Child-Powered Toys, Trucks Give Batteries the Boot
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 02. 8.08
When toy industry veteran designer and parent Chris Clemmer got together with a couple of friends and realized there’s a mint to be made in eco-toys of one form or another they sat down and came up with Sprig Toys. A new line of kid-powered toys working to ensure traditional battery-powered toys go the way of the dinosaurs by harnessing all that pent up energy your child’s been carrying around.
Set to be introduced at the upcoming American International Toy Fair in NYC, they’re paint free and produced from a mixture of recycled wood and reclaimed plastic. And the lights and other electronics are powered by the natural energy of push and pump-action play, with the accompanying characters wearing LED-lit hats that actually plug into the vehicles and garages to recharge their energy supply.
Taken with the release of a similar line called SEE Toys that first shined a child-powered light on the path towards fewer batteries last summer, it seems this type of toy will, in fact, move further and further into the spotlight. After all, what parent hasn’t gone through the expense and the madness of conjuring enough batteries to power that latest neat toy Grandma gave little Jimmy for his birthday last weekend? Not to mention the fact that using fewer batteries is a just a greener way to play.
via:: Sprig Toys
Interesting, don't you think, how adults impose their own 'wants' onto kids ... evidenced, here, by more 'toy cars'.
Yeah, yeah, I know ... you want to tell me to 'ease up, a bit'.
Really, though, as long as we adults give kids 'toy cars' to play with, they'll grow up wanting adult-sized toy cars when they grow up ... if that can be said to be growing up?
Consider the pedal-powered, or worse, batter-powered cars for kids to drive around in ... is that not an example of adults imposing their beliefs/wants/insecurities? Adults give the gifts that reflect their closely held worldview. No? Any time I've seen kids 'driving' along the sidewalk in one of those 'child cars', the kids are bored out of their skull!! They're yanking furiously at the steering wheel trying to make it fun ... it's all they can do ... all the while the adults/parent/gift-giver walks proudly behind with a self-affirming grin.
Anyone else ever seen the spectacle? It's laughable.
Alright, I'll ease up.
For now.
Yes, making toys that use less or no batteries would be a great thing - maybe with hydrogen?
Toys with batteries are bad not just for the environment, but also bad for your child's development. There is a concept in toys called "agency of play," a concept that deals with where the fun and imagination and motivation is coming from. When a child picks up box and makes it a house, the agency rests almost entirely with them, and not with the box. The box is then free to become a house, or a boat, or a rocket ship etc... Thus your child is developing skills, working out issues, exploring concepts...
If you buy a cardboard toy hose, some of the agency has been transfered to the toy, but not much. The toy house (or car, or doll,) is less likely to become something else entirely, but the way play is engaged is still controlled by the child.
Electronic toys keep the agency to themselves. You push a button and the toy does what it was programed to do. A toy like "tickle me Elmo extreme" has so much agency, it can really sit and play by itself while your child goes and does something else. These toys have a novelty value that lasts 10 minutes, and after, the box they came in is more fun, and more developmentally appropriate.
Hydrogen is a bad exchange process for energy. It takes a lot of energy to produce a little hydrogen. These guys are using Faraday coils for stored energy. This is a great way to go. Sprig seems to have the best overall green plan I have seen in toys.
I would love to see more consumer product companies follow their model.