Nintendo showed off their 100+ year history as an innovative toy company today with the announcement of Nintendo Labo. Nintendo Labo are cardboard DIY kits that allow you to build interactive toys brought to life with the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Labo is launching April 20.
“Nintendo Labo continues our longstanding mission of making people smile by surprising them with new experiences,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s President and COO. “It is an exciting evolution of the Nintendo Switch platform – one designed to inspire curiosity, creativity and imagination in people of all ages.”
Each Nintendo Labo kit will come with modular sheets of cardboard and instructions to build one or several cardboard toys, which Nintendo is dubbing Toy-Con. Each creation comes with places to insert the Nintendo Switch screen and Joy-Con to bring the creations to life. For example, build the handlebars to a bike and insert the Joy-Con on either side to race around on the screen. Or build a fully functional 13-key piano out of the cardboard kit and use the built-in IR Motion Camera of the Joy-Con to produce real notes.
Nintendo Labo will launch with two kits: a Variety Kit and a Robot Kit. The Variety Kit will include two Toy-Con RC Cars, a Toy-Con fishing Rod, a Toy-Con House, a Toy-Con Motorbike, and a Toy-Con Piano. The Robot Kit will include an interactive robot suit with backpack, visor, and straps, letting you take control of an in-game robot. The Variety Kit has an MSRP of $69.99 with the Robot Kit retailing for $79.99. An add-on Customization Kit that includes stencils, stickers, and colored tape will be sold for $9.99.
Nintendo Labo launches on April 20. Nintendo Switch sold separately.
