The Free Universal Construction Kit is a matrix of nearly 80 adapter bricks that enable complete interoperability between ten popular children’s construction toys. By allowing any piece to join to any other, the Kit encourages totally new forms of connection between otherwise closed systems—enabling radically hybrid constructive play, the creation of previously impossible designs, and ultimately, more creative opportunities for kids. The Kit offers adapters between Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik, Gears! Gears! Gears!, K’Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks), Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Zome, and Zoob. The adapters can be freely downloaded as 3D models in .STL format, suitable for reproduction by 3D printers.

Our kids are already doing it! And when we were growing up, ourselves, we did it too—or we tried to, anyway. Connecting our toys together. Because: what if we want to make a construction which is half-Tinkertoys, half-K’Nex? Why shouldn’t we be able to? We dreamed about this possibility years ago, when we were small, and we knew then, as we know now, that we’d need some adapters to help. The advent of low-cost 3D printing has made such adapters possible, and with it, a vast new set of combinatorial possibilities for children’s creative construction toys.

Opening doors to new creative worlds is one major reason we created the Free Universal Construction Kit. Another is that we believe expertise shouldn’t be disposable — and that childrens’ hard-won creative fluency with their toys shouldn’t become obsolete each Christmas. By allowing different toy systems to work together, the Free Universal Construction Kit makes possible new forms of “forward compatibility”, extending the value of these systems across the life of a child. Thus, with the Kit’s adapters, playsets like Krinkles (often enjoyed by toddlers) can still retain their use-value for older children using Lego, and even teenagers using Zome.

Prior to extensive 3D modeling, the dimensions of the various toy connectors were reverse-engineered with an Optical Comparator fitted with a digital read-out accurate to less than one ten-thousandth of an inch (0.0001in., or 2.54 microns). The resulting precision ensures that the Free Universal Construction Kit actually works and provides the sensory feedback of hearing clicks and feeling the toys snap into place. Exposing the concepts of remixing and hybridization, reverse engineering, and rapid prototyping were extremely important to us. We found that children's toys were a great channel to discuss intellectual property, patent law, and 3D printing.

In producing the Free Universal Construction Kit, we hope to demonstrate a model of reverse engineering as a civic activity: a creative process in which anyone can develop the necessary pieces to bridge the limitations presented by mass-produced commercial artifacts. We hope that the Kit will not only prompt people to create new designs, but more importantly, to reflect on our relationship with material mass-culture—and the rapidly-evolving ways in which we can better adapt it to our imaginations.

The Free Universal Construction Kit 3D models are freely available in .STL format from three locations: 1.Individual adapters from the Free Universal Construction Kit may be downloaded from Thingiverse.com — the world’s foremost website dedicated to the free sharing and remixing of user-created digital design files. 2.The complete Free Universal Construction Kit can also be downloaded in its entirety*, as a 29MB .zip archive from the F.A.T. Lab web site. 3.We expect the Kit to be available shortly from The Pirate Bay, as a torrent in TPB’s new "physibles" (physical downloadables) channel. In addition to sharing the physical kit, we find it equally important to share our experiences and knowledge gained about Patent law, reverse engineering, and the current state of 3D printing technology for the benefit of everyone.