Magination - A magnetic toolkit for hands-on learning and creativity!
Created by Magination
Remember those magnet gifs? This is where you get it! Magination is a magnetic, experimental and creative game akin to a deck of cards!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Production GO!
over 8 years ago
– Thu, Sep 01, 2016 at 09:00:03 PM
Hi folks!
We’re finally at the last manufacturing step, the Doubles are being assembled and we continue the journey to reach the necessary amount (which is 21 480 to be exact). We’re happy to let you know that the curvy Doubles are no more. Take a look at the obvious improvement!
We will send the finished modules in a bulk shipment to the guys at Ideaspatcher which then will send them separately out to you (except Norwegian backers). The goal is to get this done by mid-September, but we have learned that things can take time! As mentioned earlier, we have only been lacking the Doubles to ship, but it’s a fair amount that are being constantly assembled right now. We’ll keep you updated on our progress and more schedules, and we’ll try to post more live updates on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
Those of you who regularly check the comment section already know that we got an early batch of around 500 Doubles from the plastic manufacturer, as there were some final adjustments made on the injection mold to make it ready for a full scale production. These have been delivered to a small selected number of backers that Tobias (the blond guy in our video) could reach by biking around in Oslo. Hopefully the personal door delivery wasn’t too scary for some of you…
For those who joined the Pokémon GO craze, which we expect to be a huge percentage, let us know if you have caught/evolved any nice magnet Pokémon! We sure did, and want to see yours. Post a screenshot on this Facebook-post by the end of next week, and you might become more attractive the following weeks...
As we can’t stress this enough, we’re going to keep reminding you that you have to update your shipping address if you have moved this year! It is very little we can do if a kit is shipped to the wrong address, so make sure that you have the correct one:
2. Type in your email address and click “Get My Survey”.
3. This will send a survey link to your email, click on it and make your changes.
4. Confirm the changes and you are done!
If you know that you are going to move, but don't know the address yet, send us a message and we'll sort it out!
Finally, we hope you’ve had an amazing summer, and are ready to get that nice summer tan off while sitting inside and exploring the beautiful way magnets behave (or bring it with you outside).
The Magination Team
Summer update
over 8 years ago
– Sun, Jul 24, 2016 at 01:43:25 PM
Hi backers!
We hope you all have had a lovely summer holiday so far. It’s a little more than a month since our last update, and it was about time to post a new one now! First of all, we want to repeat the important message from the previous update, which is to update your shipping address if you have moved lately. Follow these steps in order to do so:
2. Type in your email address and click “Get My Survey”.
3. This will send a survey link to your email, click on it and make your changes.
4. Confirm the changes and you are done!
It would be really unfortunate to send a reward to an old address, so it would be great to not have this happen at all. We’ll keep reminding you and send updates before the rewards are shipped.
So what’s going on here? It took longer than expected to have the changes made in the injection mold, and it wasn’t a process we could really contribute to other than let our plastic manufacturer handle it. The injection mold has been through a process to decrease the “cap” part of the pieces (see previous update for more info), and it has been returned to the manufacturer. The communication we have received regarding this process has been slow, which has been frustrating, particularly because they suddenly started their summer holiday before the production of the final Double pieces. The assembly manufacturer is currently on their summer holiday as well, but we would be more than happy to start the assembly of the Double pieces ourselves, so we could get a head start after the holiday. We sadly don’t have the skills or experience to (break in and) start the injection molds ourselves, which otherwise would have been on our to-do-list.
While the summer holiday makes things in Norway move slow and we still lack the Double pieces, we have put together the MA.gif kits ourselves (without the Double pieces), at a cottage in south Norway. Some of the special add-ons like the Single Module and Triple Module (not all) have been put together here as well.
We have also spent time with our assembly manufacturer, and work to make them as prepared as they can be. The pressure is currently high on our plastic manufacturer, and when they deliver the Double parts in August, the pressure will be shifted to our assembly manufacturer. We’ll be on their location to assist and make sure that things move forward quickly.
Again, if you have moved lately, please check to see if you have updated your address on BackerKit. We also got 29 mystery-backers who still haven’t answered their survey that we simply can't reach, but we know you are out there! Get in touch :)
If you got any questions, send us a message or write a comment, as someone else might be wondering about the same thing.
The Magination Team
The Double Trouble
over 8 years ago
– Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 10:16:18 PM
Hi everyone!
As you know from the previous update, the Double piece has caused some annoying problems and created a bad delay. The manufacturer is still working on fixing the problem, which takes time as they are making changes in the steel mold and want to do it right. The plastic factory told us yesterday that the changes will be completed next week, and then we get to manufacture the Double parts over again. This means that the parts will arrive at the assembly factory just before the summer holiday kicks in. They will need some weeks to assemble the Doubles in August, and then we can start to deliver.
This is important! Some backers have already realised this and have reached out to us in order to change their address. We’re more than happy to change it for you, but it would save us a lot of time if you could follow these steps to change it yourself, as BackerKit has a nice system in place to do exactly this. Changing address is only important to backers that have moved or are going to move after the summer holiday.
2. Type in your email address and click “Get My Survey”.
3. This will send a survey link to your email, click on it and make your changes.
4. Confirm the changes and you are done!
If you know that you are going to move, but don't know the address, send us a message and we'll sort it out!
We made a video of our trips to Magination’s manufacturers, which is worth a watch for those of you who are interested to see where Magination is produced and have a look behind the scenes:
We know that many are curious and want to know more, and this is for you! From the video, you can see that each Magination piece is manufactured in two parts; a base and a flat bottom cap. The base makes up the most of the piece and hold the magnet(s), and it also snaps together with the bottom cap. Although they snap together, the parts are glued with the magnet(s), to give that extra strength for the pieces.
The Double piece also snaps together, but during the development we needed to have a stronger snapping to make the pieces even better. This resulted in some changes in the bottom cap that made it a tiny bit wider, but it was manufactured too wide. In order to explain it fairly simple, here’s a very simplified and exaggerated illustration of why we got the curved Double pieces:
Note that this isn’t even noticeable on individual pieces, and only becomes apparent when multiple are chained like in the photo from last update. We’re happy that we noticed this early in the assembly process, and not assembled 20000+ of the Double pieces with this hidden mistake (which would've used 40000+ magnets!). On the same time, it was a big blow as we were so ready and eager to get started delivering to you.
Thanks a lot for your patience, you guys are magnificent! Have a nice weekend!
The Magination Team
Fresh May update
over 8 years ago
– Wed, May 11, 2016 at 11:29:02 PM
Hi attractive backers!
Magination is in hard-core production mode and Magination-pieces are constantly being manufactured. We’re where we hoped to be in a month in almost every aspect except that the production of two of the pieces (yellow Single and the black Double) have caused some trouble. Most of the final pieces are at the assembling factory, and we’ve been at their location in Gjøvik earlier this week to help and make sure that things are moving forward smoothly. Delays are never cool, but in our case that has made it possible for us to make the final delivery even better:
The manuals are finished and on their way to the assembly factory! Each one consists of 48 magnificent pages filled with rules, illustrations, experiments and the stretch goal “Learned Something”. This stretch goal added a total of 12 extra pages to increase your magnet knowledge, and is written by Nils Mulder, which has a bachelor in physics, is a teacher, and MSc student in nanotechnology! We worked with an amazing company called HK to develop the final design and illustrations. Take a look at some illustrations from the manual. We don’t want to spoil too much of the actual manual it and take away that first experience when you have it your own hands. Are we correct to think that, or do you want to have a digital version now? It can be arranged if you want to.
As you were allowed to choose your own colors for your Magination set, we initially thought that we should keep each module really simple wrapped (like bubblewrapped) in order to keep it relatively easy to handle for the manufacturer and shipping partners. With the additional time we got on our hands, we’ve developed individual wrappings for all the main modules, to be both easier to assemble and ship, plus it looks way better when you receive your reward!
First batch of the yellow Singles from the plastic manufacturer didn’t pass our quality control. There were multiple pieces with color differences within the piece (darker areas) and some other mistakes we could not allow, so they had to be manufactured over again. The Double pieces will also have to be manufactured over again, which was a bummer. Early during assembly, we noticed that a slight curvature of the Double pieces had appeared, which made a chain of these not perfectly flat. The plastic manufacturer was alerted immediately and has started to work on fixing the problem, and we’ll keep you updated on their progress. It’s important to us that all the pieces have a great quality when you receive them, and we’ll continue to push hard to make that happen!
The shipping is of course dependent on the final production of the remaining pieces and making them in the quality you deserve. The other parts of manufacturing is as mentioned where it should be, and we’re grateful for having amazing people who are currently doing an impressive job putting the pieces together!
The Magination Team
Made in Norway
over 8 years ago
– Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 11:31:36 PM
Hello everyone!
Hope you all had an attractive Easter Holiday!
As a Norwegian startup with manufacturing in Norway, we’d like to give you a better understanding of where everything is happening. About 2/3 of you are not even from Norway, and probably don’t know much about us!
You might have been led to believe that Magination is manufactured under sparkling northern lights, inside deep fjords, by polar bears with screaming moose on skis in the background? Apart from the polar bears and moose on skis (we got moose without skis), this is quite accurate! Norway is the western part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe, and has a population of 5 207 689. We’re known for our fjords, northern lights and winter sports. Northern lights can be seen here in Norway thanks to the magnetic field created by Earth itself!
Team Magination is currently stationed in Trondheim at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The manufacturer that is producing the plastic parts of the pieces is located in Leksvik, a 1,5 hour drive from us. The company is called “LYCRO”, and we need to take a ferry and cross Trondheimsfjorden (Norway’s third largest fjord) to get to them.
From there, the parts will be sent to “TOPRO Kompetanse” and put together to final Magination-pieces and modules. TOPRO Kompetanse is located about 400 km (250 miles) south of Trondheim, in Gjøvik. They are one of Norway's largest rehabilitation professional environments, and the company was established to help those who are outside the workforce back to work. That means you didn’t just support us through this campaign, but a fantastic workplace as well. Here’s the view of Mjøsa (Norway’s largest lake) from one of the workstations where Magination-pieces will be assembled.
So we are without doubt moving forward, and it’s very exciting. The plastic manufacturing has been slower than we would like it to be, but there has been conducted some very important test runs to make sure that the pieces created are both functional and great. There are surprisingly many things one would have to consider “just to create some plastic pieces”, but we’re still aiming for shipping in May!
