Nintendo has just launched their third kit – Toy-Con Vehicle Kit in its Labo series of cardboard constructions for Switch, which is now available to buy from good retailers and online. This kit contains materials to build a variety of customisable cardboard creations including a Car, a Submarine, a Plane, a Pedal, two Keys and Spray Can.
This is another innovative kit cleverly designed to educate while entertaining the children with fun activities/games. They also improve children’s knowledge and understanding of a wide range of topics like STEM. By assembling sheets of cardboard into a variety of shapes called Toy-Con, and combining them with the Nintendo Switch console you can bring them to life!
Now you must be wondering, what is exactly inside this Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 03: Vehicle Kit? Check out Mr K’s video to see what is inside the box and his thoughts about this!
The format of this kit is nothing different from their Variety Kit and Robot Kit. It comes with all you need to materials you need to build all the Toy-Cons and also the all-important software to play with it. However, bear in mind that each build can take at least 30 minutes. Children do get quite excited to play the game rather than taking the time to get everything built first. Patience is the key to success. For this kit, I would suggest that you have everything built up so that you can fully appreciate the game by being able to swap vehicles in while adventuring through the game.
Inside this kit, there are lots of cardboard sheets that are reminiscent of the quality of a takeaway pizza box. It’s quite thin but feels durable. You do have to be quite careful pressing the pieces out the frame and during construction. Each individual cardboard sheet is coloured coded and labelled so you can’t go wrong with that. Follow the video instructions carefully and go back anytime you need to. Best of all, you can even decorate the pieces of cardboard easily with paints or even stickers.
First, you have to make the key (15-30 minutes) and pedal (60-90 minutes). If anything should happen to your key cover and it is ruined, there is a spare cardboard sheet to make a new one. As for the rest of the Toy-Cons, there aren’t any spares to remake these. They did include an extra cardboard sheet to help you start decorating and inventing.
Children tend to want to make the most complicated constructions first and suddenly lose interest because of the lengthy steps. So do note that individual vehicles will take a long time to build. Mr K is the right age to have the required patience and concentration to go through each step by watching the video, while Ms C is not into that.
The Car which will take 150-210 minutes to make, whilst the Submarine takes about 60-120 minutes and the Plane is about 30 – 60 minutes. It took us practically a whole day to make them all!
In the Play sections, you can explore a mysterious world, take part in a rally, battle against another player and many more. Simply insert the key into the vehicle and you are ready to play. Also not forgetting your pedal!
Each vehicle features its own controls and special moves and, with the second key, players can even invite a co-pilot along on their in-game journey. Changing between vehicles is so easy too. By simply removing the key from one vehicle and slotting it into another, you can transform from an airplane pilot to a submarine captain.
Aside from the novelty of building their own toys, what else does Nintendo Labo have to offer for your children? Well, Labo can be used as an educational tool and it comes packaged with lots of software and information. The Discover part of the software explains exactly how it all works, covering everything from the moving parts of the cardboard to the infrared on the controllers. Customise controls to play with two players without using the Toy-Con.
Once your child has dug around the Discover section and started to understand how it works, they can even program their own uses for their cardboard constructions with the simple Toy-Con Garage software. This will really let them run wild with their imagination while also developing a valuable understanding of how to use programming and engineering. Once your child has got to grips with this, there is almost no end to what they can build and do with the software and their own custom parts. That all sounds pretty good to me!
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has a Nintendo Switch. It is such a unique way to have fun and play! It is available to buy now from good retailers, Amazon and online. For more information, please visit https://store.nintendo.co.uk/nintendo-labo.list
Here are the links to buy from Amazon:
Disclosure: We are part of the Nintendo Family Blogger Network. We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. We have included Amazon affiliate links to the products. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission.