This is awesome. Tau is a line of children's toys which you--and your kid--assemble by popping the pieces out of a single sheet of CNC-routed, laminated birch plywood. Like the new, knock-together, Momoll doll house/fire house/kitchen toys, putting them together is more than half the fun. [update: the tau.de site actually mentions screws, so these aren't entirely the purist slot-together designs I thought. Still cool, though.]
Of the three pieces in the Tau collection--which is made by design/mfr Klein und More, the tour de force is probably the Sesa Seesaw. The Bene Wheelbarrow is a little simpler and more practical, though, and looks a bit like it rolled out of a de Stijl playground somewhere near Utrecht. [The stilts, I don't get it. Do German kids start using stilts at age 2?] [update: there's a toboggan, too.]
Like everything else today, it seems, the Tau Bene Wheelbarrow is just sitting there in Germany at Design3000's website, mocking us Americans with its unavailability and exchange rate-enhanced priciness. It's EUR300.
Tau Kindermöbel [tau.de]
Tau Kindermoebel - Bene Wheelbarrow [kleinundmore.de]
Previously: Momoll knock-together toys
Something like this would make a great Creative Commons DIY thing. Publish the DXF files and let people pick up a 5x5 sheet of Baltic Birch at Home Depot then take it to the local kitchen cabinet shop to cut.
I love these toys. They are really beautiful--but 300 euros???? C'MON!
Finn-ply, the fancy laminated plywood these things are cut out of, will run you upwards of $200 for a 4'x8' sheet here in the states. It also scratches easily and there's no way to refinish it. Looks super cool though...
Sorry, Parklex is the brandname of the fancy laminated plywood.