Ever wanted to connect Lego bricks to K'Nex bits? Or have you ever needed to stick a Krinkle to a Zoob -- whatever those are?
The Free Universal Construction Kit (which has a rather unfortunate acronym) lets you do just that. It's a set of 82 adapters that you can fabricate with a 3D printer. Once made, they lock together blocks from ten construction toys, including Lego and K'Nex.
These let you build mismatched mash-ups from different toys made by different companies. Most of the bricks are exclusively American, but there are some international kits on the list. The complete rundown features Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik,
Gears! Gears! Gears!, K'Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks or Stickle Bricks), Lincoln Logs,
Tinkertoys, Zome, and Zoob. "By allowing any piece to join to any other, the Kit encourages totally new forms of intercourse between otherwise closed systems," creators F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab explain. This enables "radically hybrid constructive play, the creation of previously impossible designs, and ultimately, more creative opportunities for kids."
Their argument is that kids don't care about copyright, corporations or anti-competition nonsense. They just want to make an awesome race car that's half-Lego, half-Fischertechnik.
The team describes it as finding out that your new Mac refuses to play Windows Media video files -- until you download a software remedy not made by either Microsoft or Apple. "The Free Universal Construction Kit is the VLC of children's playsets," the team says.
As for the sticky subject of legal implications, "we assert that the home printing of the Free Universal Construction Kit constitutes protected fair use," the team explains. Plus, eight of the 10 toys are no longer protected by active (20-year) patents. To that end, adapters for the patented kits -- Zoob and Zome -- have been delayed until their protection runs out in December 2016 and November 2022, respectively.
The bricks were made by reverse-engineering each toy with an optical comparator. This machine can measure a Bristle Block and spit out a digital version accurate to less than two millionths of a metre (or 2.54 microns, to be precise). This ensures tight snap-fits between custom and commercial parts.
You can download the adapters (and a fist-sized Universal Adapter Brick that lets you connect everything together at once) from Thingiverse.com.
Just be wary that some DIY printers like Makerbot, Printrbot or RepRap "may lack the precision required for reliable or satisfactory coupling with standard commercial piece." In other words, "your mileage may vary."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
