Joinks Toy

Independently developed toy design, inspired by watching my young son take apart a rubber spatula.  While too young for Legos, he could easily reassemble the spatula because of the flexibility of the silicone.  Plus, it made a good ‘pop’ sound when pulled apart. The set was designed and prototyped with local school children, then launched on Kickstarter in 2014.  Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the toy was renamed Joinks and licensed to Fat Brain Toys and has been sold around the world ever since.

The toy was designed to be easy to build with.  This has made it popular with Occupational Therapists, who find it useful for building dexterity and finger strength. Also, the design has loads of math principles embedded in it, with the intention of ‘accidental’ learning, where a child may not know they are building a Dodecahedron, or that the stick lengths follow the Fibonacci Sequence, but they are learning geometry through play. 

In 2015, when first released, Joinks was recognized as one of the Top 10 Educational Toys by the Goddard School (tested by preschoolers), one of the Best Toys for Kids by ASTRA, and was published in Wired Magazine (Design Life issue).