SwapBots are toys of the future. With the unique design and features, your kids (including you) can have fun times!
Developed by a startup based in Liverpool, SwapBots could easily become the next great novelty in toys. By combining simple 3D printed blocks with a mobile augmented reality application, SwapBots allows users to play not only physically with the toys, but to participate in the game. They can also fight against other SwapBot toy and more.
SwapBots: The Beginning of an Era
“Like many great ideas, Swapbots was born during a drinking night” – says the co-founder John Keefe.
“After an event in Silicon Valley, we discovered ourselves in a bar talking about where this brand-new market was heading. This was a number of years ago: pre Pokemon Go and when Snapchat was only beginning to emerge as a significant financier in this innovation. We were aiming to think of vibrant, interesting usages of this tech, which is how Swapbots emerged” he adds.
SwapBots Up Close
Swapbots is a lovely set of augmented reality kid’s toys, built by a Liverpool boot with the same name. It mixes cutting-edge technology, with the addictiveness of picking something, and a price-friendly pocket price. The most successful kid’s toys have a narrative or at least one memorable character. Think of Barbie and Ken, Action Man, GI Joe and Stretch Armstrong.
SwapBots is no exception. The company has created a universe of charming kid’s toys characters, all resembling anthropomorphized animals. There are nine, until now. Griff, for example, is an eagle, while Macho is a species of wrestling fox. But unlike the toys mentioned above, SwapBots allows you to create your own characters by combining components.
Toy’s Looks
SwapBots toys look a bit like totems. Each character consists of three interchangeable parts: a head, a torso, and legs. You could take the head of a character, and attach it to the body and legs of another, and create your own unique characters.
And once you’ve done it, you can bring it to life with the mobile application SwapBot, available for Android and iOS. Once you have created your character, the application will ask you to align it with an overlay, to identify it and its components. Then bring it to life.
The Future
There are also promising signs that the company will be more than just an online phenomenon, and it is quietly making commercial incursions, particularly in the United States with several large retailers.
Most exciting of all is to look at the potential of technology licensing to other brands, so, hypothetically, you might one day see SwapBots of established names in television and film. So, if you are a parent, do not be surprised if one day, SwapBots lands on your child’s wish list to Santa.
