I’m starting to fall behind on all the things I want to write here, so forgive me for another placeholder post so close to the last one. In addition to piles of really great posts and articles, as well as real reviews from a dad, I desperately need to move this website off of Dreamhost webhosting. So, I’ve got a lot to do here on Undefeated Daddy, and that’s not including my other websites that I need to keep running.
Anyway, without further ado, here is what I’m going to write about soon. It’s a building toy made out of little suction cup pieces.
Squigz Suction Cup Toy
I was at the Denver Art Museum recently, and they have kicked up the gift shop in the North Building a notch. Well, more specifically, they made it much more kid friendly with some really amazing kids toys that I haven’t seen anywhere else. One of these toys is something called Squigz.
To understand Squigz, think of those magnetic building sets where you get a ball, and then straight pieces with magnets at the end. You joint them together magnetically, and then can build stuff.
With Squigz, the connection is done by matching up suction cups on each toy. The genius of this great kids toy is that the suction cups are just the right size and power. They are easy enough for my 4-year old to squeeze together and form a full seal; he can also pull them apart, though it does take some effort. The best part, however, is that they do NOT come apart accidentally.
The weakness of the magnets in the magnet building sets was always my biggest complaint. You couldn’t really do anything too interesting because the magnets just weren’t very powerful. That means that going too high makes it just sag, and bridging any distance is right out. With Squigz, as long as you can keep pressing them together, they’ll hold. Sure, you’ll need supports to keep it from falling over, but it isn’t going to sag apart in the middle just because you tried to bridge four or five pieces in the air.
Squigz aren’t cheap, but they are very cool toys that go beyond their intended purpose. They are also plain suction cups, so you can attach them to anything they stick to. Mirror sculptures, anyone? They are also small, colorful pieces that can be used with other sets, or as my 4-year demonstrated, as suction monsters with other action figures. They stick particularly well to vehicles with flat sides that are trying to get away.
If you get a chance you might want to check out Squigz as a unique building creative toy. They are made by Fat Brain Toys, which is mostly and online thing, but they did have them in the Denver Art Museum toy shop, so you might find them around in your local toy stores as well.