Engineering Students Compete to Create Tallest Toy

When I was a kid my parents were fairly liberal about the kinds of toys I could have, with one big constraint: whatever I got had to fit in my very small bedroom. So the massive super toys built as part of Southern Methodist University’s challenge to design the world’s tallest toy would have definitely been off limits.

Earlier this month, a group of SMU students spent a weekend trying to top the current Guinness World Record of 103 feet using Superstructs, a building set that works like the old Tinker Toys I used to have.

Five teams created 20-ft.-tall (or bigger) prototypes. The winners (students Michelle Kim, Caleb Pool, Drew Halverstadt, and Christina Chase) came up with a 35-ft.-tall octagon structure. They’ll be flown to Washington, D.C., to oversee construction of the full-scale design at the National Building Museum next September.

The contest was sponsored by toy manufacturer WABA fun, in conjunction with the SMU Lyle School of Engineering.

Watch a video intro of the contest below.

Source: SMU