders to change the sound.
The left stick changed the sound's tone. The right stick let you pick from different drum sounds. You could choose a snare drum, a tom-tom, a bass drum, or a "phaser" sound. The Hit Stix 2 could make 44 different drum sounds! Both the original Hit Stix and Hit Stix 2 had a bright yellow and orange design. They also had a clip so you could wear the amplifier on your hip. The amplifier needed one 9-volt battery and had a wheel to control how loud the sound was.
Hit Keys: Play a Keyboard in the Air!
Another toy made by Nasta in 1989 was called Hit Keys. This toy is much harder to find today. Hit Keys also connected to an amplifier you wore on your hip. But instead of drumsticks, it had two halves of a musical keyboard.
You strapped each half of the keyboard to a different hand. Each finger and your thumb could press a key. Hit Keys let you choose between piano or organ sounds. Just like Hit Stix, its amplifier needed one 9-volt battery and had a volume wheel. All these toys – Hit Stix, Hit Stix 2, and Hit Keys – are sometimes called Hitstruments.
