The Capsela Motorized Construction Set – Then and Now
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. 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.
The original company exporting Calsela to the world was the Mitsubishi Pencil Company, Ltd. (now famous for their Uniball pens). They licensed the product for export to a number of companies over the years. Tracking down all the licensees is a bit byzantine, here are the known ones:
- Play-Jour Hong Kong, distributed by Sanyei Amerca Corp. Secaucus, NJ
- VTech
- Kidology
- Educational Insights
In the 2000s, Vtech appears to have worked to brand some kits with Scholastic (of school book fame) and distributed via Toys”R”Us.
Today, you can buy kits under the IQ Key brand which is essentially Capsela with hexagonal pods. This is distributed via Unitrust Development Do. Ltd. in South Korea.
Today, Capsela seems highly hackable with microcontrollers. The motors are 1.5 and 3 volt with a current of about 130 ma at 3 volts.
What are your experiences and memories with Capsela? Post in the comments below!
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