Arrived just in time for the 11-year-old’s birthday. Delightful. He’s been wanting one of his own ever since he got to play with some of the early prototypes. Takes about an hour and a half for a kid to build the basic unit (perhaps a little more if they haven’t apprenticed with Cardboard Teck, perhaps a little less).

Takes about another hour for a kid and a grownup to clean up all the little cardboard offcuts.

And an important construction tip: to take apart a box rivet without damaging the surrounding cardboard, use two small screwdrivers (or perhaps dental hook tools if you have them. You have to pry the rivet legs apart slightly so that the serrations disengage.

We got two Pinboxes; while the kid and his friends doozy theirs up with hand-drawn art and fluffy sculptures, I’m planning to mod mine with sensors and servos and LEDs. Anybody have a good design for a laser-cut clicker-style counter?