While kids can build decent forts with a few pillows, blankets, and shoe boxes, they won’t usually make for the strongest structures. Buildies, a set of cardboard construction objects, offers an alternative that doesn’t only make for a sturdier stockade, they can help teach kids basic architecture and engineering concepts, too.
Using an interlocking system of bricks, roofing panels, and structural reinforcements, children can build forts that look like real fortification. No soft pillows, flimsy curtains, and easily-crushed boxes — your little critters can turn any corner of the house into a defensive stronghold worthy of an all-out Nerf war.
Buildies consists of blocks, roof panels, mortar pieces, and block plugs. Each set is shipped as flatpacked, so you’ll probably have to help the kids insert all the interlocking connectors on the blocks and roof panels, which turns each of them into oversized LEGO-like construction bricks. The blocks allow kids to put up walls for their stockade, while the roof gives them ample protection from drone attacks. Cardboard mortars provide the necessary stability, so the fort doesn’t end up crumbling on its occupants as soon as a dog wanders recklessly by.
Granted, the design of the pieces (especially the roof) don’t really lend themselves to LEGO-levels of creative construction (for the most part, you’ll be limited to the standard design if you want to ensure a sturdy structure). With kids’ imagination, though, we have a feeling they’ll find organic ways to hack this into wilder creations.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for Buildies. Pledges to reserve a kit starts at $25.