At TinkerToys, children can create their own personal favorite toy. The TinkerToys team has developed child-friendly design software that allows children of primary school age and above to playfully design their own models on screen. These self-designed models are then produced using 3D printing from an environmentally friendly bioplastic.
Sebastian Schröder, Sebastian Friedrich and Dr. Marko Jakob came up with the idea for TinkerToys. The founding team had previously met at one of Germany's leading innovation service providers. The common drive: to show children what potential they have.
Children can design their own individual toys online - from the comfort of their own home, directly in their browser or via a tablet app - and order them with the help of their parents. The ordered toys are printed out and sent to the children.
Children also have the opportunity to visit one of the two TinkerToys stores in Leipzig or Magdeburg to take part in 3D printing courses or organize birthday parties.
TinkerToys also offers the CAD software for schools as a license model under the TinkerSchool brand. This gives schools the opportunity to implement digital learning in a practical way. Lessons can be made more interactive and interdisciplinary by using the CAD software to visualize geometry lessons, for example, and make them tangible. This makes playful, digital learning a reality. The possible applications in lessons are very diverse and range from mathematics, technology and biology to art.
"We firmly believe that we are building a bridge between the analog and digital worlds with our software and thus strengthening pupils' digital skills: they experience that the Internet offers more possibilities than just watching videos or chatting," says founder Marko Jakob.
TinkerToys is not only a start-up that we support, but is now also a close partner in our innovation ecosystem, particularly in the areas of 3D printing and the digitalization of education.
