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Harrison Burns, bottom right, looks as Robert Becker shows an exploded tetrahedron made with HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Robert Becker, of University City, thought of the concept for HyperTiles in college but didn't start development until after he retired as a high school chemistry teacher in 2020. Projector Toys
UNIVERSITY CITY — Following the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are shopping for hands-on, screen-free toys for their kids. They’re also looking for puzzle toys they might play with too, industry leaders say.
HyperTiles, the creation of retired chemistry teacher Robert Becker, aims to fill both those markets with its warped squares based on a mathematical shape called a hyperbolic paraboloid. The saddle-shaped pieces can be linked together to create complex geometric shapes.
“It gets (kids) actively engaged in inventing and learning the rules themselves,” said Becker, of University City. “It’s creative problem-solving, but there’s a lot of geometry mixed in with that.”
Claire Micka makes a shape with HyperTiles during a classroom demonstration at Blades Elementary School in south St. Louis County on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Robert Becker thought of the concept for HyperTiles in college but didn’t start development of the product until after he retired as a high school chemistry teacher in 2020.
On a recent June morning, Becker presented HyperTiles to kids at Blades Elementary School in Oakville for their summer session. Incoming third-, fourth- and fifth-graders connected the rainbow tiles together to build 3D crowns, DNA strand models and even Pokémon characters.
Becker encouraged students to hold their creations in front of the classroom projector’s light to see 2D shadows.
The best thing about HyperTiles is the open-ended play because there’s no wrong way to put them together, he told the class.
Robert Becker, center, reacts to a shape made by Audrey Kraisser during a classroom demonstration at Blades Elementary School in south St. Louis County on Tuesday, June 11.
“I’m doing something without even knowing what I’m doing,” Michelle Yu, a soon-to-be third grader, said after showing off a 3D star she had built.
Becker was a chemistry teacher at Kirkwood High School for over three decades before he launched HyperTiles, based on an idea that came to him during a college course on 3D design with sculptor Erwin Hauer.
He later made a prototype of the toy out of toothpicks and duct tape but didn’t pursue HyperTiles until retiring in 2020.
Becker said he owes a lot of his success to the Kirkwood community. When he was first getting HyperTiles off the ground he shared the Kickstarter fundraising campaign with former students, former colleagues and parents. The community ended up funding about 80% of the campaign.
Plus, two Kirkwood students helped with the initial 3D printing and development of the product.
“Being a teacher, it was being in the right place at the right time for many different things,” Becker said. “I totally lucked out with it. It’s been a fun little ride in retirement.”
Since then, HyperTiles has been picked up by toy company Fun in Motion Toys and has seen thousands of kits sold, Becker said. He’s still involved with his invention, often demonstrating the toy to school groups and at educator conventions.
Early this month, Becker was part of the nearly 400 toy vendor booths at America’s Center Convention Complex in downtown St. Louis for the annual American Specialty Toy Retailing Association trade show.
Companies and inventors pitched products to specialty toy store buyers looking for inventory to stock for the holiday season.
Many of the toys played on current trends in the industry such as “kidult” (kid-adult) toys, screen-free time and activities that are tactile and benefit the mind and body, according to the Toy Association, an industry trade group.
“There’s so much screen time that’s taking over everybody’s time and attention and any kind of play that can engage people, that can give feedback, it’s going to be a fighter in a fight against screen time,” said Jonathan “JT” Taylor, a community development specialist with Fun in Motion Toys.
Robert Becker shows the shadows that can be made with an exploded tetrahedron constructed with HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
At the trade show, David Korzatkowski, sales manager at Chicago-based Top Secret Toys, said cryptic toys and characters are also popular right now, hence the company’s Bigfoot and Loch Ness monster GigaPets — a modern take on the Tamagotchi digital pets popularized in the mid-1990s Japan.
Also trending in toy sales are fidget toys and puzzle or escape games. Some of Top Secret Toys’ most popular toys involve digging in slime, such as the company’s Dissect-It kits that consist of plastic animal skeletons and organs pre-molded in slime, ready for users to take apart.
Fun in Motion Toys’ latest toy, Nockles, are bendy plastic bands that can snap together for open-ended building.
Taylor, of Fun In Motion Toys, said adults won’t play unless there’s a challenge involved, so building or exploration toys such as Nockles and HyperTiles give older generations permission to play.
“Anywhere we can get people playing and processing, we’re going to get a higher quality of life,” Taylor said.
Wesley Blanks creates a chain of HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
“Being a teacher, it was being in the right place at the right time for many different things. I totally lucked out with it. It's been a fun little ride in retirement.”
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Harrison Burns, bottom right, looks as Robert Becker shows an exploded tetrahedron made with HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Robert Becker, of University City, thought of the concept for HyperTiles in college but didn't start development until after he retired as a high school chemistry teacher in 2020.
Claire Micka makes a shape with HyperTiles during a classroom demonstration at Blades Elementary School in south St. Louis County on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Robert Becker thought of the concept for HyperTiles in college but didn’t start development of the product until after he retired as a high school chemistry teacher in 2020.
Robert Becker, center, reacts to a shape made by Audrey Kraisser during a classroom demonstration at Blades Elementary School in south St. Louis County on Tuesday, June 11.
Robert Becker shows the shadows that can be made with an exploded tetrahedron constructed with HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
Wesley Blanks creates a chain of HyperTiles during a demonstration to a 2nd grade class at Blades Elementary School in Oakville on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
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