Rokenbok
 | |
| Type | Construction set |
|---|---|
| Genre | Toy |
| Founder(s) | Paul Eichen |
| Headquarters | Solana Beach, California, USA |
| Website | http://www.rokenbok.com |
The Rokenbok Toy Company was founded in 1995 by Paul Eichen in the United States to create an heirloom quality toy system. The first Rokenbok toys debuted at the 1997 American International Toy Fair in New York City.
Overview
Rokenbok is an educational toy that combines a modular construction system with interactive radio-controlled vehicles. The system is expandable and can be added to and changed. Certain surfaces and platforms used in the Rokenbok constructions have a round-stud surface, making the toy compatible with Lego.
Rokenbok features multiplayer; up to four players can operate any of up to eight vehicles simultaneously. There are ten different manufactured vehicles. Players can operate a vehicle by themselves or they can share the vehicle with another player. Control of the vehicles use a controller similar to those of video game consoles with a D-pad for directional control and special function buttons and shoulder buttons for other functions.
Rokenbok is non-violent by reinforcing cooperative play patterns that engage children in a positive way. Rokenbok does not use licensed characters or cartoons.
Vehicles
RC TransGripper & Trailer
One of the first vehicles in the system, the RC Transgripper came in a green and yellow design, with power forks that were not designed to be removed. The RC Transgripper has two front power forks that grip, lift, and load with a pinching action. The new RC Transgripper design, introduced in the 2006 product line, includes a blue and red design with better motors and more power to the forks, which were also detachable and could be replaced if broken. Also included with the vehicle is a cargo trailer with two side rails for transporting cargo and hidden ramps that pull out for vehicle transportation. The player can control the movement of the vehicle, raise and lower the lift arms, and open and close the forks.
RC Tower Crane
A miniature representation of a real-world building construction crane, the unit encompasses a 360° range of rotational movement, and a lift mechanism that travels forward and back along the crane's boom while raising and lowering. The beam is constructed from Rokenbok building beams and blocks to the player's desired length, and can hold one of four included attachments: a scooping claw, dumping bucket, hook, or platform.
RC Police Defender
The RC Police Defender is based on the RC Dozer chassis, and as such, is a four-wheel drive tracked vehicle with lift arms. These arms are attached to a connect point for any of several building pieces, which can be used to create a user-designed device for flipping over other vehicles. Decorated as a police armored car, the vehicle is meant for robotic "king of the arena" type battles, or "capture the flag" games, and includes three snap locations to affix the flag pieces. The player controls the movement of the vehicle, and the up/down action of the arms.
RC Fire & Rescue
The RC Fire & Rescue is the representation of the RC Emergency Speedster, decorated in fire engine colors, and outfitted with a working rescue claw and arm that flips overturned vehicles upright. The fastest Rokenbok vehicle, it has player-operated flashing lights and a siren. It comes with a firehouse building set which implements the Rok'n Roadways system that was introduced about the same time.
RC Dozer
The Rokenbok RC Dozer moves on tracks, and has a large floating blade which pushes material, similarly to a real-world bulldozer. Primarily, the material consists of ROKS and Barrels, but building pieces can be pushed as well, and beams can be lifted with the two tabs which extend out from the blade on either side. The player can move the blade up and down, as well as directionally move the RC Dozer with the control pad. Newer versions have operating headlights, and come with a small building set which can be built as a recycling center. The structure sorts barrels and ROKs, and diverts them to holding areas for pick-up.
RC Forklift
The RC Forklift operates like a real forklift, lifting beam blocks, lifting pallets and containers and placing them on the ground or on racks by using a boom arm with two forks on the end. The forklift travels by using standard wheels and the same controls as any other ground-based Rokenbok vehicle. It comes with a warehouse building set, which has pallets, containers, and racks included.
RC Monorail Freighter
The RC Monorail is arguably the easiest Rokenbok vehicle to drive, as only forward and reverse movement is possible. It travels on a user-constructed track composed of standard Rokenbok building beams and blocks. No special track is required. It has an attached car with a player-controlled side-dumping hopper (which self straightens), and a working headlight. It has a built-in cruise-control feature the player can activate.
RC Power Sweeper
The RC Power Sweeper operates similarly to a real-world street sweeper. A rotating brush grabs and channels ROKs up and into a storage area, which becomes essentially a dump bed when filled with several ROKs. The ROKs are then either dumped from the bed through a tipping action which drops a tailgate in the rear, or by reversing the direction of the brush, which discharges the ROKs out of the front of the vehicle. The player controls the movement of the RC Sweeper, the rotation of the brush (forward or reverse), and the raising action that dumps the ROKs.
RC Skip Track
The RC Skip Track is much like a skid steer or Bobcat. It has a bucket that is level to the ground when lowered, rotated 90 degrees when half-lifted, and dumps when fully lifted. The vehicle uses tracks instead of wheels to move around.
RC Elevator
The elevator is a platform that uses gears on each side to move along vertical gear racks mounted on the inner sides of the shaft. The platform is one beam wide by two beams long, capable of hoisting two vehicles simultaneously, but designed primarily for one. There is an included attachment that allows the RC Monorail Freighter to make use of the elevator via a track connection on either end. The set has been discontinued.
RC Emergency Speedster
The RC Emergency Speedster is an accident-response vehicle, and as such is the (formerly) fastest RC vehicle in the Rokenbok fleet. In addition to driving the vehicle, the player can activate flashing lights and a siren through separate control pad commands. The Speedster includes two crew members, barricades, and traffic cones. It was discontinued and replaced by the RC Fire & Rescue Vehicle, which is basically the same vehicle platform, but is fire engine-styled and includes a claw-like hitch arm for setting overturned vehicles upright.
Action accessories
ROK-Lift
The Power ROK-Lift is a Rokenbok accessory which is used to take a large load of ROKs up at to a high point of a Rokenbok build. The ROK-Lift has a plate on the front as a button to operate an elevating mechanism similar to the RC Elevator. The mechanism contains gears which ride along a Rokenbok piece called "Elevator Racks" with grooved edges designed for the ROK Lift and the RC Elevator. An RC vehicle dumps ROKs into a storage bin on either side of the lift module, then bumps into the button to start the elevating motion; once the module reaches a cap piece, the bins automatically dump into a receiving container or chute, and the module returns to the bottom.
Night Shift Trailer
The Night Shift Trailer is a trailer which can be hitched on by any Rokenbok vehicle, and driven to the desired location. The trailer is related to a highway construction sign, meant to direct RC vehicles out of the way of the construction site. The sign features two LED flood-lights, and two LED direction lights, pointing right, left, or both ways. The LED lights are activated by hand.
Motorized Conveyor
The Motorized Conveyor is a motorized device which carries ROKs up. The Motorized Conveyor is 12 inches by 4" in diameter. The Motorized Conveyor uses an optical sensor to detect when ROKs are in the bottom of the lift. There is a spinning wheel with grooves which pushes the ROKs so that they do not get stuck, and so they can be fed into the lift. The original Conveyor belt came in the A/C plug version, where a command deck was needed with an "accessory" port for plugging in the motorized conveyor accessory. Soon after, Rokenbok created a battery operated Motorized Conveyor to eliminate wires and save electricity. The current Conveyors come in orange and brown, and red and yellow.
Construction system
Beams and blocks
The construction system features beams and blocks that interlock to create structures. There are two lengths of beams, one seven blocks long the other three blocks long. These have tabs on the ends that connect to the blocks. Because beams are like blocks, but longer, it is possible to connect a beam at any interval down the beam.
ROK and chute systems
Rokenbok contains a user-constructed chute system. This includes the ROK Motorized Conveyor, hoppers, sorting chutes, trap door chutes, along with many other curve pieces. Hoppers will sort the ROK balls in one of two directions depending on where the balls fall. Sorting chutes will force the red ROK balls to fall through a hole that the blue ROKs can't go through. Trap door chutes have a hinged door that you can open or close, then deciding if the ROKs will move on or not.
Monorail train system
The monorail system, introduced in 2000, uses beams and blocks just like the regular building system. There are curved and "s" beams as well to create turns or sloped (for ascending and descending) track. Rokenbok makes riser beams which are two blocks long with tabs on only one end to support the track since the monorail train itself hangs down over the sides of the track for balance and blocks the side connection holes on the beams.
Controls
The Rokenbok vehicles, crane, and elevator are controlled through up to four control pads using the RC unit, and unlimited controllers using ROK Star controllers. The control pads, which are similar in design to a video game control pad, consist of three sections, the left contains the four-way directional pad, or D-pad, that controls the movement of the vehicles. On the center of each control pad is a button which the player presses to cycle through available units and vehicles that can be controlled (up to eight, chosen by setting a LED light on a number 1-8, presented in a circular fashion, each corresponding to the numbered radio keys in each vehicle on the Classic RC base, or on the ROK star controller, there is a large "R" button the operator presses and holds and then points at a ROK star vehicle to select it). On the right section, there are four function buttons: A, B, X, and Y. They have different functions for each vehicle. The ROK star controller also has some buttons to sound a siren (and change its pitch) and sound back-up alarms. Above each handle, at the top of the control pad, are two shoulder buttons. The left-hand shoulder button will switch to the last vehicle the player used; the right-hand shoulder button will slow the vehicle down. The D-pad and shoulder buttons provide the same function for each vehicle.
References
- : San Diego Union-Tribune series by Bruce Bigelow chronicling the history of Rokenbok Toy Company's creation and early development