Fort Magic: rod-and-connector system for building elaborate fabric forts

Fort Magic is a kit for building fabric forts; Tinkertoy-like connectors and rods are combined to make a frame that you can stretch blankets over to make elaborate, cool, fun play-forts -- teepees, airplanes, castles, etc.

Fort Magic (autoplays sound, argh) (Thanks, JahFurry!)

• [Nagurski]

  Have homes suddenly become devoid of furniture for fort frames?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Have homes suddenly become devoid of furniture for fort frames?

    Why play with Legoes when you can just stack rocks and dried cat poo?

    • [Nagurski]

      How witty. You’re a real wag!

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Actually, I agree with you. The kids will probably just play with the box that they came in. But…growth! How can we have economic growth if people use what they already have?

• [bunaen]

  I cut up lengths of 3/4″ PVC pipe and bought a bunch of T’s, Y’s, X’s, caps and couplers for the kids to make forts (and monorails, towers, etc.).

  You have to cut different but coordinated lengths of pipe (this was an ongoing ad-hoc process) so they go together into complete structures.

  It was moderately successful.  The lack of kiddie scaffolding was a problem as the kids always wanted to build “up”.

  • [jackbird]

    Wanna share the lengths your ad-hoc process finally optimized at?

    • [EH]

      I’d say 16″ at a minimum.

• [waetherman]

  Also provides temporary housing for the whole family when the bank forecloses on your main home.

  • [MrRocking]

    #occupy… somewhere.

    • [digi_owl]

      …else.

• [LightningRose]

  Much cooler than the recently posted card table log cabin.

  http://boingboing.net/2011/12/05/giant-plastic-log-cabin-ad-19.html

• [MrRocking]

  Nah.. I’ll wait for it to turn up on the HDSLR market as a Multi-purpose Light Tent Kit at 4x the cost.

• [Matt Palenske]

  This will be perfect for when that unknown planet starts barreling towards earth at 600,000 mph! 

  • [Paul232]

    Planet is called “Melancholia.” Oh, you knew that.

• [Joseph Francis]

  Sounds a bit like Dean Collins’s old Tinker Tubes concept for building cheap photographic light diffusers.

  https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=tinkertubes

• [Michael W.]

  This will be perfect for when the kids want to play Game of Thrones. 

  “Mom, Billy keeps banishing me from King’s Landing and said I smell like a Dothraki horse lord.”

• [s2redux]

  Hmm…wonder if the adults know that the kids know the lyrics…

  Slay him! The Christian’s son has bewitched
  The Mountain King’s fairest daughter!
  Slay him!
  Slay him!

  May I hack him on the fingers?
  May I tug him by the hair?
  Hu, hey, let me bite him in the haunches!
  Shall he be boiled into broth and bree to me
  Shall he roast on a spit or be browned in a stewpan?

  Ice to your blood, friends!

  • [LightningRose]

    I’ve always known the lyrics as:
    Sneaking on my sneaky feet, sneaky feet, sneaky feet.
    Sneaking on my sneaky feet, everywhere I go…

• [A J]

  I’ve designed and printed a few 3d printable connectors for 0.5″ PVC pipe – you can make your own wendy house with my instructions or design and build your own construction.  I’ll be adding new connectors/joints as I test them.

  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13073

• [Daniel Morgan]

  This looks like an overpriced set of pvc pipe.

  MakeDo does this way better. 
  http://mymakedo.com/ 

• [parrotboy]

  Someone gave our 5 year old a set of those things.  They work fine, as long as nobody touches them, rests any weight on them or otherwise causes them to fall down.  Looking at them seems to work.

  In other words, neat idea, if your kids are robots who don`t actually play with them.  Now the stick things are mostly just swords, and the balls are just annoying.

  • [girlygirl]

    I think you are confusing Fort Magic with Crazy Forts.  Fort Magic is 100% sturdy and super well made.  And if you notice, in the videos the kids are actually picking up the forts and moving them.  They cover them with fabric and crawl all though them.  Fort Magic is way awesome! My sons love their Fort Magic. 

• [drukqs]

  Some Occupy protesters ought to get their hands on this technology for some sort of mind-asploding self-referential irony. Of course, it wouldn’t not be complete without a boombox blaring Grieg’s  In the Hall of the Mountain King with an awkward edit at 0:35.

• [hexwench]

  It was great watching this, muted, with Marnie Stern’s “For Ash” playing. Kids building, accompanied by guitar shredding!

• [Franklin]

  Really? They used “In The Hall of the Mountain King” as their theme? Has nobody here seen “M,” the 1931 film about a child murderer who whistles that as his theme song?

  And if you really haven’t seen M, go see it. It’s terrific.

  • [Alex Young]

    I like to believe this was an intentional reference, and hilarious. And yes, M is a *fantastic* film.

• [Ben Kadie]

  Here are some other large-scale building sets we’ve owned or played with (search for them):
  “Quadros Building Sets” – strong enough to climb on
  “Fisher Price Fantastix” – Thick soft tubes (discontinued)
  “Giant Tinker Toys” (discontinued)
  Others (never played with):
  TOOBEEZ
  Roylco Straws and Connectors (light weight, but cheap)

• [digi_owl]

  I give those parts a week before they break from some kid putting too much weight on them or something.

• [Alissa Mower Clough]

  Bring back The Toy from the Eames, I say! Enough of these cheap imitations.