Bloxels
© 2016 Mattel, Inc.
Bloxels is an innovative building system that combines a free app with a physical building board. The "pixels" are 320 small colored cubes, that you can put into a 13 by 13 grid, to be scanned and imported into a side scrolling video game. After you design an object, you use an app to scan your work, and put it in an app. You can download the free app, called Bloxels Builder on your tablet. In the box: 320 blocks and a 13 x 13 gameboard. Our tester noted that placing the blocks in the game board becomes tedious, and there is a faster (but less concrete) design feature build into the app, with more color options. Also the scanning can be a bit clumsy. But the basic concept helps illustrate how grids of pixels work. Designed by Pixel Press for Mattel.
$50, iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle
Teaches: creativity, coding, video games
CTR Rating: 86%