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Japanese iPad app helps kids get creative with cardboard boxes

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When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time making things from old cardboard boxes. Impenetrable headquarters for my toy figures, with complex slides and zip-lines strung about — this was pretty commonplace [1]. But in today smartphone age, I can’t help but wonder if this sort of creative playtime is as common as before. Thankfully, one Japanese company is making an effort to encourage such activity, and they are – somewhat ironically – using mobile devices to do so. Tokyo-based publisher Regia Inc. has created an iPad app called Cartoon Box, with intent to distribute their instructional booklets on creating fun things with discarded cardboard boxes. The app itself is nothing special, but I’m glad to see that the company is getting its content out there on mobile, given that kids take to such devices so readily. While the iPad application itself is free to download, some of the instructional booklets are paid. One of the available booklets can be downloaded for free, including instructions on how to make a wagon, and (incredibly) a tyrannosaurus. Cartoon Box was recently featured on the popular weekend television show King’s Brunch. Typically that show gives a huge boost to apps…

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When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time making things from old cardboard boxes. Impenetrable headquarters for my toy figures, with complex slides and zip-lines strung about — this was pretty commonplace [1]. But in today smartphone age, I can’t help but wonder if this sort of creative playtime is as common as before. Thankfully, one Japanese company is making an effort to encourage such activity, and they are – somewhat ironically – using mobile devices to do so.

Tokyo-based publisher Regia Inc. has created an iPad app called Cartoon Box, with intent to distribute their instructional booklets on creating fun things with discarded cardboard boxes. The app itself is nothing special, but I’m glad to see that the company is getting its content out there on mobile, given that kids take to such devices so readily.

While the iPad application itself is free to download, some of the instructional booklets are paid. One of the available booklets can be downloaded for free, including instructions on how to make a wagon, and (incredibly) a tyrannosaurus.

Cartoon Box was recently featured on the popular weekend television show King’s Brunch. Typically that show gives a huge boost to apps here in Japan, and I expect that this was the case here as well [2].

If you’d like to try the iPad app, you can get it over on the App Store. Instructions are in both English and Japanese.

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  1. My biggest cardboard box creation was an Optimus Prime Halloween costume that could actually transform into a truck.  ↩

  2. I’ve reached out to Regia to find out how they’re progressing, and will update if I hear anything.  ↩