Gallery: Toys on the Edge: Playthings That Straddle the Digital/Physical Divide
01world-of-warcraft-statues-by-figureprints
If the dot-com boom a decade ago was about putting the world on the internet, the twenty-teens are about bringing the Internet to the world. With cheaper sensors and 3-D printing, more and more people have access to tools that bridge the digital/physical divide. Of course, the new instruments are responsible for lots of serious innovation, but there’s some fun to be had, too. The era of mass customization means that we can export even our avatars from the pixilated screen to our plywood desk. Here’s a collection of toys ready for tweaking. *World of Warcraft* Statues by FigurePrints ------------------------------------------- *WoW* certainly wasn’t the first game to have toy tie-ins, but early options only allowed for purchase of someone else's character. [FigurePrints](http://www.figureprints.com//) was one of the first companies to bring your own creation to the real world. You spend hours and hours playing with a character, and FigurePrints tapped into that dedication to image. The result is a collectible more deeply personal than we might like to admit. *Image courtesy of [Figureprints](http://www.figureprints.com/).*
02makielabs-makie-dolls
MakieLab's Makie Dolls ----------------------- [MakieLab’s](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/design/2012/05/makiedolls/) weird customizable toys bring the character customization interface of a MMORPG to the process of creating your own toy—without the whole MMO experience. MakieLab founder Alice Taylor has big plans for the dolls on the virtual end, investigating online social spaces and other ways to get them to interact. Meanwhile, in the physical world, the doll’s noggins are just the right size for a Lilypad Arduino, which gives dedicated doll hackers a chance to wire their toys for a digital retrofit. *Image courtesy of [MakieLab](http://makie.me/).*
03club-penguins-plushies
*Club Penguin's Plushies* ------------------------- Club Penguin is Disney's ridiculously popular penguin MMO aimed at the 6-14 crowd. The game’s toy store offers plushy tie ins with a light digital twist. The real world birds come with a code that unlocks corresponding content in the game—perhaps a step toward toys that take their crossover potential a bit more seriously. *Image courtesy of [Disney](http://www.clubpenguin.com/toys/toy/swashbuckler-13).*
04skylanders
Skylanders ---------- Skylanders is the vanguard of a next generation of toys. Instead of tie-ins or toys based on a game, here the game is built to incorporate the toys from the beginning. It works like this: You plug the so-called Portal of Power into your console and place your Skylander figurine on it. Voilà! The character appears in the game. Of course, there’s a whole collection of characters available—all sold separately. The toys aren't just fancy content locks, however. Each one carries with it experience points, items, and gold that can be taken to a friend's house. Joining a new the game no longer means generating a generic. *Image courtesy of [Activision](http://www.skylanders.com/).*
05lego-mincraft
LEGO CUUSOO, Minecraft Edition ------------------------------ LEGO has long been the premiere physical building toy. But lately, they've branched into digital with [](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lego_video_games) [their MMO](http://universe.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx), and the lovely [LEGO Creator](http://creator.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx) app. The most exciting initiative is the CUUSOO program, which invites makers to design their own kits. LEGO reviews the most popular submissions and, assuming they can work out the legal stuff, take the kits from dream to reality. Since Minecraft is a virtual game about building, it's fitting that it would become the 3rd kit produced. *Image courtesy of LEGO*
06dice
DICE+ ----- Announced at this year's E3, DICE+ is an attempt to bring the tactile joy of rolling dice to computer gaming. The physical set is packed to the gills with technology, allowing a roll across the table to communicate with digital games that might make use of the tech. Just don’t forget to recharge your game pieces. *Image courtesy of [GIC Sp. z o.o. Sp. k.](http://dicepl.us/).*
07suwappu
Suwappu ------- Suwappu is a prototype developed by the design agency mcgarrybowen. The idea is that the figures have a top and a bottom, each with identifiable elements. An accompanying augmented reality app would read the positioning of the pieces and create narratives and animations from them on the fly. Even if nothing comes of it, the [utterly demented](http://vimeo.com/22120968) introduction video is well worth the effort. *Image courtesy of [mcgarrybowen](http://www.getsuwappu.com/).*
