Open any toy closet and you'll find them. Building blocks from your childhood or your children's childhood. Be they Lego, Duplo, Mindstorms, Erector, Tinker Toys, or Capsela, they are a staple of creative building that never age. They just might go into hibernation as other things come along (like dating, working, cooking, life). But they are there waiting for discovery!

This project takes some of those boxes out of the closet to get a new makeover with Adafruit Circuit Playground Express and Crickit, the new Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit.

It turns out that it is SUPER easy to interface Crickit to the motors that come with Capsela kits. Time to build some of those kits and see how Crickit gives them a breath of fresh air.

Capsela, a blast from the past!

Capsela is a toy construction set that provided a generation of kids (and future engineers) a motorized and pool friendly building set. From the mid-1980s through the early nineties, to even today you can find Capsela toys available with a bit of hunting. 

Capsela consists of gears and motors in spherical plastic capsules that can be connected to form various toys suitable for land or water. The capsules typically have six hollow octagonal connectors and sleeve pieces bridge two capsules. The connection pegs on a capsule can have electrical or rotary adapters inside, reaching into the next capsule.

There are electric motor capsules, gear capsules, switch capsules, pontoon capsules, and others; there are also battery holders, wheels, propellers, impellers, lights, wires, and miscellaneous supporting pieces.

Best of all, the motorized, mechanical capabilities mesh perfectly with automation today with Crickit!

And nothing says you cannot use some modern tricks, like including some NeoPixel RGB lights or other bling.

Go check out your attic or basement, and follow along to breathe life into your dusty old toys

Wait...what's Crickit?

I'm glad you asked! We have a guide all about our Creative Robotics KIT that has tons of details, getting started info and walkthroughs. Click the button to check it out and/or refer to it as you read thru this guide