Automoblox

Automoblox is a brand name of an educational wooden car construction toy designed by Patrick Calello and produced by Automoblox Company, LLC of Roseland, New Jersey. The toy consists of wooden car body sections with patented plastic interconnects, polycarbonate wheels and rubber tyres, plastic passengers and polycarbonate screens. Each car can be disassembled into its component parts and re-assembled, parts from different cars can be combined to allow children to design their own models.

Originally developed in 2003 the wood used in the Automoblox range was Canadian Maple, for the 2005 range the wood was changed to European Birch.

The cars encourage open ended play and incorporate educational features to develop key skills in younger children.

Automoblox have won several awards including an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum award. [http://www.toyportfolio.com/Preschool/ChapterSubChapter.asp?Chapter=Toys:%20Preschool:%20Three%20and%20Four%20Year%20Olds&SubChapter=Vehicles]

There are sites in the UK and USA which use the Automoblox range to demonstrate modern car assembly techniques to children.

The original range consisted of three models, the C9 Sports Coupe, the T9 Pickup Truck and the S9 Sedan (or Saloon). The range was extended in 2005 to include the X9 SUV, the A9 Compact and the M9 Sportsvan. In 2006 a special edition of the C9 Coupe was produced - the C9p Pink Coupe.

The Automoblox Range

The original range consisted of three models, the C9 Sports Coupe, the T9 Pickup Truck and the S9 Sedan (or Saloon). The range was extended in 2005 to include the X9 SUV, the A9 Compact and the M9 Sportsvan. In 2006 a special edition of the C9 Coupe was produced - the C9p Pink Coupe.

For each model fitting such as the tyres, polycarbonate screens and passengers are colour coded as follows:

C9 Coupe - Red,T9 Pickup - Green,S9 Sedan - Blue,X9 Suv - Purple, M9 Sportsvan - Aqua,A9 Compact - Orange,

Educational Features

The cars are designed to encourage children to disassemble and reassemble them which helps develop fine motor skills. The patented body connectors have different shapes for each model and the passengers in each car have specifically shaped bases which lock into matching sockets in the car to encourage shape recognition and matching. The colour coding of each car encourages colour recognition and matching. The ability to combine parts from different cars encourages goal oriented play and open ended problem solving.

External links

* [http://www.automoblox.com/ Official Automoblox Wooden Car website]
* [http://www.calellodesign.com/ Calello Design Associates]