Design Your Own Cardboard Creations With Nintendo Labo's Toy-Con Garage

I want that Piano !

Nintendo taught me left from right thanks to the SNES shoulder buttons back when I was young. Now they are teaching the basics of what programming is. All hail Nintendo! I hear they do some good games as well.

So is this included as part of every Labo kit? That'd do a lot for the value of the product.

I'm really looking forward to all the fan-made content for Labo and having a go myself.

@Yorumi yes from what I've read you can make a guitar and you'll be able to use multiple pairs of joycons to create some really unique and extravagant things

@Yorumi Other sites have reported using Toy-Con to control other Minigames, changing how some work, making your own Toy-Con like an electric guitar out of your own cardboard, and reprogramming what buttons on the controllers do what.

Had a discussion on here about the potential for Labo to be an introductory programing tool, this fits the bill.

Is Toy-Con Garage the official name, b/c it sounds like something Apple would be suing them over?

So where exactly is this unveiling? Is it a YouTube video somewhere? How do we get the software, when, and how much?

Edit - OK I answered my own questins, Garage is less it's own thing and more just a part of the Labo software that comes with the cardboard Switch kits. It actually works well as part of their Build Play Discover marketing campaign as Garage is where you discover the inner workings of both the software and hardware working together. So garage = discover. Nice.

For those interested to learn a bit more about the actual gameplay and usage of the various builds, here are some hands-on videos:

@rjejr You're gonna LOVE the second video. It shows that the robot can transform, so there's definitely "more than meets the eye" (pun intended) to that one...

And the visor may not be VR, but it actually does have a specific use in the game, which makes it kind of "faux-VR". But you'll understand once you watch it...

YES. THIS. There's a definite market for this in schools and libraries as well as homes.

What I want to know is if they plan to (or will eventually) release the Labo software on the eshop without the kit, or separately physically.

@ThanosReXXX Watching that video, I'm actually kind of dismayed to see the cardboard is not corrugated as I initially pictured it. It's just floppy paperboard of the sort disposable sandwich cartons are made from..... Even Paper Mario uses corrugated for most of its structures....how could they miss this in favor of even cheaper volumetric shipping and storage costs?

EDIT: On second viewing, maybe it is corrugated, just very very thin corrugated that doesn't show on camera well.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks. Actual did a little research of my own while you were posting - I can't be super lazy all the time - and came across a couple of interesting finds.

Nintendo presented Nintendo Labo yesterday in NYC to the media, Kotaku was there and they seem to be one of the major suppliers of information.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/220168/20180201/nintendo-switch-gamers-can-make-customized-nintendo-labo-creations-through-toy-con-garage-feature.htm

And as usual GameXplain did what they do. (Not sure if you got this one)

This might have been Day 1 now if it came out March 29 in time for spring break, but we'll pick it up in June for summer fun outside on the deck.

@NEStalgia Which of the three? And it could still be in beta form, so who knows what the final product might be like.

And in their defense: the guy in the second video is clearly expressing his surprise and stating how sturdy the builds are, so maybe he was initially thinking the same thing you were.

Perhaps we should wait and see how it handles itself once we get our own chance for a hands-on.

A very cool feature of Nintendo Labo to be sure.

@rjejr No, I didn't. Good one, though. GameXplain posted another one today, almost one hour long:

sigh do all the articles have to end with a question?
What do you think people?
Will you post a response to this article?

@ThanosReXXX Faux-VR served it's purpose well. I'm not a big 1st person guy so I would almost never ever use it myself, but it's a cool addition.

@NEStalgia Variety pack comes with a lot of different sheets of cardboard - don't see why people are still balking at the price, it's a LOT of cardboard scored and colored - and I wouldn't be surprised if it's of variable thickness. Some parts holding the Switch probably need to be more sturdy than primarily decorative parts.

So, what do you guys think, Switch Labo Edition, $199, no dock or Grip. Maybe just sell it to schools and camps to promote Labo? I don't see anywhere in the variety pack where the dock can be used even if you wanted to, the tablet is either in the cardboard or touchscreen. Robot does use the TV but it could work in tabletop, though it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. Nintendo may lose a few $ on each Switch that way but it would make it up in Labo sales, plus people who buy the peripherals later. And Labo Edition might fly in homes were video game consoles are frowned upon but STEM is allowed. Garage is STEM, it just it.

@ThanosReXXX I don't have an hour, but I'm sold now anyway so it wouldn't matter. So is video embedding the same as images just with some other letters instead of IMG? If its any more complicated than that it aint happening you big show off. 😉

@rjejr Video embedding goes as follows:

Square brackets, and in between them, type youtube, a colon, and then the video code, which is everything after the = sign.

So, for your video, that would be:
(remove spaces to make it a working link)
[ youtube : SKvz5HScrPg ]

I wish this had been around when I was a little kid. Programming my own cardboard robot would have been the highlight of my childhood.

> as long as you're able to provide the right cardboard parts, there's no limit to what could potentially make

And enough joycons too

Does this mean people can quit complaining that the software isn't worth the price?

@ThanosReXXX Thanks, but I'm going with too much work.

Does explain why in my email your videos show up as:

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube

@rjejr Too much work? You lazy bum...
It's less work than IMG, or any other text related code, since these all use "open" and "close" commands.

But I'll survive, I suppose.

In general, I just don't like having to move away from a page to watch a video, so that's why embedded videos are better. Some sites automatically let the link open a new window or tab, but others simply open the link in the same tab, which then needlessly forces me to reload the site page to be able to react to someone's comment.

Talk about work...

@rjejr Well, the robot kit requires the dock....so I'm not sure if for Labo they'd want to separate the dock.

As for "It's a lot of cardboard"....if you're seriously ok with $80 for a LOT of cardboard, you need to hang out behind a warehouse for a few hours and just loot (pretend it's an MMO IRL?) We're kind of sunk if we're down to the point where yuppies think ridiculous spending on a material that exists because it's so cheap it's nearly free. I like Labo. I like the concept of Labo. But the price for the contents is simply not right. Even if it's a $40 game, that's $40 of cardboard that costs at most $8 and that's a pretty big stretch. One can like the product while recognizing it as badly priced. For that money I want to see something durable that can last for continued fun, not disposable paperboard. The people that pay $8 for a cup of hot vaguely coffee flavored milk will have a field day with this though.

Everyone can only view it through their own lens. But as a kid I'd have been DEVASTATED with what is ultimately a disposable toy that costs so much it prevented me from getting other toys. I'd have wanted it, LOVED it, and then entered a spiral of depression when a corner bent. I'm grieving for my formerly innocent self. I reject the price of Labo for what you get.

@link3710 Hm, people quitting their deliciously anonymous online b****ing and moaning...

That'll be the day. Would probably be a more effective way to break the internet than anything that Kim Kardashian does...

Don't know about you, but I fear it's probably safe to say that we shouldn't hold our breaths for that.

I'm making my own full size car and vibrating to work every day!!

@NEStalgia I think you're viewing this the wrong way: the cardboard additions effectively make up around $15 - $20 of the price as a whole. The major part of that price is obviously for the software, which is a normal average price for a Switch cartridge.

I could of course name 1-2 Switch as a perfect example of a similar product, where you pay full price for mini games, but Labo certainly has the potential to be so much more, especially if you can add your own creations and if the programming tool is going to be organic, i.e. if it is going to receive expansions and/or updates.

And I'm not biased towards it, because it's not interesting for me personally, but I can STILL see the value in it, and it probably WILL sell like hot cakes.

@NEStalgia Additionally, the price of pre-printed and pre-cut cardboard is higher than you might think, and of course, the more extensive builds come with all kinds of other materials as well.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that it is cheap, but the price is warranted and can be explained in a logical manner.

@NEStalgia "if you're seriously ok with $80 for a LOT of cardboard"

If your seriously not ok w/ the price of Labo you need to get some kids in your life, sons, daughters, neices, nephews. I do think the $80 for the robot is a bit much, unless the game is really good w/ multiplayer online, but $70 for the 5 kit set is fine.

This isn't just cardboard you get out of a dumpster and you know that. IT's scored (whatever you want to call those little cuts that let you take it out easily) and it's color coordinated. And it was designed to nto only all fit together but also move, so it has to stand up to wear and tear.

Here are some plain cardboard box kids toys, squares, rectangles, cylinders, that don't do anything, they are just blocks. No software, no intricate designs, no Garage, just blocks.

$32 at Target and Amazon, $40 TRU, for 3 different colors

https://www.target.com/p/melissa-doug-174-jumbo-extra-thick-cardboard-building-blocks-40-blocks-in-3-sizes/-/A-10028827#lnk=sametab

$45 for Alex big colored blocks. $45 for only cardboard. 4 1/2 stars w/ 18 reviews from Amazon, not rip-off 3rd party

https://www.amazon.com/ALEX-Toys-Stack-Cardboard-Blocks/dp/B00RHGF9TM/ref=pd_sim_21_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00RHGF9TM&pd_rd_r=6YDYF9MP07D86JQTCSGB&pd_rd_w=wDhn0&pd_rd_wg=xgQma&psc=1&refRID=6YDYF9MP07D86JQTCSGB

$30 set at Toys R Us. For do nothing cardboard blocks.

https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=134850236

That's how much it costs in the real world for boring do nothing cardboard blocks for kids. Now add in that these are intricately designed and shaped, and functional, and come w/ video games, that $70 price for the variety set is more than justified. I'm still not happy w/ 1 robot being more than 5 kits, $80 does seem like a lot for that 1, but a regular video game costs $60, before the $30 or $40 season pass DLC, so if there's a full robot game in there worth $60, the cardboard and string is worth way more than $20. Considering all of the shovelware looking garbage on the eShop that routinely sells for $19.99 these days, the robot is at least worth $20 just b/c it transforms into a tank that shoots.

Now you can, and will, complain, that those cardboard kid toy blocks aren't worth $40, but that's how much they all sell for. My $60 Samsung Galaxy J3 Luna Pro thinks your $800 Samsung Galaxy is insane and nobody should ever ever pay more than $100 for a phone, but iPhone is a thing. That's how much kids cardboard toys cost, they just do.

@Spoony_Tech I don't know about your block, but those vibrations would never get me past the corner with all of the pot holes popping up around here the last few days. I barley got my kids to school this morning as it was. Would make a cool ride to get to my mailbox and back, but that's about it.

@rjejr What with the now added option to create your own builds in Labo, it would be really funny to see someone make these worthless Amazon cardboard gifts actually do something once you combine them with the JoyCon.

How STEM would that be?

@ThanosReXXX Keep it up on NES, we'll wear him down.

Oh, and look up. I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy.

That Imaginarium box at TRU has a STEM logo smack dab in the middle, in case you didn't notice. For do nothing cardboard blocks.

Here, I know how you hate links.

I already created a design in my head when Labo was first announced. Do you know Jenga, the tower block game? Build a tower of cardboard blocks, like those worthless ones on Amazon, and 1 person hides the Wiimotes, I mean Joycon, inside 2 of the boxes, then vibrates them. The other person has to look at the tower and guess which boxes they are in. That game would last about 5 minutes, but then kids, not you, I or NES, could build a tower and try to vibrate it down placing the blocks in different locations, top, middle, bottom.

Structural integrity is a big thing in schools, both my kids have had to build bridges out of balsa wood, and every children's museum on the East coast, I've pretty much been to them all, has a block set where you have to build an arch bridge. Simple enough to test out their strength by having 2 of the blocks have vibrating motors in them. I predict there will be a Jenga bridge building/testing Labo set, either official or home made.

@rjejr What an odd world where some folks have way too much money and too little sense. I need to think of a way to relieve them of their excess.... Maybe I can sell soup can craft kits for $90 each so their children aren't deprived of "creativity"

Video games and peripherals sure were expensive when I was a kid, and I did get quite a few. But I still have EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. Some have taken damage over the years due to weather disasters causing flooding and such, unfortunately. Still have the old bulk box legos from when legos were about creating rather than following blueprints and such as well. And they didn't cost fortunes. But I have all of them. Will todays kids still have their cardboard blocks a few decades from now?

And home appliances lasted 20-30 years.....not 8-10.

Yeah yeah, get off my lawn and all that. you know the drill better than most But still, the idea that there's value attached to disposable goods.....I will not. ever. find that acceptable no matter how it's rationalized.

Phones....well, if you're using it as a telephone I'd not pay more than $20 for todays phones. The old trimlines that still work and you can whack on the table and they're good as new any time they start fuzzing out? Those things are worth $150-250 easy. 30-50 year old phones still work better than brand new ones today. People today get "HD Voice" which still sounds pathetic next to the quality speakers and analog signals on the old stuff. But a minaturized computer for $800 that's more powerful than the old beige box for $1800? There's plenty of value than that. And it will certainly outlive $800 worth of Labo cardboard even if it's also technically disposable

For $20, think of all the craft materials you could get at Hobby Lobby etc.?

@ThanosReXXX Good point on 1-2 Switch. Though even $20 is kind of obscene for that cardboard....

And I never doubted it would sell like hotcakes. I'm positive it will! That's kind of depressing, but I know it will

@rjejr Hmm....Building a fort from cardboard is now "STEM".....I wonder....if I build a cardboard fort in the office....can I demand a raise for technology and engineering innovation?

@rjejr Didn't click on all the links, so I missed that STEM logo. But the picture was much appreciated...

As for wearing NES down: he's almost more stubborn than I am, and I'm a Taurus, so go figure...

EDIT:
And yes, I know Jenga. Friggin' annoying stuff. Like Sony, it'll never cross this doorstep...

@NEStalgia You're still seriously underestimating the cost of that pre-printed, pre-cut cardboard. And it's not just like a simple milk carton or house moving box either.

They're printed on two sides, and a lot of the pre-cuts are quite intricate.

In one of the earliest Labo articles, there was a guy who actually IS a printer, and he explained in quite a bit of detail what the manufacturing cost would be, and he also came to the conclusion that the price is warranted and that it's simply what it costs in today's world.

And when I say printing, I mean like REAL machine printing, not like that cheapskate computer-printed business card crap...

hmm, interesting.

@Yorumi I'm already thinking of ways of making little cardboard drones with motors potentially powered/activated by HD Rumble. Its nuts!

I mean I’m still my personally interested but this seems a bit cooler than the other Labo stuff shown so far, I’m all for educational fun for kids. They should’ve led with this one and then showed the more structured games afterwards IMO, I think any negativity would have been erased - coding is a popular (and useful) thing to teach kids, and this is much cheaper than some of the alternatives for them.

labo switch balance board

@NEStalgia "value attached to disposable goods"

Well you've already lost the plot right there, kids today don't' even know what "goods" are. Wanna play with blocks? Minecraft. Wanna play with water pistols? Splatoon. Wanna go to Disney World? Disney Magical World 1 & 2. Wanna watch a movie? Netflix. Wanna play a game? Download it digitally. Wanna interact w/ people? Facebook.

You're worried about how long durable goods last? Today's kids don't even know what durable goods are. Wanna drive your car to work? Call Uber. Wanna buy something? Bitcoin.

Durable goods. You're funny. The only durable good a kid needs these days is an $800 phone. And I'd hardly call anything that gets replaced every single year, maybe every other year if you're poor, durable. It's all disposable and deletable. Doesn't matter if it's made out of cardboard, wood, metal or kryptonite, it's going in the garbage in a year or two anyway. Every parent had to throw out all their stuff when they had their McMansions foreclosed on. 99% of kids are learning it's better to rent than own, it's all going in the garbage anyway. It's all disposable.

So I agree with you on all of that, but the price of cardboard has nothing to do with longevity, just what it's worth right now. There are some parents who will be happy it's cardboard, when the kids outgrow it in 3 months they can just put it in recycling rather than have it taking up space. When you're a parent kids toys take up space fast. Having this be Earth friendly bio-degradable cardboard will be a big selling point among the tree-hugging hippie parents, plastic gives you cancer. Cardboard isn't a bug, it's a feature.

@NEStalgia "can I demand a raise for technology and engineering innovation"

No, but if you pay to watch a video on how to build a block fort your job may reimburse you for the expense.

STEM = anything it wants to be

I'm hard pressed to come up w/ something that wouldn't qualify. Maybe sports, STEM was probably invented by parents who's kids weren't' athletic enough for sports. But anything else, I was even thinking of NSFW stuff but that's biology, biology is science, science is STEM, so even watching NSFW stuff is STEM. Even posting to NL is STEM b/c Thanos taught me how to embed a YT video, so technology.

@ThanosReXXX I think we can wear @NEStalgia down, I'll have him referring to Switch as a tablet any day now. Once the dockless Switch Labo Ed comes out it's a done deal. (And if they don't have a ND before April 20 they might as well b/c the upcoming games list is sorely lacking after Baynoetta, which I own, and Kirby, which we pre-ordered. Though SSB in September w/ the paid online seems very likely to me, just a matter of the announcement.)

Some more information would be appreciated, it feels like half the article hasn't loaded for me. No video, no photos,it's basically just telling us Nintendo unveiled it, the very basics of what it does and it's really cool.

@rjejr Your INTENTION is to convince me Labo is a good value.
Your RESULT will be mobilizing me on a crusade for the complete liquidation of the human race. Keep talking. The uranium isn't refined yet.

the problem isn't renting is better than owning. You're paying more and getting less, and you can't keep it when you can't afford renting it anymore. The problem is that when it comes to things like housing, what we've called "owning" for the past half century was actually just renting anyway. Ownership hasn't existed in that time.

You "Own" your house. Fine. Try not paying the rent (taxes) and see what happens. Or choose the wrong color flower pot and see what Tom Nook does do you with his HHA that would make Stalin cringe at crossing the line.

"When you're a parent kids toys take up space fast."
When you're a nerd, your own toys take up more space even faster. But you still want them to last I STILL have my 486DX!

" Having this be Earth friendly bio-degradable cardboard will be a big selling point among the tree-hugging hippie parents, plastic gives you cancer. Cardboard isn't a bug, it's a feature. "

Secretly, you're one of me after all When the ability to quickly and easily throw away the thing you just spent a lot of money on is a feature that encourages you to spend money on it, your civilization has already collapsed, you're just too stupid to notice. (I dare you to make that quote your sig )

STEM:
Wow, Senran Kagura is now STEM. Thanks, Internet!

@OorWullie Starting with comment #10, there are quite a few videos me and others have posted. Perhaps you can get these to load? In them, you see a pretty extensive hands-on, also concerning the user-interface and its possibilities.

@NEStalgia "convince me Labo is a good value"

Depends on what your definition of "is" is.

It's not so much about it being a "good value" - I'm as cheap as they come - as it being the standard rate for cardboard toys. I rarely think anything above $5 is a "good value", $70 for cardboard certainly isn't a "good value", but when a plastic Lego Millennium Falcon costs $500-$800, well it's all relative.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/31/16234244/lego-star-wars-millennium-falcon-set-7541-pieces-800-dollars

So do I think $70 or $80 is a good value for cardboard and software? No, not really good. But that's the going price for cardboard and software these days. I do think $70 for Toy-Con 1 (whatever it's called) is a better value than $50 Wii Play, even w/ the $40 Wiimote making the game $10, Wii Play is NOT good.

Dragonball FighterZ, a 2D fighting game like a gazillion games before it, half of those Dragonball, is $60, w/ a $35 season pass to get the fighters. That's $95 for 1 2D anime fighting game which you can download digitally as a license and own nothing at all.

$80 Project Giant Robot w/ Faux-VR flip visor isn't looking so bad now. Not a good value, a comparable one. Gaming is expensive. STEM is WAY expensive. Put them together it ain't gonna be cheap. Certainly not a good value, but that's the prices we pay.

I can get Rime on PS+ this month w/ my $40 (on sale) yearly fee, or just Rime on Switch on cart for $40 at Best Buy. Non-disposable cart isn't worth the Switch tax to me. I am really looking forward to playing it though, looks like fun downtime after H:ZD.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/rime-nintendo-switch/5803114.p?skuId=5803114&cmp=RMX&extStoreId=200&ref=212&loc=1&ksid=75658c6d-b3f1-b8c9-c305-00003fedd0fb&ksprof_id=15&ksaffcode=pg265119&ksdevice=c&lsft=ref:212,loc:2

@NEStalgia PS - The rest of your long comment was hysterical, I was crying.

I still have my 486DX as well. It was a 486SX when I bought it, probably paid $500 to upgrade to that DX for the co-processor or whatever it was missing. I KNOW I paid $175 for 4MB - megabytes - of RAM to go from 4MB-8MB. When I upgraded Win 3.1 to Win 95 on 25 floppy discs. I still have it all. That's why I have no room for kid toys. Kids toys are disposable, nostalgia is forever.

@NEStalgia Wow, you're really taking it to the next level here. No wonder you had to use so many smileys...

But on a more serious note: @rjejr really does have a good point. Today's kids have no recognition for real world durable goods, at least not like we (used to) do.

And digging your heels in the sand isn't really the best way to go about this, and I actually didn't really expect you to do that, but it seems you're not giving our input any thought, other than dismissing it in favor of your own, already made up, mind. No offense.

I obviously can't speak for @rjejr, but what I'm trying to tell you is that the cost for the packages really isn't too much. They're real world prices based upon manufacturing and what not, and it's not a case of Nintendo somehow making it extra expensive just for the hell of it.

As I've said before, this isn't interesting for me personally, so I would never buy this, but that doesn't mean that just because it isn't worth it for me, that it isn't worth it in general.

One should be able to detach one's own opinion from the facts. It's perfectly fine if YOU think it's too expensive (or too expensive for you), but that's by no means a fact.

@ThanosReXXX I did check them out cheers, much appreciated.The comment sections and forum have been a more informative source for news and info than NL itself lately.

@OorWullie loll haha. Agree

@rjejr Meanwhile, as I'm watching all these Labo videos, YouTube has somehow decided that because of that, I must more than likely also be interested in RC cars, because that's all I see in the column on the right of the actual videos...

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that algorithm is supposed to work, because for the life of me, I can't see the connection.

@Oorwullie You're welcome. And I kind of share the same sentiment, although not all the time. The annoyance that's most prevalent right now is that Thomas Whitehead's replacement has yet to post an article that doesn't contain any typo's. There's at least 3 to 4 in any article he writes and I find it highly distracting, and it keeps making me wonder who at NLife is responsible for proof-reading...

@ThanosReXXX Yep, I'm finding the amount of errors and typos lately really distracting too.So much so that I'm finding myself skimming through what's been written and going to the comments. It's something that never used to bother me as they were rare and were more often than not corrected after someone in the comments picked up on them. Lately though they are so common it would be more surprising if an article didn't contain any. It's not even limited to just the text within either, I've seen headline's and sub-headlines with errors too. To make it worse they are rarely ever fixed even after several members pointing them out. To me that's really poor and shows a lack of pride in one's work. If he can't be bothered to properly research what he's writing, proof reading it for grammatical errors and then ignoring the many comments that are pointing the errors out, why should I bother reading it!

This continues to just be really cool. The whole thing feels like Nintendo at their best.

@ThanosReXXX technically my criticism to rjejr isn't just limited to labo but the whole toy industry he describes where high prices for explicitly disposable goods is normal. And my rebuke on a consumer base that supports it stands.

And it's malarkey that kids don't appreciate the value of real world durable goods. Yuppie kids with parents with more money than parenting sense that probably true, but it's always been true. For everyone else, take away the toy or break it and see how much the kids value such things. They do. Because it's instinct to value something you are uncertain you can regain. That's as true at 5 as it is at 50. We're hard wired for it. Yeah rich kids know no matter what it is, mummy and daddsy will just buy more. But i doubt the toy industry survives only in affluent households.

When i was a kid i knew to value my possessions. Not because of some magic period of time where kids just were different, but because it was mine and i wanted it and knew if it were damaged i wouldn't have it. Find me any kid that doesn't think the same (spoiled wealthy kids excluded just like the past 5000 years )

@NEStalgia Where it concerns the durable goods, I can only agree to an extent, and you can't deny that the examples that @rjejr gave are all true as well, and in my own circle of family and friends I also have more than enough examples of the exact behavior that he describes.

But other people could have other experiences in their own direct environment, so let's just say that the actual truth is somewhere in the middle, so we can put an end to that part, because it wasn't the main point anyways.

As for those damn Labo prices (which is what I will call them from now on, since they seem to spark so much discontent, lol) that is still VERY debatable. The thing is, that you argue from feeling/sentiment/opinion or something similar, and we simply argue from how things are, with real world examples to boot, thanks to our friend @rjejr.

However, that does NOT mean we necessarily agree with those prices: we simply accept that it is the way it is, and besides that we acknowledge it as a widespread "phenomenon", NOT as a Nintendo-exclusive thing. Not saying that YOU are claiming that it is, but the general online consensus amongst the anti-Labo people, is that Nintendo is making it too expensive, and that just ain't true, for a fact.

So, it's not my opinion, it's just how it is, and if prices for similar products are priced relatively similar, then it is an actual thing, regardless of what we personally think or feel about it.

Blame economy, inflation, industries, suppliers, printers, whatever, but Nintendo also has to factor in all these costs, and still make a decent RRP with enough Return On Investment incorporated into it to actually make a profit off of it.

If cardboard constructs that do absolutely NOTHING can cost at least $30 at Amazon/Target/Toys 'R Us, then a game incorporating cardboard constructs in an interactive way can most definitely cost $70, in today's economy/world/game industry.

There's really no argument against facts, sorry.

On a completely off-topic side note: I hope you haven't let anyone convince you to enter the Bitcoin market, because the value is plummeting to the bottom of the financial sea faster than a Mafia victim with concrete boots...

@ThanosReXXX "really does have a good point."

Admit it, you hate that when it happens. +1 rjejr

"RC cars"

I think it's YT trying to tell you something for embedding all those videos, like go RC yourself, or take a long drive off of a shot peer or something.

@OorWullie You noticed it too huh? Glad you two discussed it, thought it was just me cause I'm a nut. A hypocritical nut at that b/c I can't type worth a crud.

It could be a pretty neat way to get kids interesting in programming and all the STEM things - on a beginners's level, of course. I don't see this keeping the kids attention if they want to move on to something a bit more complex.
I do think it is gonna be a hit among parents.

Who knew Labo would bring up such thought provoking discussion. Good on you Nintendo and good on everyone else as well. All valid points and opinions.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah I think you're more focused on the "Nintendo is overcharging" argument some others have, but like you said, that wasn't my point. My point is whether or not that's the actual cost to deliver it, whether or not that's the running price in the market, if that's the cost to produce deliver and turn a profit on it, it's the wrong material to be selling as toys full stop. I wouldn't recommend using toothpicks to build a real bridge, and I wouldn't recommend paperboard for toys. Both will be subjected to similar abuses. My broader issue is with a consumer market that is willing to accept the most disposable of disposable products for a high sticker price, regardless of whether that disposable product really does cost so much to produce. A $10 styrofoam cup wouldn't go over well. Actual stainless steel spoons as disposable woudln't go over well at $4 each. You can buy a $10,000 fabrige egg and hand it to a 3rd grader.....but it's probably not a good plan.

Not to say it won't sell....just saying it's a very discouraging reality that it likely will.

As for kids, though, nah, they'll value durable goods. rjejr's points are right to an extent but only to the extent that the kids haven't been subjected to actually losing an item that is theirs, and fully believe in the font of unlimitedness of digital services because none of them have been taken away yet. Heck tons of adults believe in that too...everyone believes the illusion until it fails them. But we still live in a material world (until they hardwire our brains to the NET and pattern us into the machines for immortality (and safe keeping by our overlords....Google's already been working on that utopia...) and sooner or later you have or want material possessions and the little animal instinct of (well earned) greed in our brains will become possessive of it. Be it a lego minifig, a $10 iTunes card, a Labo piano, a car, a girl/boy, a private jet.....whatever it is....the kid will get it eventually and not want it to be taken away. Kids get it. The one's that don't just haven't had the experience of needing to get it yet. But when they do they will. We're not quite Soviet re-educated yet to believe in "sharing for the good of all workers" is a thing (yet.)

Heck, maybe if nothing else, Labo will be the thing that teaches kids that in the event their feckless parents neglected that important lesson. Unlike their F2P iPad apps, they really can (and rapidly will!) lose their cardboard toy. And their hearts will blacken into the shriveled, merciless void that the three of us embrace, and our plan shall be fulfilled.

Bitcoin: Yeah....50% crash in a week I believe? Makes 1929 look bullish.

@NEStalgia Dude i get totally what you mean and i 100% agree with you about all this, which is why i am going to say, just stop and let them learn for themselves.

In a year we wont be hearing about this Labo rubbish anymore and we'll be moving on, me and you will be proven right and those who actually thought this would work will forget all about their arguments as realization that the product is rubbish sets in, and all memory that it could have worked starts to fade, some will even forget that they defended it.

Just give it time bro, no use in flogging a dead horse, just wait for the race to start and everyone will see its dead.

@rjejr "Admit it, you hate it when that happens"

Nah, I can survive the odd occurrence of that happening, so you're welcome to that +1...

As for the connection between Labo and RC cars, I came up with another idea, because of most of those videos being about excavators and trucks: what if it's a hint that Labo 2.0 is Nintendo letting you build with sand and dirt?

After all, various forms of (digitally) interactive sand already exist:

@NEStalgia "My point is whether or not that's the actual cost to deliver it, whether or not that's the running price in the market, if that's the cost to produce deliver and turn a profit on it, it's the wrong material to be selling as toys full stop. I wouldn't recommend using toothpicks to build a real bridge.. "

Answers: yes it is the actual cost or very close to it, yes it is the running price (as it is comparable to similar articles as shown by @rjejr), and it's probably also the cost to produce, deliver and turn a profit on it, seeing as you also have to take the software (no matter how simple that may be, although that remains to be seen, as it could be more elaborate than we have seen so far) and so on into account, and like I said: that double-sided printing and pre-cutting really isn't as cheap as so many people think.

Besides the actual printing/pre-cutting, there's also machine costs, man-hours and production line costs to factor in, and all of these together plus the profit margin make up for the price.

And I can't stress enough that I'm trying to look at this from an objective point of view, not as someone who likes this and would buy it, 'cause I would not. Personally, I definitely agree that a lot of stuff, toys included, is VERY expensive nowadays and/or arguably not very kid-friendly, but that's my own opinion, and I'm trying to look past that, to determine whether or not this product is priced correctly in today's economy, REGARDLESS of any personal sentiment, and the answer is that it simply is.

And you'd be surprised what they could build from toothpicks or other "wrong" material. Some crazy geeks built this from ice cream sticks:

Toothpicks still have some way to go, but some pretty intricate scale models are already a thing, so sounds just about right for a new Labo project...

@rjejr Hah, I like the Jenga idea. Simple but effective.

@ThanosReXXX @NEStalgia @rjejr
I think the cardboard has risk mitigation, first manufacturing deals, and hopes for a good profit margin built into it, too. The costs are probably smaller than I was originally guessing, I had that commenter who knew something cardboard to pump up my guesstimates.

All that said, the detailed "scrubbable" instructions, and the completely new team and skills at use to design these cardboard structures alone boost the R&D budget, too.

Nintendo likes profits margins, and this thing is going to tap into STEM even more than I originally thought with the Garage thing. I was sold before that and now I'm personally excited to get that next-level stuff going after the initial toys are built and played with.

My son never asks for anything for his birthday and I don't talk about this with him at all since the initial reveal. He has asked for it three times.

It's a bit pricey, but reasonable in the market, and so, so Nintendo.

Now that's where the true potential of Labo lies!
I was hoping for something like this from the start, but didn't think Nintendo had the vision to come up with it.
This is awesome!

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for sharing those videos! Didn't know about this, but it would truly add something special to something that is already magical. I loved building stuff with sand when I was a child.

@shani No problem, you're welcome.

@NEStalgia
Ugh...
Some of Kids nowadays lack of their awareness about their possession.
I frequently found some of my students easily to lost their things, easily to make a mess with trash & papers, clumsy in doing something with result some damages, forget their belongings even i have asked.
Well, most of my students are from rich families with lack of discipline in keep their possessions.
But, don't worry.
We can teach nowadays kids like we were during 80's & 90's.
Kids in the past still have their awareness more than nowadays kids.

@Anti-Matter while true, i think that's ALWAYS been true for rich kids... Nothing new there with today's kids. I think the kids that aren't wealthy may have a little more taste of that with digital goods, but i still think people (adults) underestimate their real appreciation of their goods... the moment they're told they can't have another they certainly know its value, no special teaching required.

@ThanosReXXX 90 would be a bargain for sand. The sand will Outlast the entirety of human existence. Nothing but diamonds are a more durable good. Nothing is more kid proof.

As for labo my rebuke isn't labo specific but with the disposable toys sold to guilt tripped wealthy parents that apparently has become an industry. That includes but it's not limited to labo. It includes if not centered on "stem" which has now been appropriated as a marketing instrument to appeal to said parents guilt. Youre the marketing guy. You must see it and it's shameful application.

Placing myself in kids shoes.... The idea that your toys if which are now increasingly expensive and thus scarcely obtained in contrast to past generations, the idea they are disposable largely to appeal to the cash dispensary of said parents while removing a second hand market would be crushing in it's limitations. You don't have to be that age to realize the effect it would have if you were. Or were the parent that can't keep replacing them. It smacks of a caste status reinforcement tool as we journey ever more back into a feudal system, confirmed every time bezos and friends bother to speak.

@NEStalgia Can't really comment on the pros or cons of being a guilt tripped parent, let alone a rich one.

@rjejr's got the whole parenting thing down, or at least going on, so he'd be a better choice to comment on that.

And personally, I wasn't even aware of the whole STEM thing, until rjejr pointed it out to me. But having said that, I don't see any guilt-tripping, just smart marketing and an attempt at offering something innovative, that is SO Nintendo. No other company could have come up with this, and regardless of its disposable and/or fragile nature, it looks like a brilliant move to me, not a nefarious one.

And tech, no matter in what form, is now far more prevalent in education than back when we were in school. Electronic white boards, tablets instead of paper notebooks, more computer classes in a week than I ever had in my entire school life, and so on. So, it's also a skewed comparison in that way, which might also influence how we, as "STEM-deprived" ex-students, might possibly look at it or feel about it.

And for the kids it isn't increasingly expensive at all, since they've grown up in this economy, so they don't know any better than these prices to be normal. They never experienced being able to buy stuff to eat, drink or use for less than a dollar, like we did.

So, the "trouble"/burden of those thoughts mostly lies with the parents, although that is also debatable, since not all of them think alike or worry about the same stuff. @aaronsullivan certainly doesn't seem to be as bothered by it, from what I can gather from his comments...

if it comes with a switch bundle will considered it

@aaronsullivan @NEStalgia @ThanosReXXX A few quick things before the game.

I came across the word perforated in a Verge article about Labo so I'm sticking with that.

These sets will almost certainly cost more to ship than Switch cart boxes so that could be adding a bit to the price, cardboard can get heavy and those boxes are a bit larger than video games. Not a lot, but it may be why they are $69 & $79 rather than $59 & $69 b/c of the extra cost of getting a lot of these shipped for the release date.

I'm going to eat and watch the game now, I was out all day yesterday at another bar Mitzvah and at night for a friend's birthday so I'm still recuperating and a bit more behind than normal.

@rjejr No stress, you just relax and enjoy the game. I'll await your back to front reactions, and I'll see them when you find the time, as usual...