This week on Kickstarter Tuesdays, I am featuring two projects from outside the Southeast that you should like! One involves toy cars while the other involves ice cream!
Modarri: The Toy Car Reinvented
Modarri is finger-powered street, dirt & track cars with real steering, suspension & performance + hex tool to swap parts & create hybrids. Modarri is a new kind of miniature car line that you drive with your fingers using realistic steering and suspension. Design your own unique cars for the best performance and looks by swapping parts from one vehicle to another using the included Hex Tool. Modarri cars aren’t only for kids (recommended for ages 6+ and not for ages 0-3 due to small parts). They took care to design beautiful cars that teens and adults would also love and want to collect.
They also see Modarri as a way for them and their fans to interact at different levels. You can register your car’s unique license plate on our website to get started. DIY (Do it yourself) cars will allow you to paint and upload images of your custom paint jobs for others to see and copy. You can use their website to 3D print car parts in custom materials and colors. And share pictures of your cars on social media, plus more!
Why is this project happening? Like lots of guys, they love cars and often find theirselves surfing the internet for cool car designs, drooling over muscle cars, race cars, concept cars, toy cars, playing with their kids’ cars and adding to their collections. They think and hope that a lot of you are like them and never really “grew up”. Their goal was to create toy cars that are sleek, gorgeous, fun, durable, drivable, buildable and interchangeable.
Modarri cars can easily be disassembled and redesigned by changing their parts. This is hands-on experimentation with real physical objects. While driving the cars around, kids learn about the physics and mechanics of suspension and steering. By swapping out parts, kids’ fingers can feel the differences in performance. Too often a toy breaks (or the batteries die) soon after a child receives it. This is expensive for the purchaser, a waste for the environment, but most important is the pain it evokes in the kid who loves that now broken toy. Furthermore, most toys aren’t much fun after the novelty wears out.
At ThoughtFull Toys, they believe that toys should be built to withstand hours and hours of open-ended play. They have designed Modarri cars to be sturdy using a combination of metal and high strength plastics. Plus, no screws to lose (they’re retained in their respective parts). If lost, the tool can be replaced with a standard allan wrench. Thoughtfull Toys is a small toy company based in Santa Cruz, California. Started in early 2013 by David Silverglate, creator of the Oball and Woosh, they are dedicated to creating and selling beautiful, functional, durable toys.
The team involves David Silverglate, who has invented, patented, and licensed numerous toys including Woosh Ring, SkyBlaster, and Hoopla. Brian Gulassa, who was designed over 200 toys including entire toy lines from Mattel, Hasbro, Fisher Price, and more; that have been successfully marketed and sold. And Trevor Hite, who is an operations specialist with 20 years of experience in managing lean profitable companies. Modarri Cars have performance, looks, modularity and tricks. They think that makes Modarri something pretty special for car lovers of all ages.
As of December 10th, this Kickstarter project has raised around $22,280 of the $80,000 goal they need to be funded. And as you know in Kickstarter, a project is not funded until the fundraising goal is reached! This project only has 38 days left to reach the $80,000 goal. For a pledge of $10, you will get some sleek Modarri stickers. For a pledge of $23, you will get the DIY (Do It Yourself) Modarri model: a fully functional Modarri “S1″ Street Car. There are many more awesome pledge levels you can choose from! To learn more about Modarri Toy Cars and to pledge money, go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1344682921/modarri-the-toy-car-reinvented
Learn more about Modarri at: http://www.modarri.com/
Milkmade Ice Cream’s #Lickstarter
MilkMade is a craft ice cream company based in New York City. They run an ice cream of the month delivery service, and since they launched exactly FOUR years ago (hard to believe it’s been four years!!), they’ve grown to serve thousands of members across New York City. In 2014 — they’re expanding their production, growing the membership to finally ship pints nationally, and working with their first retail stores. That’s why they’re here with their Lickstarter. MilkMade wouldn’t be what it is without their members and followers and fans. So they’re turning to you to be involved in their growth.
How cool would it be to help create and name their ‘screams? Or see MilkMade pints in your stores and know they got there because of you? Or receive their monthly flavors at your doorstep, thanks to your help? Cool, right? They think so too. Well, it starts with a new ‘scream machine – that’s what your pledge will fund. A new machine will help them churn out more pints so they can grow, grow, GROW!
Basically, MilkMade all started with the love from Diana Hardeman of ice cream. Years ago she had a pint-a-night habit until one day she realized, ”I want a better pint!” What was once “all natural” isn’t anymore – it’s loaded with gums and preservatives. Their go-to pints are not local nor sustainable. And the flavors are just not quite adventurous enough. And what’s worse, some of their favorite ice creams can’t even be classified as “Ice Cream” anymore because they’re chock full of ingredients you can’t even pronounce, and lack enough actual dairy. So they’re called “frozen dairy dessert.” Come on!
Enter MilkMade: So she decided to make her own ice cream. She bought a little ice cream machine and spent the summer of 2009 teaching herself the craft. Creating the kind of crazy flavors that dreams are made of. Word spread about her craft creations and before she knew it, she had a waitlist for pints that was 700 people deep. She quickly realized “I’m not the only person who wants a better pint!” So with a team of Milkmaids, they started the world’s first ice cream of the month delivery service. Every month they dream up two unique flavors, partner with the finest local farms and food artisans, and hand-craft pints for their Members.
This is where you come in. See, MilkMade wouldn’t be MilkMade without you – their members and followers and fans. So they really want you to be involved in this next step of their growth! How great would it be for their community to be a part of MilkMade – to help them get to the next level. So that next year when they are crafting more dream ‘screams, churning out more pints, and finally delivering outside of New York, across the country (and world?), it’s all because of you. It starts with a new ‘scream machine – that’s what the Kickstarter will fund. This means the machine will quintuple their daily production of ‘scream! What’s more it will enable them to exponentially grow their operations, so they can finally get their ‘scream to your markets and to your doors.
As of December 10th, this Kickstarter project has raised around $7,869 of the $45,000 goal they need to be funded. And as you know in Kickstarter, a project is not funded until the fundraising goal is reached! This project only has 31 days left to reach the $45,000 goal. For a pledge of $30, you will get a hand-written note of their gratitude, plus their first signature MilkMade tote bag. For a pledge of $100, you will get their Limited Edition ‘Screams, and two pints will be delivered to your door, anywhere in the US. There are many more awesome pledge levels you can choose from! To learn more about Milkmade Ice Cream and to pledge money, go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milkmade/milkmade-ice-creams-lickstarter
Learn more about Milkmade Ice Cream at: http://www.milkmadeicecream.com/
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Filed under: Kickstarter Projects Tagged: Brian Gulassa, Car Toys, David Silverglate, Diana Hardeman, Ice cream, Kickstarter, Lickstarter, Milkmade Ice Cream, Modarri cars, Model car, New York City, Santa Cruz California, scream machine, Screams, ThoughtFull Toys, Trevor Hite