birguslatro | Entries tagged with cubelets

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When Cubelets first came out, I wrote a review of them. And I see now they're targeting education with them. Which makes sense, given how expensive they are. You'd need a lot to do really interesting things with, which a class can probably justify the cost of, while most parents couldn't.

Anyway, there's a fundamental difference between them and the construction sets of old. With the likes of Lego or Meccano, you could model things that already existed. Buildings were made of bricks, machines of metal plates, girders, wheels and nuts and bolts.

It's hard to point to everyday things made in a Cubelets-like way though. So they're a case of a construction set existing before the real-world things you're supposed to model with them exist.

One of the things that fascinated me with my first computer were cellular automata. And what seemed obvious was such cells could probably be made real and three-dimensional. And so it's proved to be, as a mere thirty years later here they are in the form of the Cubelets KT01 Construction Kit from Modular Robotics. And while there's only 20 cubes in the current set (which they call blocks), there's no apparent limitation to the numbers that could be added. (Consider that a warning...)

Robots - As Far As The Eye Can See...

I bought these online and they're very new, (as is the company producing them), the construction sets still being classed as betas. So take that into account with the minor criticisms below. My set is from the first lot of 100 sold. ( And the rest is behind the cut, as there's many more pictures, and videos too! )