Top 20 Spy Kids Gadgets We All Wanted

#20: Rocket Boots

The original trilogys final battle is one of the most epic moments in the series. Everybodys favorite characters heroically appear to battle the Toymakers villainous robots. They dont just walk up to help, they arrive in style. Members of the extended family descend from the heavens in super cool rocket boots. At that moment, every child in the cinema was seething with jealousy, imagining how much fun theyd have with a pair of rocket kicks. Well, not every character has them. Steve Buscemi arrives on his flying pig Porkie, a pet arguably just as cool as rocket boots.

#19: Tent Capsule

One of the most annoying aspects of camping is setting up the tent. Theyre huge, cumbersome, and need a lot of hard labor to secure. If you like camping, but not tent building, then the tent capsule would be a dream for you. It saves not only space, but loads of time. When it works, it works, but unfortunately for Carmen and Juni, it fails completely. If they were on a camping trip, it would have ruined the holiday entirely. As usual, theyre on a secret mission. So, they get on with the job rather than moping about the faulty tent.

#18: Electroshock Bubbles

Machete has a whole bunch of potentially lethal tools, which the kids get their hands on throughout the series. One such device is the electroshock bubbles, which Carmen and Juni steal from Machete in the first movie. They do exactly what they say on the tin. Its a high-voltage bubble blower. Carmen and Juni only use it to short-circuit some thumb robots, but it makes us wonder if theyd work on other things. As much as every child wanted electroshock bubbles, maybe this is better left as a sci-fi invention.

#17: Rebreather

Scuba diving was a field tons of kids thought theyd someday start a career in. Most of us never followed up on that as adults, but still feel nostalgic for the dream. The first movies scuba devices will bring back these feelings. These gadgets save the duo from an almost lethal plane crash. As far as Spy Kids tools go, its one of the more realistic. The sleepy sharks, on the other hand, are not. Sharks dont sleep like humans do, as the film makes out, and they generally dont shut their eyelids. In nature, theyre also made of flesh and blood, rather than CGI, another major inaccuracy.

#16: Dance Belt

Nailing a groovy rock concert in front of a huge, cheering audience is a relatable daydream for a kid. Unfortunately, it takes a huge amount of skill to pull off, something that doesnt come naturally. If Machete were your uncle, this wouldnt be a concern. Since hes a highly skilled inventor, he can just let the tools do the work. Carmen receives a super cool belt that makes her dance remarkably well. Alongside this, Machete also gives the duo a microphone that makes you sing amazingly, plus a guitar that makes you shred like Hendrix. Even as a grown-up, its tough not to be jealous.

#15: Carmen's Glove

Carmen frequently intimidates people in the third movie with her giant mechanical hand. Its not a real gadget. Its just part of her in-game transformation. While it looks cool, its never revealed to do a whole lot. It was probably just there for visual flair, which is enough to make a child envious. The tubes connecting it could imply hydraulics are involved. So, maybe it possesses some sort of super strength. Maybe it was so powerful, they couldnt let Carmen use it, since they had to keep things family-friendly.

#14: Worlds Smallest Camera

Cameras in 2001 were a lot clunkier than they are today. Film was more common than digital, and we didnt all have high-tech phones in our pockets. As such, the idea of an incredibly small camera was very exciting. Machete hilariously places it on his fingertip when doing maintenance. Fascinatingly, this camera has been a reality since 2023. A camera with a width & length of only 0.575mm was created, approximately the size of a salt grain. Most people will probably stick with their phone camera, though, since losing that would be a total nightmare.

#13: Electrical Gum

Machetes already made bubbles lethal, but what about candy? Hes done that too, with gumballs specifically. If you chew them up, when you spit them out, they can electrocute anything. The pair uses them to short-circuit robots, like robot Carmen and the occasional Thumb Thumb guard. Their underlying mechanics are pretty perplexing. Chewing something that holds a powerful electric charge should zap your mouth, tongue, and even your whole face. Instead, they only activate after being spat out, implying theres some kind of sci-fi sensor mechanism inside. Regardless of whatevers going on, theyre a mega stylish and creative gadget.

#12: Acid Crayon

Most of us had crayons to draw with, but what if they had another purpose? You shouldnt ever eat a crayon, but if you did, theyre usually nontoxic. Machetes crayons are another story. If you eat one, you might die. Thats because its been crafted out of extremely strong acid, with the power to melt through thick metal bars. Its not the type of crayon you wouldnt mind getting mixed up in someone elses pencil case. Its one of many contraptions that make kids wish Machetes Spy Shop were real, but parents dont share their feelings.

#11: Flying Pigtails

There was no shortage of children with pigtails in the 2000s, but only Gerti Giggles had flying pigtails. They became her signature gadget, letting her hover like a helicopter. Its even cooler and more convenient than the rocket boots. Despite their power, she uses them sparingly in the second movie. Even when stuck in camel poo, she opts not to bother flying away. We guess one inconsistency is that in Game Overs final fight, Gerti uses rocket boots. Its unclear why. Maybe the boots give her better control, or it could just be a fashion choice. Alternatively, it could just be cheaper to animate.

#10: Hammer Hands & Stompers

Not wanting to be overshadowed by the iconic gadgets of the original trilogy, All the Time in the World introduced a handful of sweet new gadgets to the world of Spy Kids, such as the Hammer Hands and Stompers. When Cecil and Rebecca are given the opportunity to keep some souvenirs from the abandoned Spy Kids division warehouse, Cecil is immediately drawn to these gadgets and we cant blame him. According to Carmen, they use electron fields to create superhuman impact force. Basically, they give your hands and feet super strength. As if that werent cool enough, they also glow in the dark, letting you clobber enemies in style.

#9: Virtual Reality Glasses

In Spy Kids 3-D, Juni has to enter and complete a virtual reality game titled Game Over in order to free his sister and save the world. To enter the game, Juni wears special VR glasses that transport his consciousness inside, and at the end of the movie, when the Toymakers giant robot runs amok in the real world, Juni and his family have to wear the glasses in order to see it. We all wanted these glasses so that we could also play Game Over, and since theaters gave out 3-D glasses that looked just like Junis, we got to feel like we were part of the adventure for just a little while.

#8: Machete Buddy Pack

Despite the demand certainly being there, scientists still haven't quite figured out how to make a consumer-ready jetpack, suitable for mass production. Juni and Carmens inventor uncle Machete however, figured it out, and all we can say is well take one, please. Uncle Machetes Buddy Packs made their way into a few Spy Kids movies and each time theyre totally awesome, reaching outrageous speeds and looking all kinds of epic. Everybody who grew up on Spy Kids remembers the jetpack chase scene from the first movie, and wed be willing to bet that Uncle Machetes Buddy Packs have had starring roles in more than a few peoples childhood fantasies.

#7: Field Ambush Supplies

Cecils Hammer Hands and Stompers are definitely cool, but the cream of the crop in terms of the new gadgets in the most recent Spy Kids has to be Rebeccas Field Ambush Supplies. Essentially a secret agent backpack, the Ambush Supplies kit contains tons of tools that come in handy for spy work, like the powerful Electric Whip Rebecca uses to fight and the classic Electroshock Gumballs from the first Spy Kids. While Carmen explains that the Ambush Supplies kit is supposed to be for creating booby-traps on the move, she also mentions that it can be used for pranks, which definitely gives us some ideas that wed like to try out.

#6: Wall-Climbing Device

The Island of Lost Dreams wastes no time in introducing new gadgets to the Spy Kids universe that made all of us kids green with envy. Right out of the gate, Juni and Carmen are given these wrist apparatuses that aid them in scaling an amusement park ride in order to save the presidents daughter. Watching Juni and Carmen climb up the ride like Spider-Man had us desperate to try out the gadget for ourselves. Though their mission is cut in on by Gary and Gerti with what they claim to be a superior means of climbing the ride, we still think that Juni and Carmens climbing gadgets are way cooler.

#5: Spy Glasses

Theres quite a bit of modern technology that Spy Kids showcased back in the early 2000s before it was popularized in the mainstream: video calls, watches that could connect to the internet, and even the Google Glass. Introduced in the first Spy Kids, and popping up in other entries as well, Spy Glasses are an iconic staple of the series. These gadgets let the wearer visualize maps, store information, and access a large O.S.S. database. Of course, theyre also oozing early 2000s style. In Spy Kids 2, Juni uses a presumably updated model of the Spy Glasses as binoculars, and the way that the glasses zoom in on a target always had us going back to see it again.

#4: Machete Elastic Wonder

Most of the gadgets on this list sadly dont exist in real life, so when playing Spy Kids, we had to make do with our imaginations. The Machete Elastic Wonder however, can be found in pretty much any households kitchen, cupboards, or drawers. Yeah, it may just be a rubber band, but like Machete says, its also the worlds greatest gadget. In introducing the Elastic Wonder, and having it be the gadget that saves the day in The Island of Lost Dreams, Spy Kids gave all of us a tangible link to the world that we all wished we were a part of. With 999 uses that they have to figure out on their own, the Elastic Wonder inspired hours of fun.

#3: R.A.L.P.H.

Every kid wants a weird pet thats unique to them. Better still if that pet is also the product of advanced, secret, robotic engineering. Junis spy bug R.A.L.P.H. definitely appeared on some kids wish lists after the release of Spy Kids 2, and fair enough! Juni can communicate with R.A.L.P.H. remotely and have it spy on people without them knowing, which gives Juni an incredible tactical edge in his spy work. But lets be honest: we mostly like R.A.L.P.H. because of the way it jumps and swings through its environment and its incredibly toyetic design. R.A.L.P.H. is simply a way better pet than your average goldfish!

#2: Spy Watch

Even in this age of computers that can fit into our pockets, the novelty of Spy Watches still captures our imaginations. The Spy Watch appears in multiple Spy Kids movies and its easy to see why. The idea of having an incredibly powerful computerized tool strapped to your wrist is never not awesome, and with each Spy Kids movie, we got to see more and more of what these gadgets could do. Built-in satellite dishes, internet connectivity, cell phones, and so much more, these gadgets were iPhones before iPhones existed, and wed still prefer the Spy Watch any day.

#1: The Rehydrator [aka Microwave]

The microwave-like appliance from the first Spy Kids is probably the least realistic gadget on this list, so of course its the one were most desperate for. Stored in the Cortez safehouse, this rehydrator has the unique ability to turn popcorn-style bags - or color coded packets - into entire meals. True to the wish fulfillment of the Spy Kids series, it appears that most of the meals you can make are junk food. Were not complaining though. Even as adults, when we see Carmen pull a full MacDonalds meal out of the machine, were hopelessly wishing that we could install one in our kitchens. If only.

Which device would you want in your arsenal most? Let us know in the comments section!