Adafruit hopes Circuit Playground plushies will lure hacker kids (pictures)

This is Rudy the Red LED, one of Adafruit Industries' new Circuit Playground plushies, a set of six toys aimed at hacker kids. The plushies are the newest product from Adafruit, a leader in the open-source hardware world and the maker of a wide range of products for hackers of all ages.

"We have a lot of things planned with the cute components, from teaching 'props' to special projects to puppet versions for our upcoming kids' show," Adafruit Industries writes of its new toys. "Most of all we know it's hard to figure exactly what will spark a young mind on to the journey towards science, technology, engineering, art, math and more –- we wish we had these when were young."

This is Gus the Green LED.

Say hello to Connie the Transistor.

According to Adafruit, "Cappy is the de facto leader of the group. He is always coming up with crazy schemes. A running joke is that his capacitance value changes depending on his mood. Cappy speaks in a West County English accent (a traditional 'pirate' accent). His catchphrase is 'smooth sailing.'"

Adafruit writes of MHO the Resistor, "MHO has a laid-back, passive personality. He likes to do as little work as possible, and prefers to simply let the world happen around him. MHO is kind of a hippy, and is very quiet and gentle. He is best friends with Ruby, the red LED, who shares his idealism, though he's often reluctant to go off with her on her adventures because he thinks they will probably end up in trouble. MHO has sort of a nasally, hippie voice (California accent, but not a surfer). His catch phrase is 'no worries, man. it's all easy.'"

"Hans is the 'old man' of the group. He tends to be nervous and is often indecisive," according to Adafruit. "Hans frequently changes his mind, and is a little fidgety (he oscillates) when he's not moving around. He is very meticulous and precise in other ways; Hans does not like to compromise, preferring to be in a steady state until a dramatic change is called for. Hans speaks with the voice of a kindly old man with a Swiss-German accent, though his voice can become more nasally when he's upset or feels strongly about something. His catchphrase is 'maybe so, but perhaps not.'"