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Nov 24, 2015 | By Alec

Is there any better toy out there than Lego? Fantastic and inspiring building bricks that not only act as a perfect outlet for your kids’ imagination, but are very educational and have set many of us on the long and windy road towards making and 3D printing. But just imagine what you could’ve achieved at a young age with the fantastic Mindstorms kits. If you like that idea, you’ll be happy to learn of a fantastic new toy that has just appeared on Kickstarter. Called the meeperBOTS, these are compact 3D printable smart cars on wheels that are compatible with Legos and other brick toys and are perfect for adding an extra educational dimension to your kid’s playtime, as it also introduces them to the very basics of programming.

meeperBOTS were, as all good toys should be, born out of the imagination of children. ‘Our first product, meeperBOTS, is inspired by co-founder Jim Brandon's 6-year old son, Will spends hours with his Lego™ kits and creating his own custom masterpieces. Will said the only thing that could make his Legos better is if they would MOVE! Will wanted to get more out of his Legos® and so do we,’ they explain. ‘Will is our product expert, and is also our product's number one critic because he will not accept anything less than the best!’

And that is, essentially, how meeperBOTS were developed. About a year ago, they first had some crowdfunding success with their first edition of these toys on Indiegogo, raising about $12,000. Taking that experience, they have now returned to crowdfunding on Kickstarter with a vastly improved meeperBOTS 2.0 edition. ‘Beautiful design, smoother navigation, faster connect, more responsive controls and new functions,’ they say of their latest iteration.

So what exactly are meeperBOTS? Well, imagine basic vehicle made with Lego, with four wheels and a body on which you can add just about any Lego part you have laying around. It’s that, but then the body’s 3D printable and filled with electronics to make it programmable through an app. With this cool setup, you can operate around eight bots simultaneously, giving them orders to move around or even follow you. And of course, you can build any shape on top of them – perfect for adding that extra dimension to a child’s Lego experiments.

This, makes them very versatile, and the developers say kids are absolutely crazy about them. ‘Kids spend hours, playing, creating, building, innovating, and making up games and activities. Even the ‘big kids’ break out their bricks to participate in all the fun,’ they say. But for the rest of us, it might be more important to know that the meeperBOT 2.0 is an open source platform, enabling users to customize their bots through 3D printing and even share them through an upcoming Meeper Maker community. Even the wheels and the electronics can be tinkered with, if you want. ‘We provide the platform and you take it to the next level. In just a short time, we have oodles of innovations and ideas from our Makers . Build, create, innovate, design and learn - the possibilities are endless!’ they say.

However, the basic kit should be more than interesting enough. Featuring a chassis, power assembly and wheel set, the kit has everything you need to add to your own lego collection, while the app adds a fun playing and programming dimension. ‘No more joysticks or RC transmitters that are big and bulky and can only control one vehicle at a time! One vehicle at a time? Really, that’s so 1999. Our state-of-the-art Controller can connect to 8+ BOTS at the same time! You can switch BOTS and control them individually or switch to Mirror mode and control them simultaneously, like a convoy acting in unison,’ they explain. ‘Another Advanced Control is the Follow feature. The meeperBOT will find and follow behind you – a little bit like an electronic puppy dog.’ The app will work on iOS and Android, and even on tablets.

For those of you who love to tinker, the power assembly and controller can be removed from the chassis and placed in a 3D printed alternative – the guys from meeperBOT will even provide a wide variety of 3D printable designs that can enable you to adapt the basic bot structure – from larger, weird bodies to pen holders and even GoPro Adapters. The possibilities are as crazy as you want them to be.

In short, meeperBOTS seem to have everything you’d look for in a 21rst century educational toy, and is definitely worth checking out on Kickstarter. What’s more, they seem to be very well prepared for this Kickstarter campaign, promising to have 1,000 bots ready to ship and arrive for Christmas. Now that’s some great service.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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