CRKT Li'l Guppie

[J-sews]

Pictures of this little guy showed up on the Columbia River Knife & Tool site recently. I must admit to having been somewhat disinterested. But after seeing and handling one today first hand, it seems as if I may have been a bit hasty in my judgement. While the Li'l Guppie does indeed have a smaller jaw opening than its older brother, the entire tool is enough smaller that it now fits into a range suitable for keychain carry. As such, it is more likely to be with its owner when needed.



Note the solid flathead screwdriver/prybar on the left end, the phillips screwdriver (black) on the wrench adjustment, the bottle opener, etc.

Other than the absence of an LED light, the Lil' Guppie packs all of the basic features of the original Guppie into a tool that is about half as big and half as heavy.

[edap617]

That's cute! I'm planning to get one.

[Spoonrobot]

Nice!

It's a lot smaller than I expected.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Might be just the tool for chucking in your work bag till ya need it

[Grant Lamontagne]

The Li'l Guppie is indeed a very nice little tool- I was also pretty impressed with it.

I was wondering why they didn't put the phillips head on the bottom of the adjustment of the full sized model though, and the only answer I can think of is that they didn't think of it at the time!

One big problem I have with keychain pliers is the limits put on them by their small size.  An adjustable wrench like the Li'l Guppie's should allow it to handle larger jobs easily and I'm really looking forward to test driving one.

Def

[J-sews]

One comment that I made in the initial post was that this tool is "half as big" as the original. That deserves a bit of an explanation I suppose. The length and width of the Lil' Guppie are only somewhat smaller than the original, but the thickness and the overall weight are about half. What you are left with is a tool that is now very much more carryable. (is carryable a word?)

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

It is now!

Def

[WhichDawg]

I like it! (re-writes Santa's list)

[BIG-TARGET]

I recently got one of the "regular"Guppies.  The lil'Guppie, definately has possiblities

[J-sews]

Big and little Guppie with blades out:



A query we put to the folks at the Columbia River booth, "Why is it that neither Guppie is equipped with locking blades?"

We could tell that this was not the first time this question had come up. The reason apparently has to do with knife laws, not just in North America, but throughout the entire world. The Guppies are expected to be a big hit both in Europe and in Japan, where locking knife blades are frowned upon.

[J-sews]

Def got a good close-up of the Lil' Guppie phillips driver:



The i.d. Works guys we spoke with revealed that this dedicated phillips idea was actually around long before the original Guppie came out. However, due to manufacturing issues a year ago, the phillips profile could not be included on the original wrench jaw. Fortunately CRKT's manufacturing folks kept working on the problem and were able to perfect the process in time for the Lil' Guppie.

[Roadie]

I didn't realise that the guppie's blade didn't lock....quite tempted by them both now! And that philips bit is a very clever implementation, very well executed too, my hat goes off to the engineers who thought that one up!

Roadie

[I'm Still Bison]

 I'll admit the Guppie never really did much for me,but Guppie Jr. looks like it would be a neat piece of kit to throw in a daypack.I wonder if the Phillips will be put on the next production runs of Guppie Sr.

[Grant Lamontagne]

We discussed locks, and the possibility of the phillips being added to future issues of the Guppies with a couple of gentlemen who just happen to be the heads and designers of the ID Works section of CRKT.  Great guys, very responsive and I appreciate them taking the time to talk to us as much as they did.

I don't think anything was decided on for sure, but there is a good possibility that the phillips will make it on to the full sized Guppie in the future.  They wanted to do it initially but due to manufacturing issues they couldn't.  Those issues were solved in time for the Li'l Guppie's release.

We also discussed the possibility of an all black version of the Guppie and Li'l Guppie with them and they think that's a great idea too.

Def

[BIG-TARGET]

Kinda OT, but where did you get the MT.org ruler???

[Sea Monster]

I love a good shifter as much as the next man (or maybe not, give me a set of offset ring spanners anyday), but the Guppy seems a bit like design for designs' sake

[J-sews]

For me personally, a wrench-based multitool is not be as useful as a plier-based tool. The CRKT guys point out however that the Guppie has been a big hit with the bicycle crowd.

[Grant Lamontagne]

The thing about the Guppie is that it is an affordable way to have a specialized tool with you when riding.  The Spyder/ByrdWrench is the only other mainstream adjustable wrench multi available, and you can get at least two Guppies for the same price.  If you need an adjustable wrench multitool then the Guppie is a great option.  If you are looking for general purpose, then yeah, a plier tool might be a better option.

Still, when you think about it, the Crunch is still around, and how many people need locking pliers?  Not many maybe, but enough to keep it afloat.

Def

[BIG-TARGET]

The thing about the Guppie is that it is an affordable way to have a specialized tool with you when riding.  The Spyder/ByrdWrench is the only other mainstream adjustable wrench multi available, and you can get at least two Guppies for the same price.  If you need an adjustable wrench multitool then the Guppie is a great option.  If you are looking for general purpose, then yeah, a plier tool might be a better option.

Still, when you think about it, the Crunch is still around, and how many people need locking pliers?  Not many maybe, but enough to keep it afloat.

Def

Check out Felinevet Tim