Kickstarter Alert: A Maze-O for All Toys

Maze-O is a maze building toy and a recently launched Kickstarter project that looks like a bargain.

The offerings are plastic maze building sets from $30-50 that look solidly designed, in beautiful block colors and are generic enough for cars, marbles, HexBugs - you name it. It is the generic nature of the design that appeals so much. No doubt innovative geeklets will find any number of items to run through their mazes, and with 72 pieces at $50 there are enough combinations to keep them entertained.

Maze-O looks like the best kind of open-ended puzzle that can also become a race track or HexBug home. But it also comes with a great back story.

Maze-O is a real geek dad product. Created by Dan Friedman, a software engineer from Blizzard Entertainment whose sweetheart worked at Microsoft before becoming a stay-at-home geek mom, the idea for Maze-O hit him and he couldn't let it go. The idea turned him to designing in CAD, and then impatiently waiting for a 3D printer he ordered to turn up so he could begin printing prototypes. Dan told it to me like this:

Well, we finally got our printer and we started printing the pieces on our own. Well, not so fast, 3D printing isn't exactly easy. There's lots of new hardware and programs and settings and it's a lot to take in. It can be overwhelming. But then again, most of the defaults ended up working for us with minor adjustments here and there that allowed us to learn as we went.

I love a story where the passion overrides the challenges, where suddenly learning to drive a 3D printer becomes the focus of someone's life so they can print their pieces of maze that they know will be an awesome toy to share with the world. It is also a testament to the glory that is the maker movement and all those tinkering away with Arduinos and their Raspberry Pis - who are slowly but surely changing the world in which we live and the way it works. Maze-O is an example of that. And Dan thinks so to:

I honestly can't even imagine trying to do this without a printer beside me. It has been crucial to getting our business idea to Kickstarter project in only four months. Four months? Wow. Even I can't believe it happened that fast! If a 3D printer can be so instrumental to me, I can't wait to see what 3D printers will do next!

So, if you are sold you should head over to Kickstarter and back Maze-O - an idea that was 2 years in the conception, but 4 months in the prototyping and Kickstarter launch - thanks to 3D printers.