Travel bug ideas

[Influence Waterfowl Calls]

I have purchased a few TBs and I want to make them special so that they get logged more! I thought that if I got some ideas from you guys it might git my thinker going!

[+OverTheEdge]

If you want them to move, I have found that making them small (fit in the palm of you hand)... they will fit into more caches and people are better able to move them from cache to cache for you.

 

 

I have one that I haven't released yet, it is two luggage locks locked together - since you now have to have the "special" luggage locks on your suitcases, I thought I would get them to travel from cache to cache since they can no longer travel with me.

 

 

Good luck - be creative - have fun with it...

[+simpjkee]

allow hitchhikers. then watch it grow over time. Thats one TB I would do if I was doing tb's

[+BlueDeuce]

I like a bug that does more than go from cache to cache. Pictures at favorite watering holes, information or thoughts from the finder, going somewhere in between caches, that sort of thing.

[+nekom]

I just released one that is an HO scale car, hoping anyone who geocaches and also model railroads will get it and run it on their layout and post pictures. I wanted to release one that was a breadboard people could build electric circuits and play on, but I just never pegged the logistics of it.

[+Miragee]

I have found a couple of "Micro" TBs. The owner cut down the tag so it consisted of only the number. This was attached to a small item. One was a little tiny "Pickle" that wanted to ride on "Motorsickles." I took a picture of it at a Motorcycle shop.

[+BlueDeuce]

mmmm, tiny pickles.

[+Ambrosia]

If it's too unusual, it may never leave people's hands!

[+iJenQ]

I think that TB's with specific missions get a bit more attention. The ones that say 'travel from cache to cache' don't get many pictures or notes.

I will go out of my way to drop a bug that wants to go somewhere specific where it wants to go.

 

One of the good bugs I've seen lately is a morphing bug. When you find it, you take off whatever it is attached to and attach whatever you want. Morphing Travel Bug

 

I have one bug that wanted to go to Hawaii. It made it to Hawaii and the cacher dressed it up with a Lei and took pictures of it and write a great log. Round Head TB

[+lakedawgs]

Our most unique (I think) was a small plastic coin purse. Inside was a note that my son wrote to his aunt in Texas (my sister). We released "Milo's Message" in Indiana and sent it on it's way to Dallas. It took nearly a year, but it finally made it to Dallas, within about 5 miles of my sister's house no less. But then the last person made a mistake when logging the TB and no one has seen it since. The last person even went so far as to give my sister a list of the last few caches she had visited because she couldn't remember exactly where it was dropped, and my sister hit all of them, but never found the TB. We still think it's a neat idea and will probably give it another go sometime in the future.

[Shiraz-mataz]

I've heard of someone using a Target gift card as a travel bug. I think he called it something like "Temptation" or some variation. He launched it with about $25 on it and the idea was to see if the person moving it would either buy something with it or add more money to it.

[+shellbn4]

I found one the other day we loved. It was a sticky bug. A small book that each person who finds it puts a personal or wierd sticker in the book and passes it along. Loved it

[+The Herd]

A cool one we saw once was a small teddy bear that was a jailbreak bear. To move it you had to sneak into another geocachers swag bag after writing a story in his book. No cache to cache moving.

[+Redcap the Druid]

Love the morphing TB idea... and the sticker book as well. Great ideas!

[Keystone]

Moving thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Travel Bug forum.

[+the hermit crabs]

We have a lot of bugs with a wide variety of missions; some are successful and some aren't. After a few years of watching them, I've determined that the bugs with the best logs are the ones where the goal asks that the finders write a specific type of thing in their logs. It's something easy to do, and requires no extra driving or going out of their way for certain camera shots, so people seem more included to go along with it.

 

We have several like this, but I think that the two best ones are:

Artichoke Head: we ask the finder to make up a story explaining why the attached figurine has what appears to be an artichoke for a head. There are some funny responses -- possibly because we promise to give a prize out every year on National Artichoke Day to the best one

Lost in Translation: this has turned out to be one of my favorite bugs, but that's probably becasue I am very eaily amused. We ask that the finer send his bug-pickup log through babelfish or some other language translator (to any language they wish), and then back to English. Some of the results crack me up.

[+JustKeely]

I had one for a while that was really cool. It was a mix CD of rocking tunes. I am thinking about making a mix CD of my own for a travel bug to introduce people to my favorite artists. I am also thinking about making some books into travel bugs, too, or information about famous writers.

My favorite TB so far has been "Montoya, the Travel Buck". Those familiar with the Princess Bride might remember "My name is Montoya". This bug was teasing another cacher about an adventure he had in which he totaled his car hitting a deer on the way to meet with some other cachers to do a difficult cache in the forest. "You killed my father, prepare to die" - the Travel Bug was after vengeance. The first drop was in that same cache he was on his way to.

[campervanman11]

I have just bought a new tb. I intend to attach it to a small rubber coin pouch and send it all over the world collecting different coins

[+J Grouchy]

allow hitchhikers. then watch it grow over time. Thats one TB I would do if I was doing tb's

 

I did a variation on that...a "parasite" bug. My TB is intended to ride along on a "host" TB...then switch over to a new one whenever the finder chooses. I just dropped it last week, so hopefully it at least gets a little travel time...

[+FiddleKate]

What wonderful ideas!!!

I just put together a TB yesterday... found a spring to attach to it... and asked that it "spring" from cache to cache for our grandchildren to follow. However... after reading your ideas I've added that it would like for cachers to write a bit in the log something interesting about their town, city, or area of the world and pictures if it's convenient.

Thank you for the ideas!

[Andronicus]

I have seen a mini bar fridge door, and a toilet seat. Both were kind of neat...

[Lisalewalso]

I'm new to geocaching and love the idea of a travel bug. I've watched a few youtube videos about creating your own travel bug. Which is preferred, an official travel bug or a DIY one with a specific mission (I have a coffee based mission I am thinking about)?

[+Kacher82]

I was at an event last Friday, where there was a bowling ball TB. The tracking number was carved into the ball, along with a number of cacher names and such. I couldn't make out what all was written on it, and not sure what it was all about.

[+desmognathus]

I'd like to think that I've come up with some interesting missions for some of my bugs, you can check them out on my profile page.

[+kevmcfad]

I'm about to release my first TB called. "The Neverending Story". The TB consists of a bison container which contains a long piece of paper. The idea is that the finder writes 5 words onto the end of the sentence that the previous finder wrote. The story can be as strange as you want and hopefully I'll get some interesting results.

[+MysticCache]

I'm new to geocaching and love the idea of a travel bug. I've watched a few youtube videos about creating your own travel bug. Which is preferred, an official travel bug or a DIY one with a specific mission (I have a coffee based mission I am thinking about)?

Oooh, I love travel bugs and I love coffee..sounds interesting... what's the name of your TB?

[+kudjo24]

Found this thread and love hearing the ideas. Here's my most recent trackable I've put out with unique destination / goal intended: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=dc192008-6933-4abc-940c-320a425d79d9 . Obviously been done before, but I love the idea of atypical travel bugs. I feel that not enough has been brainstormed...

 

One idea I had and someone sort of touched up on was a "Pony Express" type of travel bug. Essentially, you seek to send a travel bug directly to somebody's address, via the long chain of geocachers in between racing to get it there. However, the issue of publicly publishing your friends address is a little unsettling, so I've had to digress. :\

 

Another one was some sort of "Amazing Race": send out 8 TBs all with the same destination or goal, but see which TB can get there the fastest. The winning TB would compile a list of all geocachers involved and publish them as the winning team for that year, or some other sort of reward / incentive for quickly passing it along. What do you think?

Edited April 9, 2014 by kudjo24

[+fuzziebear3]

I like your ideas!

 

Your Pony Express is not too different than the TB Exchange Race in another thread -- but we are using a particular cache, as opposed to someones real address.

 

The race is cool, I might want to try something like that. But I'll might try to be careful to release them each separately so they don't just travel the same route/cachers as a group.

[pizzaboy12]

If it's too unusual, it may never leave people's hands!

I agree, then it will end up in someone's house, rather than a cache!

I often use old toy cars I have.

[+V-box]

One of my favorites was called Blinky. (I can't seem to log into the site right now or I'd link it.) He did nothing more than flash when you pushed his button, but it was fun. I also liked the ones that were part of a road rally sort of thing. Several of you mentioned similar ideas--start at one coast and the first one to reach the opposite coast wins. We had another that was a bottle opener with a long bead-chain attached. You were supposed to use it to open a beer and add the cap to the chain. It was pretty full by the time we got it!

 

When I was working at a museum about the fur trade, I was also asked to do a geocaching program. So, as part of the program, I launched a bug that was a "beaver medallion", a replica of a medallion that would be given to the Frenchmen who would spend the winter with the native tribes. For a goal, since it was being sent from the Chicago area, I thought it would be fun to see if we could get it to Montreal (where a lot of voyageurs left from). Unfortunately, it was apparently too cool, so it was lost in 2011 (it was launched in 2008) somewhere in Quebec.

[+HunterandSamuel]

I'm searching for a thread on travel bug ideas and found this one. My new TBs came in the mail today!  I want something small to fit in small containers, like OverTheEdge suggested, to keep them moving. So far we have marathon TBs,  Feed the Hungry and Law enforcement Memorial TBs, bottle cap collection, arachnid, and small running sneakers. All have a purpose. I like the idea of keeping them small. 

[+colleda]

9 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

I'm searching for a thread on travel bug ideas and found this one. My new TBs came in the mail today!  I want something small to fit in small containers, like OverTheEdge suggested, to keep them moving. So far we have marathon TBs,  Feed the Hungry and Law enforcement Memorial TBs, bottle cap collection, arachnid, and small running sneakers. All have a purpose. I like the idea of keeping them small. 

Don't make them too cute or they'll end up in some kids' toy box.

[+Goldenwattle]

5 minutes ago, colleda said:

Don't make them too cute or they'll end up in some kids' toy box.

I have learnt that. Now I put boring things on them. Not the child's fault. It's irresponsibility parenting. Or in one case, an irresponsible scout leader.

[+HunterandSamuel]

8 hours ago, colleda said:

Don't make them too cute or they'll end up in some kids' toy box.

 

This is true! We had a cute match box car TB dropped off in one of our caches that disappeared. Either they didn't know it was meant to travel and thought it was swag or they took it knowing it was a TB but so darn cute. We contacted the last person to find the cache several times but he never answered back. He was a new geocacher with only a few finds.

[+HunterandSamuel]

Would it be okay to remove an item from our TB Hotel to place on our own TB and replace it back into the hotel? It's not a TB but a dog tag with "Veterans Crisis Hotline #" on it. I would love to get this traveling, it's such an important message but I don't want to disrespect the veteran who placed it there. There is no way to find who it belonged to. It's been in our hotel for awhile now.

[+HunterandSamuel]

9 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I have learnt that. Now I put boring things on them. Not the child's fault. It's irresponsibility parenting. Or in one case, an irresponsible scout leader.

 

Very true. I'm thinking of releasing a couple of the simple TB dog tags out there.

[+kunarion]

13 hours ago, colleda said:

Don't make them too cute or they'll end up in some kids' toy box.

 

That's a difficult thing to do.  It's not just "kids" who take stuff, adults have particular themes they covet.  I'm sometimes at a TB table at an Event and someone will come over, like, "I can't buh-leeve you waste time with those things and... OH BOY, AN OWL!!"
 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

27 minutes ago, kunarion said:

That's a difficult thing to do.  It's not just "kids" who take stuff, adults have particular themes they covet.  I'm sometimes at a TB table at an Event and someone will come over, like, "I can't buh-leeve you waste time with those things and... OH BOY, AN OWL!!"

Add that most of the older well-known hoarders would take Travel Bugs, and not just coins, tags, and other trackables.

Just something bizarre about a grown man hoarding Travel Bugs  with "hello kitty" and "my little pony"  figures attached    

 

But as colleda says, most "cute" Travel Bugs we noticed were swiped by a kid.

Either that kid said "I want it !" and mommy n daddy just can't say NO to their little darling,  and will destroy your idea for their child.

 - Or the kid slipped it in a pocket while the parents were log signing, or deciding where to go next.

We believe that's where most tags with nothing attached come from..  parents who can't say NO. 

Both seem odd, but it would be nice if those parents would at least drop that TB tag in a cache, rather than pitch it so "no one finds out".

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by cerberus1

[+Max and 99]

4 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

Would it be okay to remove an item from our TB Hotel to place on our own TB and replace it back into the hotel? It's not a TB but a dog tag with "Veterans Crisis Hotline #" on it. I would love to get this traveling, it's such an important message but I don't want to disrespect the veteran who placed it there. There is no way to find who it belonged to. It's been in our hotel for awhile now.

Why can't you find out who it belonged to? I wouldn't alter his/her TB without getting permission.

[+cerberus1]

2 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Why can't you find out who it belonged to? I wouldn't alter his/her TB without getting permission.

 

Veering off-topic again, but it seemed (to me) that it was swag in a cache, and they'd like to attach it to a trackable belonging to them.

As it's swag (and doesn't have a GC number on its sides n stuff)  I'd think that's okay.

[+Max and 99]

2 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Veering off-topic again, but it seemed (to me) that it was swag in a cache, and they'd like to attach it to a trackable belonging to them.

As it's swag (and doesn't have a GC number on its sides n stuff)  I'd think that's okay.

Yep, that makes a big difference. Thank you for explaining that to me.

[+colleda]

5 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

This is true! We had a cute match box car TB dropped off in one of our caches that disappeared. Either they didn't know it was meant to travel and thought it was swag or they took it knowing it was a TB but so darn cute. We contacted the last person to find the cache several times but he never answered back. He was a new geocacher with only a few finds.

Here's an example where I believe "cuteness" was its downfall. It's an example I have posted sometime ago when the same topic arose in a thread.

TB4KVTA ▼

 

[+HunterandSamuel]

8 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Why can't you find out who it belonged to? I wouldn't alter his/her TB without getting permission.

It's not a TB. It's swag. No one hardly ever mentions what swag they took and what they left. It would make a great TB with a great purpose to move along.  

[+HunterandSamuel]

6 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

As it's swag (and doesn't have a GC number on its sides n stuff)  I'd think that's okay.

 

Thanks. Yes it's swag. We decided to attach it to our TB and get it traveling. It's an important message that should be spread...awareness of veterans in crisis...and hopefully helps a veteran in crisis. It may even save a life, you just never know. It's a feeling from the first time I noticed it in our cache that it shouldn't linger there and needed to find it's place in someone's hands that was meant to be.

[+HunterandSamuel]

30 minutes ago, colleda said:

Here's an example where I believe "cuteness" was its downfall. It's an example I have posted sometime ago when the same topic arose in a thread.

TB4KVTA ▼

 

 

LOL That is cuteness. But this brings up another problem. Furry things eventually get dirty and matted. I wouldn't want any of my TBs to be traveling all dirty and moldy. We did send out tiny sneakers though so I hope they fair well.

[+colleda]

1 hour ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

LOL That is cuteness. But this brings up another problem. Furry things eventually get dirty and matted. I wouldn't want any of my TBs to be traveling all dirty and moldy. We did send out tiny sneakers though so I hope they fair well.

You're right. This example was traveling in a large baggie which was doing a good job of protecting it.

[+HunterandSamuel]

Here is the Veterans Crisis Line TB all set to travel.  I had a hard time logging it, I put in the activation code, click continue, and it went back to the previous screen . Tried it several times. Same thing happened.  So I decided to start over, entered the tracking code again and it showed up already activated. So strange. The only thing I did differently on the last try was clicking on the accepting cookies permission popup. So maybe that was the problem. Anyway, it all worked out! 

[+HunterandSamuel]

I keep forgetting how to drop a TB into a cache! Why is it complicated or is it just me? lol I figured it out finally.

[Ageleni]

My ex-boyfriend and I (we're still friends) had to break up due to my having to move cross-country, but I sometimes think we might end up back together when I am no longer obligated to live here.  He and I are VERY different, and I used to call us Yin and Yang.  I recently bought a necklace in two pieces, yin and yang, and will make two trackables to represent us.  The "Tony + Suzanne" duo will be placed in my driveway's cache, with instructions that Tony (Yin) should move EASTWARD toward Suzanne, while Suzanne (Yang) should move WESTWARD toward Tony.  Perhaps they would go all around the world and eventually meet up again...

[+HunterandSamuel]

14 hours ago, Ageleni said:

He and I are VERY different, and I used to call us Yin and Yang.  I recently bought a necklace in two pieces, yin and yang, and will make two trackables to represent us.  The "Tony + Suzanne" duo will be placed in my driveway's cache, with instructions that Tony (Yin) should move EASTWARD toward Suzanne, while Suzanne (Yang) should move WESTWARD toward Tony.  Perhaps they would go all around the world and eventually meet up again...

 

I absolutely love this idea for a TB. Safe travels until you meet again Tony (Yin) and Suzanne (Yang)!