It is tempting to buy your kids new toys, and given that we were all kids at some point in time, we all know the joy that comes from opening a brand new toy. However toys can be wasteful since many of us outgrow them, plus there are also the materials involved in making them that needs to be considered.
However a company by the name of Toyi is hoping to change that by launching a DIY maker kit that will turn trash into toys, limited only by the imagination of the child. The kit comes with a variety of objects such as connectors, wheels, sticks, and so on, where the idea is that the child can turn a regular object, like an empty water bottle, into something else entirely.
According to Elif Atmaca, the designer behind the project, “With Toyi, children are making their own toys by redefining and redesigning everyday objects around them. In this way, a water bottle can be transformed into a six-armed robot. Now the water bottle is no longer just trash, but a really precious robot that reflects children’s imagination. With that approach, children adopt an upcycling mindset by developing a sense of producing without consuming at an early age.”
Atmaca claims that her childhood was the inspiration behind the kit, where she grew up in disadvantaged parts of Turkey where access to toys was difficult. “Instead of creating a ready-made toy, I wanted to create a tool that children can use to design their own unlimited number of toys.” Toyi has been launched on Kickstarter where for every kit sold, Atmaca will donate another kit through nonprofit partners.
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