From Mad Scientist to STEAM Professional: 50 Years of Mattel’s Thingmaker

Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) Conference / June 2017 / Rutgers-Camden

In February 2015, toy company Mattel announced the future launch of its Thingmaker 3D printer for kids. Positioned as new, cutting-edge technology but also situated within a longer historical tradition of creative production toys, the 3D printer is only the company’s most recent incarnation of the Thingmaker line, which extends back to the 1960s in the form of heat-molded toy-making kits. This paper examines the Thingmaker line of playthings over the course of its 50-year history and explores how changes in both product design and promotion reflect shifting notions of kids as creative producers. In particular, the paper will consider both the changing technological forms of the Thingmaker—from vacuum seal to additive manufacturing—alongside the valences of kid-as-creator that Thingmaker promotion and packaging rely upon.

While early Thingmaker sets conceptualize kids’ creations in organic terms (ranging from the production of flowers and butterflies to creepy, crawly insects), the contemporary Thingmaker’s prominent alignment with STEM and STEAM initiatives frames the play experience as analogous to industrial production. With the use of downloadable files rather than physical toy molds, the contemporary Thingmaker is positioned as a virtually limitless home factory capable of producing modular toys with infinite variations. Moreover, the 3D printer’s companion app, developed in conjunction with AutoDesk, is exemplary of increasingly common alliances between traditional toy companies and technology firms. Drawing upon promotional materials and material culture analysis, the paper considers how these changes both reflect shifting conceptions of the kids as creators (for example, connecting home play to broader scientific inquiry and production) as well as elements that have remained consistent, such as the gendered themes of toys available for kids’ production. Distinguishing between modular customization and free-form creation, the paper additionally considers the possibilities and limitations for creative activity built into these toys’ material and technological structures.