Go kart built out of wooden blocks.
Virtually anything that you can build with toy-construction bricks can be built with Zipblocks...but on much larger scales. Zipblocks are like giant toy-construction bricks that simply interlock on placement. The go kart illustrated in this picture was built using Zipblocks. We have a video of it out on YouTube. ZipBlockster YouTube Video
When people first see the ZipBlockster the first question that they ask is "how strong is it?" So we'll answer that question right away.
The ZipBlockster frame is extremely strong. Wood is an extremely strong composite that is stronger and cheaper than most all man-made composites. Carbon fiber composites are stronger, but they are much more expensive. One other fact that people often don't realize is that pound-for-pound wood is stronger than steel.
Glued laminated timber (Glulam) has been used for over a 40 years by the construction industry to build everything from bridges to homes. Wooden Zipblocks take this concept/technology to the "next level." They allow for the instant construction of "Glulam-like" structures of virtually any size or shape. Wooden Zipblocks that have been glued together are ideal for building infrastructure like bridges, columns, and roads. Simply weave structures together with Zipblocks and glue and your structures inherit all the wonderful qualities that wood has to offer.
If you are not familiar with Glulam you can visit this site http://www.lamcon.com/sylorbridge.html (not affiliated with Zipblocks) and see some amazing bridges that were built using Glulam.
Playhouse.
The playhouse shown here is just under six feet tall. It can easily be built in less than an hour. If you click on this link you'll see that a course of Zipblocks can be laid around the entire perimeter in just 40 seconds. If you click on the movie to the right you can watch the entire playhouse being constructed in a time-lapse move.
Building a playhouse with Zipblocks is piece of cake. All that is required is good imagination and lots of Zipblocks. If you wanted to you could build a playhouse with several rooms or one that is several stories high. The limit to what you can build is only limited by the number of blocks that you have and what they are made from.
Imagine how much fun a child would have building their very own playhouse. What kind of playhouse would they build? Allowing a child to build a playhouse from scratch is a great way for them to have fun and it promotes creative thinking. In the near future, we hope to demo a larger playhouse. If you like this prototype or have ideas about playhouse that you would like to see, send us an email and tell us about them.
The above playhouse was built using wooden Zipblocks. Ideally Zipblocks for use with children would probably be made from more child friendly materials like foam, rubber, or plastic.
Wall unit.
We built this custom wall unit out of basic blocks. It only took about 30 minutes assemble it.
Was it hard to build? Absolutely not. Building this wall unit is just as simple as sticking a few toy-construction bricks together. Not to mention that it is actually fun to build things with Zipblocks. It is, after all, very rewarding to be able to work with a product that instantly allows you to build what you want.
Let's say that you wanted to create your very own custom wall unit in your living room that covered an entire wall from floor to ceiling. Let's just say that this wall is 20 feet long and 12 feet tall. Can you imagine how much it would cost you if you walked into your local home supply center and made this request? It would probably cost you a fortune in both labor and materials. Now picture yourself walking into the same store and ordering 4 to 5 pallets of Zipblocks, having them delivered to you home, and then building your very own wall unit all in a days time. The cost would of course be much less and you would have a custom wall unit that you designed and built all by yourself. This would indeed be a much more rewarding experience.
What we just spoke about is more than ideal. What's more is that when you build with Zipblocks and you make a mistake. No problem. Just disassemble your mistake and fix it. Moving to another home and the living room is smaller? Again, no problem. Just disassemble your wall unit, ship it to your new home, and when you get there build another custom wall unit that suits to your needs.
You know, the great thing about these blocks is that you can build just about anything with them. Imagine how much fun you could have building some really cool workbenches in your garage or putting up some giant shelves in there. How about building a dog house for your dog or a playhouse for your child or a closet organizer?
You see there are simply countless things that you can build with our blocks and if you ever get tired of what you built. Well, just break it down and use your blocks for something else! Zipblocks are essentially a product that never loses its value or usefulness.
Hey. The power went out and there is a snowstorm outside. No problem. Just break down those Zipblock shelves in the garage and use them for firewood. They make excellent logs. After the storm is over just pickup a few new ones at the store and fix the shelf.
One last comment about the wall unit shown in the above picture...the holes you see can be covered up by snapping finishing boards onto them.
Pre-tiled walls and floors.
This picture shows a few pre-tiled blocks that we created and snapped together. They came out looking great. You can hardly see where they fit together. You could always smear a bit of grout in any cracks after joining your blocks together. Imagine how much fun you could have with something like this. You could instantly build beautiful tiled walkways in your yard with very little effort. Just snap, snap, snap, and you are done! You could build a bar in the corner of a room. Museums and stores could build displays and put things on them. Regardless of what you want to create with these pre-tiled blocks you can be assured that you will not have to work hard to produce some astonishing results!
Decks
Here is a picture of a deck that was made out of our blocks. It measures four feet wide by ten feet long by three and a half feet tall. The rail of the deck is around thirty-eight inches high. This is a somewhat standard rail height for decks. The big square thing you see running across the top rail is a built in flower box. This deck was a lot of fun to design and build. The nice thing about building with our blocks is that you do not need a hammer, saw, or nails. Another great thing about building with Zipblocks is that you can simply build in features that you want. On this deck, we built in a flower box. We could easily have built in stairs or a bench if wanted to.
Deck floors.
Shown here is the bottom of a deck that we built using basic blocks. The blocks traversing the length of the base span from three to six feet in length. We could have used nine-foot blocks instead of staggering three and six foot lengths. However, at the time this deck was constructed nine foot pieces were not available. Throughout the base pieces are staggered in alternating patterns of long and short so they all do not break in the same place and compromise the strength. If you look closely at the very bottom, you can see support pieces that run the width of the deck. If you were wondering about all of the lugs sticking up, they will be covered up later with finishing boards.