Slashdot Mirror
Move Over Lego, Enter Atollo
FortKnox writes: "Through the blessed portal memepool, I stumbled across the new arcitecture toy, Atollo. These new building toys can build any type of shape with only two pieces. The two pieces can be connected in many different ways allowing both rigid and flexible connections. " MMmm. Toys. Anyone else remember Construx? I loved those things too.
All these new fangled toys.. kids have it nice today. When I was young, I had to build my own computer out of a pile of sand and some scrap metal!
Anyway it's always nice to see toys whose instructions don't consist of "Attach the Cockpit module to the Wing module. Your new F-16 model is now complete! Enjoy!".
loved it. What about robotix? That stuff was really damned cool. You could build all sorts of mechanical things that would do stuff. My friends and I used to have wars where we'd build stuff with different brands and then war it out. construx usually always won.
Man, back to the good old days. Anyone else remember some others? I can't remember them all. I remember one that actually had screws and metal bars that you could bolt together in all different shapes and sizes, and motors too, but I can't remember the name of it.
If God gave us curiosity
I am a big kid so i still play with Lego. It appears as though atollo.com was slashdotted though, so a quick google search found this link:
0 0a.htm
http://kidscience.about.com/library/weekly/aa1110
Enjoy!
Personally I think the reason why Legos remain the king of building toys is because they appealed to both kids who enjoy technical stuff as well as kids who just want to play. Toys like connex, capsela, robotix and even erector sets always seemed to appeal to more technical kids (like myself), and Atollo seems to be stuck in that same market. These toys may require more technical thinking, or dexterity than the average child may have. On a side note, is anyone else bothered by Lego's apparent need to make 200x the custom, one use only, decorative pieces? I bought the latest super car (8448) and have to order the silver champion only because I have an addiction, but I really don't like all these new pieces that are just for looks. It seems like their technic models are becoming less substantial.
-- Button up, your ignorance is showing
Sorry the site is clogged, but none the less you can get kits at a few stores around the US, and soon at Discovery Channel Stores.
Some basic info for those that couldn't make it to the site... yet.
Yes there are initially only two pieces and the system is LEGO compatible.
The pieces are currently made in Scotland ! Yes, amazingly other things do come out of Scotland other than single malt !
One person nailed our intent on the head in an earlier message, we hope to introduce a new creative building system for all ages.
You can build anything from dinosaurs to geometric space structures !
Hope some of you manage to make it to the site,
and thanks for the "constructive" feedback.