Lux Blox STEM and STEAM Build Anything Toy

About Us

Lux Blox Founders Heather and Mike Acerra

 

As a ‘wife-and-husband’ team, and the brawn and brains behind Lux Blox, we see A LOT of each other! And, with a very diverse and complementary set of talents, skills, and abilities (art, engineering, and education backgrounds) to draw upon, we make it work – always together. We are also the parents of two insatiably curious boys, and through their travails came to a couple of realizations –

  • The 20th century was pretty darn amazing in terms of scientific and engineering discoveries
  • The building and construction toys available (at the time) to recreate and even extend this streak of brilliance weren’t available – yet.

We are certain you’re familiar with the ‘usual suspects’ of building and construction toys available to kids the world over.

  • Popular – check
  • Available – check
  • Based upon early 20th century engineering principles – check
  • Opportunity to ‘bridge a gap’ for 21st century kids and adults alike - check!

2012 was a watershed year for us - we began our journey to design a toy that would ‘stand upon the shoulders’ of the usual suspects. Yeah, building static structures is very cool, but life forms need to also bend, fold, squish, and move – and that was our challenge. Enlisting the help of a 15-year-old German immigrant boy as our AutoCAD draftsman, and an army of neighborhood kids as product testers, we commenced three years of prototyping. Lots of late nights, early mornings, pots of coffee, hundreds of concepts, thousands of samples – and several 3-D printers that were eternally cranking out our latest refinement. A few arguments along the way, too, (understatement!) but always a team effort, and always a goal in mind. In 2015 we ‘crossed our fingers’ and launched Lux Blox, and since then have kept it a 100 percent “Made in America” learning toy.

What makes Lux Blox so unique? The usual suspects sure get a lot of mileage out of 45 and 90-degree angles, but that’s not how nature, and living forms, are created. Static structures are neat, but practically all life forms (a worm, a bird, a dog, a human being – take your pick) need a more full-range of motion, and that’s what Lux Blox delivers. The core of Lux Blox is the use of moving linkages to more fully simulate free-form motion, allowing anyone with a bit of ingenuity to build things as they exist in our world. This amazing (and patented) characteristic offers a natural springboard into a wide variety of subject matter and disciplines. This was the intention of the inventors - to stimulate curiosity, exploration, and creativity, and to build connections to the world. And in the process foster some PRETTY COOL KIDS along the way!

Heather and Mike say it best!