The ‘Internet of Toys’: Toymail Connects Kids to Their Loved Ones
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From the app-based Nickster to the electronic building blocks of Littlebits, toys are making leaps and bounds in cool factor. Launched this morning on Kickstarter, Toymail is the latest and greatest new digitally-enhanced plaything. In short, they’re walkie talkie-like characters with the ability to relay messages from parents/grandparents/friends to the child who owns the toy. How it works: Anyone who downloads Toymail‘s free app can leave a message on one of the toys. Users dial in a toy/child to send a message to, talk into the phone (just like leaving a voicemail) and push send. The receiver is alerted by an animal noise—if their Toymail is a pig, it oinks when a message is received—and can respond directly to the message by pressing a button. The video below shows the toy in action:
Cofounders Gauri Nanda and mother-of-three Audry Hill were looking to create a toy that brought kids and loved ones together. “I started asking myself, ‘Could toys be made to evolve every day and what would that look like?'” says Nanda. “I felt that it was time for toys to feel more like they do in Toy Story and Pee Wee’s Playhouse, so that they never become boring or obsolete. So that they would grow as the child does.”
Sketches from character development and prototyping the toys.
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