DIY "Bristlebot" hijacked without credit by toymaker

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

bots
Some time ago, a fun little project was put up on MAKE: attach a vibrating motor to the head of a toothbrush, power it, and watch it zoom around. Fun, right? So much fun, in fact, that toy and book makers Klutz (with Scholastic) decided to make their own and market it under the same name, with no credit to its creator. Really, guys?

As much as I’d like to give Scholastic and Klutz the benefit of the doubt in this case, it looks pretty cut and dry. If they simply had recreated the machine, that would be a jack move anyway, but at least you could pin it on a rogue toy designer who decided to pass it off as its own. But the fact that they use the same name means that they did the research and concluded that they just didn’t want to give Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories credit.

The internet is alight with indignation, but there has been no response as yet from either Scholastic or Klutz.

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