At some point during the holidays, production at Modular Robotics was stymied. But it wasn’t due to lack of orders. There just wasn’t room for more employees to build robot kits, which start at $150.
The Boulder toymaker needed more space — one of its production heads called the broom closet his office. On Tuesday, the company moved to a 14,271-square-foot building, nearly triple the size of its old one.
“Last year, we couldn’t get enough bodies in chairs inside our factories. There just wasn’t enough space (in the office) for us to meet holiday demand,” said Stu Barwick, the company’s robot promoter. “This year, we should have ample room to meet our holiday rush.”
Modular Robotics has a good sense of timing. The move coincided with the scheduled of its old Bluff Street space to make room for townhomes. But the toymaker has also come of age at a time when robots and other STEM products — those involving science, technology, engineering and math — are the “it”toys.
At this year’s Toy Fair in New York, the Toy Industry Association named “Smart Play” as one of the top toy trends of the year.
“STEM-based toys have been around for many years and are not going away anytime soon. In fact, we are seeing an evolution and expansion of the STEM toy category,” trade group spokeswoman Kristin Morency Goldman said. “They aren’t just science or math kits anymore; many STEM toys are now highly innovative and allow kids to learn coding, robotics, multiple languages and advanced mathematical concepts.”
NPD Group, which tracks toy sales, doesn’t have a specific STEM category. But, according to its research, toy sales in general grew 4 percent to $18.1 billion in 2014. More specifically, building sets and youth electronics respectively.
“Those are two categories where you would find a lot of STEM toys,” Goldman said. “So I think it’s safe to say that they’re really hot right now. … Parents increasingly want more from the toys they buy their kids, because they want to ensure that they are learning and growing while also having fun. Toymakers are continuing to respond to that need by creating multilayered, educational and tech-infused toys that truly enrich the play experience.”
Modular Robotics got its start at Carnegie Mellon University when doctoral student Eric Schweikardt created a robotic construction kit that interacts with the designer. Funded with a few National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grants totaling $1.5 million, Schweikardt began building his team and the robots in Boulder.
Boulder investor Brad Feld and The Foundry Group were early supporters, in 2012 and joining Modular Robotics’ founders for a $3.1 million infusion last fall. Feld has a seat on the company’s board.
Modular Robotics toys aren’t just toy robots that turn on and off. They are building kits, with pieces that interact differently depending on how you put them together. Cubelets, the first product, is a bunch of electronic cubes with sensors and logic to make them move, spin and stop.
The more advanced Moss kits, which launched last year after $361,293 was raised on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, have proximity and light sensors and can be programmed using a smartphone and mobile apps.
About 60 percent of Modular Robotics’ sales are to individuals
, while the rest are to schools, museums and educators.
“A lot of kids first get their hands on our products when they’re learning in the school,” Barwick said. “Well over a few hundred schools have adopted us.”
The new headquarters, at 1860 38th St., is a former post office sorting facility. It includes room for the warehouse and factory, where workers make the circuit boards.
“We’ve been very fortunate that people really like the stuff we make,” Barwick said. “People like the concept. People like the idea of a toy that is teaching their kids.”
Tamara Chuang: 303-954-1209, tchuang@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Gadgetress
