We Go Up Close with LightZilla: Making Big Things with Light

We recently told you guys about LightZilla, a sweet giant-size Lite-Brite that I wish I could have in my game room. Alas, I can’t afford one for my house, but I did recently get a chance to play with a LiteZilla up close and personal, and it’s pretty awesome. I headed up North of Chicago to the awesome Abt Electronics to meet with LiteZilla founder and Chief Illumination Officer Adam Butlein to go hands on with the jumbo plaything, and to learn a bit about what makes the LightZilla special.

While the first prototype of the LiteZilla was something Adam built for his own home, he quickly realized that he’d have to spend some serious time and money refining the design if he wanted to build something that could hold up to countless kids playing with it in doctors’ offices, museums, toy stores, and other public places.

Rather than using plywood, each LiteZilla’s peg board is made from thick sheets of HDPE, a durable thermoplastic that can be cut more precisely than wood, holds up better to wear and tear, and can be drilled more smoothly. The latter is critical for preventing nasty splinters when a kid sticks his or her finger into one of the holes – which they surely will do. HDPE is also far less likely to hold onto germs, and is easier to clean than wood. Each hole is precision drilled using CNC machining, to ensure perfectly placed peg art every time.

Behind the face sheet of HDPE is an impressively large light box, which perfectly diffuses bright white LEDs so each peg is evenly lit. Then there’s the pegs themselves. Each one is precision cut from colorful acrylic, then flame-finished so they transmit light smoothly from end to end. The result is brilliant, bright color from every one of each LiteZilla’s pegs, which can be made in every color of the rainbow, as well as neon colors and opaque black for blocking out light for design flexibility. The pegs are also big enough that they don’t pose a choking hazard for kids.

Each LightZilla offers convenient storage bins at the bottom for spare pegs, and its power transformer is smartly placed behind a screw-off front panel, just in case it ever needs to be serviced. The whole LightZilla can be mounted directly on a wall using heavy duty Z-clips which are designed to take up to 4x the weight of the whole system, for added safety around kids.

LiteZilla sells its sweet light-up pegboards in seven standard sizes: 4’x5′, 6’x5′, 8’x5′,8’x6′, 12’x6′, 16×6′ and an enormous 20’x6′ version. Prices start at $9,999 for the smallest model, and go up to a whopping $45,999 for the biggest one. I’m sure a big chunk of that cost is making thousands of colorful pegs. They can also customize the board with a company logo, and custom colored pegs to match your logo as well.

At these kind of prices, the LiteZilla probably won’t find its way into too many homes, but it’s a great idea for public places of play and interaction. So far, the company has done numerous installations for doctors’ and dentists’ offices, churches and temples, children’s museums and they just did an amazing store window display for Hammacher Schlemmer in New York City, which is sure to draw lots of attention.

If you’re looking for an awesome piece of interactive art for any place where kids of any age congregate, you should definitely consider a LiteZilla. For more information or to place an order, check out the LiteZilla website, or call them at 1-833-LITEZILLA.

The LiteZilla Is Like a Giant Lite Brite

This is LiteZilla, which is a giant wall-sized interpretation of the classic kids’ toy that you can hang on the wall. The good news is that this really exists, the bad news is that a 5-foot wide by 4-foot-high LightZilla costs $10,000. What kid has that kind of money? Oh yeah, rich brats. I hate those kids. They get all of the cool toys.

There’s also an eight-foot-wide version for $15,500, so that these kids can go even bigger and spend more of their allowance. If I were them I would have my butler place the pegs in while I sit back and yell at him. Then I would have the other servants judge and make fun of his art. It’s what you do when you’re a rich kid.


Too bad I’ll never play with this unless I find it by the curb outside of some bored kid’s mansion. If you’re a rich kid, you can order yours today from Hammacher Schlemmer, or request a custom quote directly from Litezilla.

[via The Awesomer via Geekologie]

Everbright Is a Lite-Brite for Adults

You probably remember Lite-Brite from when you were a kid. The toy used translucent plastic pegs stuck into a backlit plastic plate. You could arranging the pegs in different patterns form colorful pictures. It was a classic kid’s toy. And a classic choking hazard. Everbright is just like that classic toy, but much bigger, and much more sophisticated. So I mean it is super awesome.

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Hero Design invented Everbright, a wall-mounted board of 464 black dials lit with RGB LEDs. When you turn each dial, it activates and adjusts its color. You can even time the color sequences to create animated images if you want. Check it out in action. It is awesome:

Hero Design sees it as an interactive wall display. It can just hang on the wall when you are not using it. When it is on you can display some art that changes when you are in the mood for something unique. Why would any of us ever grow up when we have stuff like this?

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[via Hopes and Fears via Neatorama and Designboom]

Lite Brite Acoustic Guitar Plays Games and Music

lite brite acoustic guitar Lite Brite Acoustic Guitar Plays Games and Music
Ever wondered what would happened if you hollowed out an old junker acoustic guitar and put a light and a Lite Brite set on top of it? Well Travis Stevens (of Han Solo in Carbonite guitar fame) did just that. It’s totally playable- both as a guitar and as a Lite Brite game.
lite brite guitar 650x284 Lite Brite Acoustic Guitar Plays Games and Music
Due to the LED interior lighting and removing much of the wood to make way for the vintage Lite Brite screens, the guitar doesn’t put out too much sound with an amplifier. But with the amp, it rocks…gently. Change up the lights to fit the songs (can you guess what songs are shown above?) You probably want to hear (and see!) this thing in action…here you go video time:

Lite Brite Acoustic Guitar Plays Games and Music