The other day my ten-year-old told me that he doesn’t like "toys with batteries". Which is tough to hear for the editor of Wired. When I probed a bit, he explained that the problem with battery-powered toys is that they so often don’t work, especially when they’ve been sitting at the bottom of the toy box for a few months. In other words, it was the uncertainty, not the batteries, that he didn’t like. Whew.
So I was especially glad to see news of a new company that’s focused on electronic toys that you recharge with a hand crank.
"I wasn’t trying to be trendy [said company founder Sun Yu]. I looked at my product line one day and thought about how nice it would be to not have to replace and purchase batteries. The product I wanted to make just fit into the times."
None of the toys look like must-haves yet, but the idea is a great one. More!
