Tag: building toys

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Tech Accessories

Brik Case makes customizing MacBooks a snap

Many laptop users like to personalize the tops of their computers, a fun activity often accomplished with stickers. Laptop users, however, may get tired of previously chosen designs. Not helping matters is that many stickers can be extremely hard to fully remove.

The Brik Case offers a novel way for users to more easily customize their laptop. The Brik Case is a customizable laptop case that uses toy bricks which allow users to constantly change the design of their case. The Brik Case was conveniently designed to easily clip on and off MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, so long as they were manufactured in 2013 or later. Notably, the case isn’t officially licensed by Lego, Mega Bloks, PixelBlocks, Kre-O or K’Nex. Nonetheless, the Brik Case is still compatible with all of those toy bricks. Its maker is planning to ship the case in August with $39.99 pricepoint. Its makers are hoping to raise $30,000 to help pay for the molds, packaging, engineers and the first order of Brik Cases. The campaign end date is slated for April 25.

The Brik Case hold a lot of promise, albeit for a very niche audience: MacBook users who are fans of Lego and other toy bricks. Making a version for Windows PCs would be an obvious move that could significantly expand the market for the case. The product’s Kickstarter campaign, however, makes no mention of such plans in the future.

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Toys

Carbon Fiber Tiles add more fun to Lego time

Many kids, and even adults, love building with Lego bricks. The idea of enhancing a Lego-made building, vehicle or other design with tiles made from sheets of high gloss carbon fiber seems like a welcome addition to Lego fun time.

Mark Carpenter of Grand Rapids, Michigan, developed Lego-compatible Carbon Fiber Tiles with his Lego brick-loving sons. He initially began designed black ones sized at 1 x 2 inches each. Backers of the Kickstarter campaign who pledge $14 as part of an early bird special will get a pack of 10 tiles expected to ship this month. The Carpenter family is looking to raise $8,000.

There is certainly an audience for the tiles. But carbon fiber isn’t cheap and it’s questionable how many consumers will spend so much for a handful of tiles when they can opt to get cheaper individual bricks made by Lego at one of its stores that will accomplish much the same thing. There have been other Lego accessories made by third parties in the past, including TinkerBots and Brickmania Track Links. But those two products had more unique purposes and TinkerBots could also be used independently of Lego bricks. The Carpenters will need to push the envelope a little farther in order to make their idea successful.

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Kids/Babies Toys

Versa Bricks bridge Lego, Hot Wheels and K’Nex for kid bulding fun

It’s been said that kids who enjoy building blocks and puzzles as their favorite toys often grow up to be tomorrow’s engineers. Versa Bricks seems to have an interesting way to encourage the builder in every kid, and maybe even the kid in every parent. Versa Bricks are touted as being compatible with Lego type bricks, Hot Wheels tracks, K’nex, and HO scale train tracks. So all of those really cool ramps can now be placed much more easily under the race track as the Hot Wheels car plunges through the window of a Lego building – kind of like in the movies. For kids who like to think on a grander scale, XYZ and Assembly are worth checking out. To add a bit of artistic flare to that building enthusiasm, Curiositoys may be a perfect fit. This campaign seeks to raise $17,500 by December 2014. For $9, backers get 12 Versa Bricks (two sets) with an expected delivery of March 2015.

Categories
Kids/Babies Toys

Tinyme Name Blocks puzzle teaches kids to spell their name

TinyMe b742ebf7f4fefdd639b58ffa4fa6d8c1_large[1]Most kids love to see their name. Tinyme Name Blocks makes a personalized puzzle out of it. The colorful pieces are made of plywood, are covered by a protective coating, and non-toxic inks are used for the colors. They fit snugly in a holder that also houses a plastic card with rounded corners that has the child’s name on it, allowing her to match the letters. And for those who are especially concerned about safety, the puzzles match the safety standards in Europe, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Toddlers and kindergartners will likely get a kick out of spelling out and seeing their name in a puzzle. For $24 AUD a backer gets a four block puzzle. Larger donations get more blocks, so prepare to shell out for little Aloysius if it winds up at Babies R Us. Expected delivery is July 2014.

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Furniture Kids/Babies

OLLA lets kids build their bedroom furniture

OLLA 20140305091927-bed3[1]So if mom and dad have gotten weary of stuff that gets aimed at kids but that parents have to put together, OLLA just might make you smile. The modular system of hole bars and connectors lets kids build items such as a chair, desk, bench, even a bed. The light weight pieces are noted as being appropriate for kids between the ages of 4-14. For $228, a backer gets enough pieces to build a chair, and the building guide. Expected delivery is September 2014.

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Toys

Flexure offers a bouncy connector toy

Flexure 64391db0d9501a09d69eaca4eacd442d_large[1]Flexure is designed with the budding engineer, architect and generally creative child in your family in mind. The connectors are made of flexible food-safe silicone, so kids (and perhaps even teens and some adults) can create items that bounce and move if they choose. The dowels are made of natural wood and come in lengths of 3, 5, and 8 inches. So the toy even has educational value in that the dowel lengths are part of the Fibonacci Sequence, which provide a convenient additive relationship such as 3+5=8. Flexure reminds one of another recent crowdfunded construction kit called Strawbees that has even more flexibility in terms of the connector length. The connectors and dowels are connected by just pushing them together — no instructions needed. For a pledge of $35, backers get one complete product, which includes 30 silicone parts (5 of each connecter) and 30 wooden dowels (10 of each length). This is a $5 savings on the anticipated retail price of the product. Expected delivery is June 2014.

 

Categories
Toys

CubeCraft brings Minecraft-style blocks to the real third dimension

The Premise. Plenty of kids love to play with Legos and blocks. But toys in that realm are meeting their match, because, until now, we were bound by the lockable structures on the bottom or, quite frankly, by physics.

The Product. Inspired by the wildly popular game Minecraft (for which kids show a special fondness), CubeCraft seeks to push the bounds of limitation by giving you small blocks that can be arranged in any way. Each cube has magnets sealed inside that allow you to build structures that wouldn’t be possible with non-magnetic blocks. You can combine the individual blocks into one larger block, use that to build a base, and then continue on using the smaller blocks. CubeCraft cubes can also be further customized with stickers, LEDs or other geekery.

The Pitch. The CubeCraft campaign itself builds primarily off two videos — a still-heavy unnarrated one that shows many configurations of the progress and a secondary one that introduces the creators and provides a lot of information. The partners tell how they came together, what they’re asking for, how their designs are safe for children over the age of 5, what your funding will go toward, and how these blocks could be used to ease stress or in the classroom. Sure, the developers may be a little camera shy, but they know a lot about their products and showcase them as well as they can.

The Perks. For $27, you receive the “stress” set (the name of which proves they’re marketing these toys to adults as well). It consists of eight cubes and would be great for people who need something to do with their hands while they’re working. The prices and set sizes go up from there, $121 for the “inventor set” with 64 cubes and $299 for the classroom set with 216 pieces. These toys would definitely spark imagination in children and adults alike.

The Potential. New toys that aren’t digital are in high demand. Many parents don’t want their kids on computer games all the time, but kids are bored by regular blocks. CubeCraft would definitely keep the kids interested and the parents happy.