The MagnetCubes toy brings the adrenaline of Hot Wheels to the creativity of LEGO

MagnetCube vividly reminds me of one of the greatest online games of our time. No, not Minecraft. Try a little older. Remember Rollercoaster Tycoon? And how if you didn’t have enough money to buy preset Rollercoaster designs, you had to build your own? Between you and me, I’d try to make the most outrageous coasters even if I DID have the money. Building a track together piece by piece, aligning the last piece to the end of the station to complete the track, and just watching as the virtual park-visitors screamed in sheer delight through the coaster ride. There’s something about that joy of creation that the MagnetCubes captures. Part creation, part elaborate gravity trick, MagnetCubes lets you build your own ball-bearing racetrack using its modular setup. With an incredibly exhaustive variety of track-shapes that let you build the ball-bearing rollercoaster of your dreams and a transparent framework to hold your creation up, the MagnetCubes is an engaging toy that’s infinitely customizable so you’re never bored, and it teaches you a fair bit about physics too – just like how RC Tycoon taught me never to bump up the velocity of the coaster beyond a certain limit, or that rollercoaster paths should always be closed and continuous.

Using a transparent framework of pillars and beams held in place by magnets, MagnetCube lets you build and test your ballbearing racetracks. The cube construction is much more versatile than the plug-and use tracks in Hot Wheels kits. With MagnetCubes, you can build in the third dimension too, and the hollow cubes let you see your track as you build it, making the construction process as engaging and fun as the playing process. Available in Standard and Advanced variants the MagnetCube kit is modular, allowing you to be small and efficient, or embrace a go-big-or-go-home attitude and make a wild track that’s filled with twists and turns. Each kit comes with ball-bearings that ride on the tracks you build, relying on their design and a combination of gravity, inertia, and potential/kinetic energy to get from A to B. It’s this fun approach to learning that allows kids to embrace concepts of physics, architecture, and even a fair share of mathematics… all while exercising their creativity, testing the limits of nature, and staying entertained without being attached to a screen – unless they’re filming it for their Instagram. I probably would.

Designer: Steven Wolfe of DesignNest

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $50 (30% off). Hurry, only 13/80 left! Raised over $175,000.

MagnetCubes – Modular Magnetic Blocks With Dynamic Marble Run

Using the power of gravity and inspired imagination, MagnetCubes is a fun way to relax and have fun. This interactive new building system promotes learning, stress relief and fun with a simple way to build an infinite number of marble runs and roller coasters for fun and education.

Most of the marble runs include the track and the holes on the same molded pieces, limiting your options for how the pieces can be fitted together. With the modular design of MagnetCubes, you can easily connect multiple structures together.

The structure becomes a complex and impressive multi-level design. Build and rebuild whatever you can imagine. You could sit down again and again, with new creations every time.

Build Your Imagination Freely

This intuitive building system is fun for all ages and can be configured in endless ways.

This toy is a modern take on the simple building blocks and construction sets that we all grow up with. MagnetCubes is great for getting kids curious and interested in STEM concepts by challenging spatial reasoning and understanding of physics principles.

People of all ages have a natural desire to build and create. It’s the reason that all generations grew up with some kind of building toy such as blocks, Legos or other construction sets. This kind of toys engage kids and satisfy their curiosity while developing important motor and coordination skills.

Unlimited Possibilities & Endless Fun

The sets use open cubes with magnets in each corner that easily snap together without the need for special connectors or any prior experience. Simply unpack and build!

With 64 cubes and multiple action pieces, the design possibilities are endless. Each set can be added onto the next, allowing you to build big and fantastic marble runs as you imagine.

The open design of MagnetCubes makes all the action visible. With the panels included in the AdvancedPack, you can weave marble tracks in and out of the architectural structures.

Fun For All Age-Groups

This building set is not just for kids. Building MagnetCubes is also a joyful experience for parents and adults. Join in the fun and build with the kids to make more complex designs.

Keep stacking the modular and magnetic building blocks together. Be amazed at how easily, quickly and massively tall structures can be made without toppling over. It’s more fun to play together, with your friends, family, co-workers.

Great for quick breaks from the screen. Relieve stress by fidgeting with beautiful structures and relaxing kinetic movement.

MagnetCubes is a building system that inspires children to learn STEM principles. The combination of play, exploration, and iterative testing will help children develop critical thinking skills needed to excel in multiple fields. In no time at all, you will have a creative engineer and designer on your hands.

How to assemble MagnetCubes

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $50 (30% off). Hurry, only 13/80 left! Raised over $175,000.

Three-headed Doge Figures: Three Times the Shiba Inu

Who doesn’t love Shiba Inu dogs? We have a couple of them living next door to us, and they’re the cutest. And then there’s the Doge internet meme, along with the DogeCoin cryptocurrency which it inspired. So you’d think that three Doge would be better than one, right? Well, after seeing these three-headed Shiba Inu toys from Japan, I’m not so sure.

Borrowing their name from the mythical three-headed creature known as Cerberus (aka Kerberos), the Shibaberos collectible figures come in five different styles – one where the three heads are horizontal, one where they’re vertically-stacked, a wacky pyramid configuration, one that’s standing, and another that looks like the afterimage of a Shiba Inu shaking its head from side to side. They’re all equally weird and silly.

They only measure about 2″ tall on average, so they might look cute on your desktop. These three-headed doge toys were made by the Japanese Gashopon company Qualia, though I can’t seem to figure out where you can buy them.

[via Toy-People]

Build a Marble Run with Tiny Bricks and Mortar

Marble runs can be a whole lot of fun to build and watch in action. But most of the ones I’ve seen are made from wood or maybe plastic. If you’re looking for something a little more substantial, check out this marble run kit that includes towers made from bricks.

There’s no way the Big Bad Wolf is blowing down the Teifoc Run n’ Roll Marble Run. This unique play set includes about 200 tiny terracotta clay bricks, along with mortar and a trowel. Yes, you build it yourself. The cool thing is that the mortar is made from a soluble corn-based glue, so you can actually disassemble and rebuild new structures if you soak them in water for a couple of hours.

If you buy a few kits, you could probably build some pretty epic constructions, but with a price tag just under $100, that could get expensive very quickly. The brick and mortar marble run is available from Amazon. They sell mortar refills as well. I’d like to see someone scale up this idea using real bricks, PVC, and maybe some bowling balls.

Etch-a-Sketch Revolution Can Actually Draw Circles

Drawing with an Etch-a-Sketch can be quite a challenge. After all, it’s nearly impossible to illustrate anything with curves thanks to its simplistic X/Y movements. Even the most talented Etch-a-Sketch artists end up with jagged little “stairsteps” instead of real curves. That all changes with the new Etch-a-Sketch Revolution.

Photo: Raul Marrero/Gizmodo

Spin Master turned up at the 2020 New York Toy Fair showing off this new version of the classic drawing toy that can now draw curves. It’s still got the traditional X/Y knobs at the bottom, but now it has a round screen that you can rotate. This movement allows you to move the drawing stylus in a perfect circle or arc. The result is an Etch-a-Sketch with much greater creative potential.

It looks like there are still some limitations, since the arcs it can draw all seem to have to follow the same basic circular geometry, but it’s still a pretty neat new take on a classic toy. Best of all, it’s only going to cost $10 when it arrives in toy stores this July.

[via Gizmodo]

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