Stixels, Creative Construction Toy

If your childhood was anything like mine you recognized these toys immediately. Tinkertoys were my favorite growing up and I couldn't resist this excuse to give the old legend the refresher it deserves. I've recreated all the standard elements, and created many of my own, but now with 3d printing in mind. For those of you haven't seen these before, it's just a system of rods and connectors of various sizes and angles. Each rod is sized so as to form the hypotenuse of a right triangle made using the next smaller size allowing the pieces to interact and create large and sturdy structures. The tolerances are pretty tight I like the piece to stick very firmly but if you are making these for very young children I recommend you shrink the rods very slightly to loosen the fit. The tiny 25mm rods are extremely useful but also extremely difficult to remove when pressed into a hole, for this reason I included a printable “key” that fits the slot in the rod and allows you to twist them out. I have very young siblings and we have been playing with these non-stop for days now. It's incredibly rewarding to finally have a toy I can print for kids that they won't just get bored of and throw away in a few minutes. Their eyes light up when I bring a new batch of colorful pieces because they know that they've just received a whole world of new possibilities that make the entire set all the better for it, i've been pumping out a couple parts here and there whenever my printer has some down-time and we've amassed quite a collection, seeing the things they build just give me the motivation to keep designing new parts to make this toy even better! At the end of the day, toys are all about engaging a kid's imagination, give a kid a truck and he'll be happy for a while, but show him how to build one, and then turn it into a colossal fire-breathing lizard that must be slain by a valiant… where was I going with this? Anyways if you're still reading my ramblings you must be pretty chill, leave