African Truck Toys

Kevin Kelly (Co-founder of Wired, author and technologist extraordinaire) blogged about african truck toys, which show the ingenuity of using local materials to make something useful, fun and yes…very cool.

ugandawiretoy The image is from Kevin Kelly’s site, it is of a wire toy made by a child in Uganda.
These are the types of toys the Afrigadget authors and african blogosphere members played with when they were children. I would like to request that if you have pictures showing toys such as these, if you would kindly comment or use our contact page to send us images,so we can showcase more of African ingenuity. You can also tag your images in flickr with afrigadget and we’ll be sure to see them.

15 comments for this post.

Comment from Kenyan Blogs Webring feeds: Published items (items 1 to 50)
15 February 2007 - 4:02 pm - :

[...] African Truck Toys   [...]

[...] African Truck Toys   [...]

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Comment from hash
15 February 2007 - 8:56 pm - :

You know, I used to make those as a kid too. It was feverish activity in and around Nairobi with all of us kids when the Safari Rally was going on.

There were some extremely talented car makers too - mine ended up being a little rickety compared to the truly talented builders.

Comment from John Powers
16 February 2007 - 2:04 pm - :

This post really spoke to the boy in me:-) At Omidyar.net Lars Hasselblad Torres is working on a project to make comic book instructions for making useful stuff out of trash. I started collecting links to possible crafts at a workspace there http://www.omidyar.net/group/peacetiles/ws/dumpcrafts/ The other thing is started tagging links somewhat related at de.licio.us with dumpcraft. If anyone feels so inclined to add that tag I’ll be sure to see them.

Comment from The View from My Window
16 February 2007 - 9:49 pm - :

Whispers and screams from Eivind : Some photos of me and Thomas I begynnelsen var Ordet. : kardemommebyloven AfriGadget : African Truck Toys Soldier of Africa : Another Day in “Paradise” I begynnelsen var Ordet. : Kjærligheten - en god sirkel!

Whispers and screams from Eivind : Some photos of me and Thomas I begynnelsen var Ordet. : kardemommebyloven AfriGadget : African Truck Toys Soldier of Africa : Another Day in “Paradise” I begynnelsen var Ordet. : Kjærligheten - en god sirkel!

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Comment from look closer: African Truck Toy.
19 February 2007 - 3:11 am - :

[...] Entre tanto gadget tecnológico de última tecnología, tanto muñeco de diseño cool y tanta parafernalia friki, llama la atención encontrarse con gadgets nacidos de una necesidad un poco más básica y austera. Como este camión de juguete construido con alambre y madera por un niño en Uganda.La fotografía es de Bob Jones.Lo vi en AfriGadget, un blog repleto de otro tipo de inventos a los que estamos acostumbrados. Seguro que te harán reflexionar.Technorati Tags: gadget, africa, inventos, juguetes, toy [...]

[...] Entre tanto gadget tecnológico de última tecnología, tanto muñeco de diseño cool y tanta parafernalia friki, llama la atención encontrarse con gadgets nacidos de una necesidad un poco más básica y austera. Como este camión de juguete construido con alambre y madera por un niño en Uganda.La fotografía es de Bob Jones.Lo vi en AfriGadget, un blog repleto de otro tipo de inventos a los que estamos acostumbrados. Seguro que te harán reflexionar.Technorati Tags: gadget, africa, inventos, juguetes, toy [...]

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Comment from Noli Irritare Leones » Blog Archive » African ingenuity blogwatch
19 February 2007 - 9:02 am - :

[...] African truck toys. I remember seeing these in Kenya a couple of decades ago. [...]

Comment from Noli Irritare Leones
19 February 2007 - 5:02 pm - :

Sustainability, Nigeria buildings, and Nigeria Electric Power. Obstacles to Kenya-US business partnerships. IT opportunities in rural Kenya. Sybille Ngo Nyeck is a Cameroonian Anglican and African artist in several media.African truck toys. I remember seeing these in Kenya a couple of decades ago. Battle for Africa Online. The Benin Epilogue posts results of his poll on the importance of entrepreneurship in Africa.

Sustainability, Nigeria buildings, and Nigeria Electric Power. Obstacles to Kenya-US business partnerships. IT opportunities in rural Kenya. Sybille Ngo Nyeck is a Cameroonian Anglican and African artist in several media.African truck toys. I remember seeing these in Kenya a couple of decades ago. Battle for Africa Online. The Benin Epilogue posts results of his poll on the importance of entrepreneurship in Africa.

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Comment from Adrian
4 March 2007 - 6:01 am - :

memories…

i remember the way as kids we used to go to petrol stations and collect old cans of oil - to lubricate the axles so that the cars would run more smoothly.

Comment from Dog Toys » African Truck Toys
10 March 2007 - 5:25 am - :

[...] post by Afromusing and powered by Img [...]

Comment from Toys R US » African Truck Toys
10 March 2007 - 6:46 am - :

[...] post by Afromusing and software by Elliott Back [...]

Comment from Alice - Rechercher
19 March 2007 - 3:29 am - :

[...] Comments on: African Truck ToysThis post really spoke to the boy in me:-) At Omidyar.net Lars Hasselblad Torres is working on a project to make comic book instructions for making useful …http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/02/15/african-truck-toys/fee… - 10k - Pages similaires - html [...]

[...] Comments on: African Truck ToysThis post really spoke to the boy in me:-) At Omidyar.net Lars Hasselblad Torres is working on a project to make comic book instructions for making useful …http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/02/15/african-truck-toys/fee… - 10k - Pages similaires - html [...]

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Comment from Kirk-hash's bro-in-law
18 May 2007 - 8:11 am - :

I saw Grover on Sesame Street talk about these. I guess I am officially a parent.

Comment from Mark
31 May 2007 - 10:10 am - :

Well, since you asked… I took photos of the same toys while in Uganda the other week. They just amazed me.
http://mrhaak.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/creative-childs-play/

Comment from Al Gates
2 August 2007 - 12:55 pm - :

I can’t get over the creativity of these kids and how they can really design a fun toy. Great use of local resources.

Comment from Look Closer: African Truck Toy.
11 December 2007 - 2:31 am - :

[...] construido con alambre y madera por un niño en Uganda.La fotografía es de Bob Jones.Lo vi en AfriGadget, un blog repleto de otro tipo de inventos a los que estamos acostumbrados. Seguro que te harán [...]

[...] construido con alambre y madera por un niño en Uganda.La fotografía es de Bob Jones.Lo vi en AfriGadget, un blog repleto de otro tipo de inventos a los que estamos acostumbrados. Seguro que te harán [...]

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