I just ordered a caster ball assembly I found on Thinkiverse from the printer. He sent me pictures of the finished part. I am hoping they will work. I wish Vex would add these to their parts list.
Stay tuned…
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I know that FLL has them (we used them for our drivetrains). I too would have liked to have them as it would make it easier to build drivetrains in IQ (one motor per wheel- 2 wheels, then the caster ball in the back.
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Standard Ping pong balls?
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I saw one on Thingiverse that used ping pong balls, but this one uses one of the small Vex balls, so it is smaller than a ping pong ball.
You can already build VIQC-legal ball casters using:
1x 228-2500-507 2x4 25mm Ball Shooter Plate (Weak)
1x 228-2500-099 0x1 Sheet Attachment Pin
1x 228-2500-500 25mm Ball
Assorted pins / backing beam/plate on your robot
You can get 2x of the 228-2500-507 plates in the Catapult V2 kit. The Sheet Attachment Pins and 25mm Balls are already available in eponymous VEX IQ add-on packs.
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Thanks, I had seen the ball holder on the catapult, but I did not know about using the holder as a ball caster. Thanks and a hat tip to you!
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This is why we love Art. Hey can’t use the shooter balls since it’s not battle bots and he replies that they are really casters that are being ported to shooters. And I’ve stared at those stupid plates that hold the balls on shooters going “These are useless” and they are not.
@Art_Dutra_IV challenge: What cool thing am I missing with the foam darts?
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Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. I saw the ball holder on the catapult, and said so what. I am thinking about each of the Hexbug kits, and thinking about which parts from that kit are unique, and what can they be used for. I saw that someone posted that they just wanted to be able to buy the parts from all the Hexbug kits, even if they just came in a plastic bag. I can relate to that. 
Whenever possible, we try to make all new VEX IQ elements future-proof and part of a uniform and cohesive building system. There are already a lot of existing VEX IQ element that have functional interfaces (that may look weird on their own now) for potential future additional parts and use cases.
The foam darts are one of the few odd ball parts don’t really have any secret VIQC-legal use or alternative functionality. But they do fit snug in 3/4" PVC pipe - with a 4-6 foot long section of pipe, you could make a pretty effective blow dart that can shoot the foam darts clear across an office. Not directly useful for robot building, but can be useful for some morale-building downtime. Or to return fire when someone tests one of the HEXBUG VEX Robotics launcher prototypes at your desk. 
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I have a stack of the motor driven Gatling launchers that are destined for the parts supply drawer. But now I’m inspired to build 4 and mount on an array base. Somebody put holes in the triggers so I can gang all four to shoot at once. I’m off between Christmas and New Years, so I’ll try to get it built and a video made.
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I was inspired by @Art_Dutra_IV’s comment, so I went to my Hexbug spare parts bin, and look what I found.
So now I have a poor man’s version of a ball caster to use while I am waiting for parts to be delivered. And yes, I painted the ball so I could tell if it was rotating or not (it does!)
These are parts from the Hexbug Catapult Launcher kit.
Who knows what evil (parts) lie within the Hexbug parts library?
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4 of them? Really? Should we be expecting a major invasion? Are the Martians coming?
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Costco had three packs of Hexbug/VEXIQ kits on sale for $30 each. I stocked up, that was an amazing price. I gave most of them away, but I have 4 left. So I’ll build all and see how it goes. You know the @DRow mantra “Go Big, it’s to Early to Go Home”
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