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Bringing Roominate to even more kids

More product development (and production!)

Inspiration from awesome kid creators!

Having fun being creative

We loved running “Write a Caption” contest for this photo. It was difficult to decide which caption was the best; everyone was so creative and humorous! So after much thinking and evaluating, we’ve decided that there is a tie!

So the two winners are…

“I see Watson, you have given me another reason to Ruminate about the construction of this invention.” by Amy Cipolla Barnes
AND
“I literally have girl power!!!” by Millie James Driggers

Congratulations to Amy and Millie!

Thanks to everyone for submitting their entries. You are the best Roominate entertainers!

The girls started with the walls.

Alex built a set for Good Morning America and the X Factor, and then decided to focus on a house for her talk show host.

Buzzers and lights, two of our new offerings through the Roominate subscription, were perfect for the TV show sets. The sound of the buzzer meant “Action!” and the light served as the spotlight!

After about an hour and a half, Dessa ran to grab her Polly Pocket collection. That’s when the furniture design started in earnest — including swings, clothing storage, and elaborate spiral staircases.

Later, the girls decided to all put their houses together to make a neighborhood — specifically where the hosts and movie stars lived. Grace engineered bridges between the houses, which she was careful not to have interfere with the swings. Dessa and Madeline made sure there were grassy lawns and an ocean and beach to look out on from each house’s balcony.


After three hours, we managed to take this picture and promised we wouldn’t break their Roominates on the car ride back!

We had so much fun and can’t wait to do it again!

We’re now offering new electronics every month as part of 3 Months of Roominate! (Don’t worry — we’ll give you the chance to extend it!)

Bettina making the electronics

Deluxe subscriptions ready to be packed up

All boxed up and ready to go!

After a week of preparations to set up our booth, the day had finally arrived. I had checked off all the to do’s on my list — booth layout was planned, pamphlets designed, banners printed, flyers and invites sent, batteries charged, and Roominate kits, wristbands, and T-shirts all counted and packed tightly.

I woke up early, loaded the car with all the heavy boxes, and we set off. “Fingers crossed! I hope I’ve loaded everything,” I told Saurabh. He was one of the volunteers who helped us all day. My mind was already racing at 100mph!

The clock was ticking. Our booth was located adjacent to the Lego and Children’s Museum of Houston booths. It wasn’t even 10 am and one by one young girls with their moms and dads started swarming the small 8’X8’ play area in our booth.

So what was so exciting, you ask?

The booth had transformed into a land of inventions and innovations! A girl named Sarah came up with a brilliant idea to build an air conditioner using the motor. One other girl proudly showed off the optical illusion she created using a colorful fan built with Roominate. Passersby were delighted and amazed to see what the kids were capable of building. And to add to their fascination, there were colorful example rooms wired with a fireplace, elevator, and fans. As soon as they would press the red button installed in each room, the magic would fall upon them.

“Whoa! The fireplace rotates!”     “Mom, let’s go and play!”     “ I want to take it home!”

“We never had building toys for girls during our days. I want to buy one for my granddaughter.”

For eight hours and even after we started wrapping up, kids continued to visit our booth and play while their parents were left waiting for them. They just weren’t able to part with what became their favorite toy. The organizers, school teachers, parents, and others were all equally excited.

All in all, it was an enthralling experience and I loved ROOMINATING! We can’t wait for Maker Faire Bay Area in May and hope to have you join us there! (more pictures here!)

As you begin to open your Roominate this Christmas (if you haven’t already!), we wanted to direct you to a few resources we have on our website. We have some tips and inspiration on our how-to page (for instance, check out how to fold the motor wires back below). We are also constantly updating our FAQ page so be sure to check it out here.

We hope you have fun Roominating this holiday season!

We realized that in our sprint to get Roominate out to you by the holidays (just barely hit Hanukkah!) we never quite gave the full story of how the Roominate seen in our Kickstarter video became the (new and improved) Roominate you now hold in your hands.

We wanted to bring it all together in one place to show you how Roominate has changed over time and give you a peek at what’s coming soon!

Design changes

Building pieces

We touched a bit on the material change of the building pieces from wood to plastic here. Maker Faire showed us how quickly the wood degraded, splintered, and broke after being played with by hundreds of girls. The wood material decreased the lifetime and replay value of Roominate. We also quickly learned that girls love drawing on the pieces and putting stickers and tape on everything (so now all our plastic building pieces and walls are dry erase!).

So we went back to the drawing board. After doing some research into manufacturing and prototyping on our part, we started working on creating more modular building pieces. This way you didn’t only have pieces to make a bookshelf, but the same pieces that are used to make a couch can be made into a desk complete with a laptop.

We continued going into homes and holding workshops to figure out what sort of things girls wanted to build and what sort of building pieces optimized for that. You can read more on the iterative process here.

Circuits

Through our many testing sessions, we learned that a motor really got girls hooked onto the electronics. In most cases, after they connected the motor circuit and attached a fan head, they would just stare at the fan moving, mesmerized with the fact that pressing the button would make the fan move. It was so exciting for them to have put together something that could move! We then made the decision to go with the motor instead of a light for the starter kit, knowing that there are many more complex things that can be built beyond the fan.

We’ve gotten the ball rolling with some ideas here, including many more examples of what you can make with the motor (elevator, washing machine, etc.) and different structures you can design.

Join us for the next steps!

We are expanding our electronics offerings (including lights, buzzers, solar panels, and more!) as well as experimenting with circuit complexity levels. The first electronics add-ons will be ready in January 2013. If you’re interested in being a tester as we work on finalizing the design of the new electronics, email us at contact@roominatetoy.com!

As you open Roominate and start playing with it, we want to hear from you. Roominate got to where it is today through constant iteration and user testing. It’s only when you come face-to-face with your customer that you really learn what works and what doesn’t. You can help us take it a step further and build the best experience possible around Roominate by sharing your ideas, creations, and feedback. Thank you for all your support!

And a quick update on Christmas delivery! Due to the flood of orders we’ve been receiving, we’ve decided to extend the deadline to order for Christmas delivery and are now offering express shipping. Order by December 19!

Also, boys love Roominate too! Check out this adorable picture here.

Our second shipment of Roominate came in yesterday! With the help of our wonderful boyfriends, we managed to get tons of Roominates packed up and will start shipping out tomorrow. If you have friends or family looking for a Christmas present, we’re still taking orders through tomorrow for Christmas delivery on our website! We also had a little bit of fun with our toy last night and made a two story house with a Chateau de Roominate, complete with a working elevator, workshop in the garage, and a fish pond on the balcony.

And for those of you who have been receiving your Roominate, we’ve been busy putting up ideas to inspire girls as they build with Roominate. Check them out here! Videos for the Roominate Reel are also on their way!

It’s been really exciting to receive messages and pictures from all our happy customers and we can’t wait to make many more girls happy this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa! Here’s one of our first happy Roominaters on the first day she opened the toy and then again a couple days later. Send us your pictures after you open up Roominate; we can’t wait to see them! We also had a workshop at the Children’s Creativity Museum in SF last weekend so check out more happy kids here.

Finally, for some more great Christmas gift ideas, check out the products from our awesome officemates, E&M Labs. They make engineering toys for kids and adults alike to tinker, explore, and learn. The Trebuchette is a snap-together siege engine using counterweights to launch projectiles 25 feet or more. And Skallops are clever laser-cut clips which allow you build anything with playing cards and imagination. Order now and they’ll match your order with a donation to Toys for Tots!

Email us at contact@roominatetoy.com with videos or photos of your family getting ready for or celebrating the holidays. We’d love to see your decorations, Roominates wrapped up, freshly opened Roominates, creations made with Roominate, any traditions your family might have for the holidays, and more!