NEW PRODUCTS – GAKKEN (PART 3) – The Pinhole Planetarium Kit / Edo-Style Clock Kit / AKARI Origami LED Lamp Shade Kit / Desktop Robot Cleaner Kit
Gakken is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1946. In the 1970s, they began selling educational toys, books, magazines, and electronic kits. Their kits are known for their smart design and relative ease of use and have a large cult following both in Japan and the United States.
Check out all of our new Gakken products here!
Decorate your walls with 10,000 bright stars with this Pinhole Planetarium Kit from Gakken’s series of Science for Adults kits! The Pinhole Planetarium uses a small light bulb and a micro-perforated dodecahedron to cast the stars, galaxies, and constellations of the northern hemisphere onto your walls. The stellar globe can be set to project the northern hemisphere night sky for any location, date, or time.
The planetarium was designed using records from JAXA, a Japanese space and aviation research institute, and Takayuki Ohira who created the Megastar planetarium, to ensure high accuracy and a comprehensive collection of cosmic bodies. Both kids and adults love seeing their rooms, living rooms, or offices covered in stars and the pin hole planetarium also adds a level of accuracy that makes it interesting and unique.
In stock and shipping now!
Experience a favorite feudal Japanese time-piece by building your own beautiful dual-foliot, Edo-period Japanese mechanical clock!
Edo-period Japanese clocks were unique mechanical clocks that adapted Western clock-making techniques to tell traditional Japanese time. This kit from Gakken has two foliots – one for the day hours and one for the night hours. The front and rear foliots switch between 6 AM and 6 PM automatically.
A foliot is part of the Verge escapement of early clocks. Even if you’re not a clock expert or enthusiast, this kit is fairly easy to build and should only take an hour or so.
In stock and shipping now!
AKARI Origami LED Lamp Shade Kit
Delve into the traditional Japanese art of origami and produce softly lit origami paper. You can make a lampshade using either a square-folded shade or a polygonal shape and then switch between different color lights! Each of the three LED colors can be dimmed individually or set to auto-fade.
The concept and design of the AKARI Origami came about from a collaboration between Japanese artist Hiroyuki Moriwaki and the origami designer Miyuki Kawamura.
In stock and shipping now!
Desktop Robot Cleaner Kit
Ever wish you were a member of The Jetsons? While you can’t travel to the year 2062, you can buy your very own desktop robot vacuum cleaner and at least feel like you’ve been transported to a futuristic utopia of tidy tabletops. It changes directions when it bumps into objects and senses any edge so you can leave it alone at your desk, table, or workspace and come back to a nice, clean surface.