The first ever Greater Newark Maker Faire showcased makers from all over the area and demonstrated to both children and adults how easy it is to be a maker themselves. NJIT's Industrial Design department wanted to make the event especially fun for kids with a few hands-on projects, including a customizable creature toy.
After several test designs and pieces in collaboration with two other fellow students, the "NiJIT" was created to become anything a child could imagine.
Different heads, tails, arms, legs, and wings were designed in a relatively abstract manner to be mixed and matched.
Example NiJITs were created to show kids just a small portion of what could be possible with the pieces.
Most used a standard egg-shaped body that had various notches into which pieces could be inserted.
Each body piece also harbored a small 3V battery so that LED lights could be inserted...
...for an extra "wow" factor.
Kids could also make a NiJIT completely from scratch, without using the standard body piece.
The nature of the pieces resulted in wings being used for legs, tails being used for heads, and even more imaginative thinking that was beyond what was expected.
