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Speaker 1: Nintendo Labo is making cardboard fun again. I'm rich Jmiro.

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Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech Daily. So if you're a parent,

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Speaker 1: you've probably known this scenario. You buy your kids a

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Speaker 1: new toy and what do they end up playing with

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Speaker 1: the cardboard box that it comes in. Well, maybe this

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Speaker 1: is what inspired Nintendo's latest creations called Nintendo Labo. This

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Speaker 1: is a toy kit that harnesses the power of the

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Speaker 1: Nintendo Switch but also uses cardboard to bring toys to life.

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Speaker 1: I know it sounds like a head scratcher, and it

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Speaker 1: kind of is. Nintendo put a teaser video out on

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Speaker 1: YouTube a while back, and lots of people were saying,

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, this looks so cool, but you really

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Speaker 1: have to try it out to see what it's all about.

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Speaker 1: That's probably the reason why Nintendo brought me and my

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Speaker 1: son up to San Francisco to test it out. We

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Speaker 1: were there at a special Nintendo Labo lab with a

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Speaker 1: bunch of other parents and kids, YouTubers, bloggers, all handpicked

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Speaker 1: to play with Labo before anyone else. All right, so

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Speaker 1: what is It's a toy kit that comes with big

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Speaker 1: pieces of cardboard and they're all kind of pre scored,

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Speaker 1: so all you have to do is punch out the

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Speaker 1: pieces and fold them together to create things. But here's

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Speaker 1: the brilliant part. You follow on screen instructions on the

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Speaker 1: Nintendo switch, which are really kind of elaborate. You can

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Speaker 1: kind of rotate, zoom in and out see how things

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Speaker 1: should look and what you should be doing. Think about

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Speaker 1: like if you ever play with Lego, how you follow

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Speaker 1: those instructions, except these are much much easier to follow.

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Speaker 1: So what do we built. We built a radio controlled

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Speaker 1: car and here's how it works. You build like kind

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Speaker 1: of the cardboard part, but we built the two Nintendo

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Speaker 1: controllers into it. Those became the wheels of the car,

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Speaker 1: and then when you press the buttons on the Nintendo switch,

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Speaker 1: the little RC car would actually go and it went

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Speaker 1: by the two controllers sort of vibrating and on a

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Speaker 1: smooth surface that would cause the cardboard to move forward.

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Speaker 1: I know, it's ingenious and this is the kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff that you get with the labbo. So once you're

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Speaker 1: done building your creations, kids are gonna love decorating them. Now.

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Speaker 1: Because we were at the Nintendo event, they had all

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Speaker 1: kinds of cool stuff at our disposal. Today, decorate with

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Speaker 1: like little stickers and colored tape and markers and crayons

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Speaker 1: and all kinds of neat stuff. None of that comes

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Speaker 1: in the box, But if you don't want to find

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Speaker 1: that stuff in a place like Michael's, you can buy

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Speaker 1: these special accessory kit Nintendo's gonna sell for ten dollars,

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Speaker 1: which includes a bunch of that stuff. We also made

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Speaker 1: a cardboard fishing rod and this was really ingenious as well,

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Speaker 1: so it took a while to put this thing together.

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Speaker 1: It was quite elaborate. And then it has like rubber

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Speaker 1: bands in it that simulate pulling fish out of the water.

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Speaker 1: So I know, again tough to explain, but the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: switch slides into like a little cardboard base which shows

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Speaker 1: images of fish on the screen, and when you pull

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Speaker 1: the rod up, you feel the tension from the rubber

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Speaker 1: bands as you try to catch fish, and I thought

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Speaker 1: that was really cool. Nintendo really puts some thought into

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Speaker 1: these toys. Now, we didn't build the rest of them,

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Speaker 1: but we did see all the various Labo toys in action.

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Speaker 1: There's a house, there's a motorcycle, a piano, a robot

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Speaker 1: suit and they're all elaborate and quite interactive. So with

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Speaker 1: the house, for instance, you can play games on the

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Speaker 1: screen like the Nintendo Switch. Screen becomes the front of

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Speaker 1: the house, and then you insert little cardboard plugs into

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Speaker 1: sockets on the side, and when you switch those sockets out,

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Speaker 1: you can play different games on screen. It's really weird

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Speaker 1: but really fun. So in addition to making and playing,

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Speaker 1: there's another aspect to the whole labo thing, and that's learning.

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Speaker 1: Each kind of toy gets its magic through interactions with

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Speaker 1: the Nintendo Switch. So, for instance, on the RC car,

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you realize there's a little ir

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Speaker 1: camera on the controller that can follow you around and

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Speaker 1: you see yourself on the screen on the Nintendo Switch,

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Speaker 1: So that was cool. In the piano, for instance, it

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Speaker 1: can change its tune by sort of seeing different reflective

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Speaker 1: tapes that are on the cardboard plugs that you insert

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Speaker 1: into that It all sounds a little confusing, Well, you

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Speaker 1: just kind of have to play with it to understand,

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Speaker 1: and I think kids will really get the hang of

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Speaker 1: this as they figure this out. We had lots of

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Speaker 1: fun building, decorating and playing with the creations, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's worth the experience of these toys. But your

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Speaker 1: kids can also take it to the next level and

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Speaker 1: really understand how they work. And they can also code

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Speaker 1: them to do their own commands, so that's kind of

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Speaker 1: cool too. I think this is a really unique way

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Speaker 1: to use the Nintendo Switch to play more than just

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Speaker 1: standard video games. But it's also kind of hard to

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Speaker 1: grasp the concept, so I think that could make or

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Speaker 1: break the commercial success of this. So if you think

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Speaker 1: back in Nintendo's history, They've had a lot of ups

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Speaker 1: and downs. They're famous for making these sort of unique

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Speaker 1: accessories for their game consoles. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

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Speaker 1: Virtual Boy not so much, Light Zapper awesome, power pad awesome.

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Speaker 1: Then there was that little gyroscope guy. I always thought

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Speaker 1: that was really cool, but I don't really think it

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Speaker 1: was very successful. Bottom line, if your kid is into

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Speaker 1: video games and building things like Lego Creations, I think

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Speaker 1: you should give Labo a try. It launches April twentieth

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Speaker 1: with two kits. There's a Variety kit which is seventy

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Speaker 1: dollars that includes the part for the RC cars, the

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Speaker 1: fishing rod, the house, the motorbike, and the piano. Then

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Speaker 1: there's the Robot kit that's eighty dollars and that includes

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Speaker 1: everything you need to build this pretty elaborate interactive robot suit.

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Speaker 1: There you have it. If you want to see the

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Speaker 1: story on my Nintendo Labo feel you can go to

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Speaker 1: my website. Just go to Rich on tech dot tv

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Speaker 1: for the link. And if you enjoy this podcast, please

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Speaker 1: review us and rate us on the Apple Podcasts app.

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Speaker 1: That way more folks see the podcast and experience it.

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Speaker 1: And thanks to everyone who has done that so far,

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Speaker 1: I really do appreciate it. I'm Rich Damiro. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for listening. Rich on tech dot tv. I'll talk

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Speaker 1: to you real soon.