Want to connect your LEGOs to your Duplos? Your K’nex to your Tinker Toys? Your Krinkles to your Zoob? Well the wait is finally over. With the Free Universal Construction Kit, you are free to assemble the most Frankenstein-ish of contraptions, the hideously mismatched kind of contrivances only a madman could love. It’s barely one step above gluing the pieces together, and it is absolutely glorious.
Masterminded by Free Art and Technology, the folks who brought you hobo QR codes, the Free Universal Construction Kit is a brilliantly insane ploy to attach all the variety of building blocks. At least, all the ones worth mentioning, and even a few that aren’t. The Free Universal Construction Kit, as you might guess by its name, is available for free, so long as you can find yourself a 3D printer. The 82 peice set includes every possible set-to-set transitional peice in addition to a single, monstrous universal adapter brick which seems to defy all reason with its existence.
Of course, while the Free Universal Construction Kit is practically begging you to create huge, multifaceted creations that stretch far beyond brand-lines, F.A.T. hopes it can do something more:
In producing the Free Universal Construction Kit, we hope to demonstrate a model of reverse engineering as a civic activity: a creative process in which anyone can develop the necessary pieces to bridge the limitations presented by mass-produced commercial artifacts. We hope that the Kit will not only prompt people to create new designs, but more importantly, to reflect on our relationship with material mass-culture—and the rapidly-evolving ways in which we can better adapt it to our imaginations.
In any event, the set is beautifully ridiculous and a must for anyone who has access to a 3D printer and more than one variety of building toy. What I wouldn’t give to have had LEGO-Lincoln Log connector 15 years ago or so. I always wanted to build a log cabin with a landing pad.
You can download the kit at this link, and soon on The Pirate Bay’s upcoming “Physibles” channel. You can also check out this snazzy poster of all the different adapters.
(F.A.T. via Boing Boing)
