Since we’re getting close to firing up the injection molder for our first run of commercial blocks, we’ve been thinking a lot about color. We use color to differentiate the different blocks by function, and we want the colors to both make sense and look cool when the blocks are assembled into a robot. In our research prototypes we made Action blocks white, Sense blocks black, and used rainbow colors for the rest. The rainbow just happened because of the material colors that were available for the Stratasys 3D printer we were using — it seemed a little too young, like how the color and scale of Duplo makes it obvious that it’s for little kids. And the white got dirty easily.

For our first run, Sense blocks will still be black, but Action blocks will be transparent. The transparent cubes look great (they remind me of Capsela) and we’ll be posting some new photos shortly. And we’re settling on the color palette shown above for the Think and Utility blocks. It’s not a rainbow but the colors are easy to differentiate. It’s a little earthy, and since Passive blocks will be green, may even make a robot look a little bit natural.