Labo was not the success you’re making it to be. Anyway, the cardboard is only a small part of it.
Go see what the software is about, it’s very well done. You’ve got interactive cutout views of what the kit is doing, and explanations go into surprising details into the inner workings of infrared cameras, gyroscopes, generating sound, etc… while keeping it accessible to kids.
Also it includes a simple, visual programming language to do your own stuff.
I didn’t buy it, but I don’t know how you can bash something clearly experimental like that that leveraged the hardware in unique and interesting ways.
Absolutely. I bought two kits (first VR, then variety) just to see what the deal was with them. It was a while after release, got them for a bit cheaper. I didn’t expect it to be that smart, to be honest. For a curious 10-12 year old or so, it’s fantastic.
Just the piano toy touches stuff like optics and IR, waveforms, frequency, and of course there’s the satisfaction of building that thing with all those moving parts.
I’ve seen so many people missing the point completely and calling it “expensive cardboard”. It’s like seeing one of these kits for kids letting them assemble a simple radio, with instructions and an introduction to electronics, and complaining that you could buy an actual radio for a quarter of the price.