Kids can easily make their own toys with 3D printing
Culture
It's time to see what justice is doing down to Tectoids this year.
My country clearly has no interest in that obviously.
[MUSIC]
Hey look I found Rey.
I'm here at New York Toy fair and this year the toy fair's a little special for me because I'm gonna be a mom soon if you couldn't already tell So we get to see how play time is gonna evolve for the next generation.
And every year play time gets a little more high tech.
[SOUND]
For starters, this year kids can make their own plastic action figures with 3D printing machines.
And depending on the age, it's safe enough for children to use these machines unsupervised.
This fall Mattel is selling the Thingmaker for $300 The 3D printer creates objects from spools of melted colored plastic.
You use an app to pick from a preset selection of toys but you could snap several pieces together to make an action figure or jewelry.
The door locks so you can't get hurt during the printing process.
We used to make things with play dough or the easy bake oven or jelly creeper crawler bugs.
Now it's all about melting your own plastic toys.
And it's not all so expensive.
The 3Doodler Start is a $40 3-D printing pen.
It's so kid safe.
You can melt the plastic right on your skin and it won't burn you.
It's sort of like a hot glue gun in concept.
You load the plastic and draw in the air.
It only takes about ten seconds for the plastic to cool.
You can make anything, toys, art, jewelry.
It ships in May.
[MUSIC]
And back to Mattel.
It also upgraded the virtual reality Viewmaster to now include a headset jack.
You still need to put a phone inside to experience the programs.
But on some games, a sibling without a headset could play along, acting as your guide to decipher puzzles.
The new Viewmaster 2.0 model cost $40.
Which is $10 more than before it comes out in the fall.
Barbie always puts a new touch an tech, and this year she has her own drone.
But she would rather have you call it a hoverboard.
This remote controlled flying quadcopter has Barbie fixed on top, and comes out in the fall for $60.
And she can fly her drone to her brand new Smarthome Dreamhouse The Barbie Hello Dreamhouse has speech recognition.
Say, "Hello, Dreamhouse." Followed by a command, and you can turn on the elevator, turn on different lights, or throw a dance party!
The party doesn't come cheap, the doll house is $300.
And when I look back at the tech toys from previous years, it's clear that companies are moving away from just slapping an iPad or iPhone Screen on a toy and calling it a tech toy.
Not everything needs an app.
And whether you're talking to Barbie's dream home or to Playmates' Talk To Me Mikey Ninja Turtle, which has hundreds of replies to kids questions, these toys are not storing information Formation in some server in the cloud.
The tech this year just gives it a slightly twist.
So kids still need to use good ol' make believe and imagination.
Reporting from Toy Fair in New York City, I'm Bridget Carey.
