Synopsis of Toy

Capsela was the happy medium between Legos and those Radio Shack 50-in-1 electronics kits: You got to build stuff, plus you got to do a little electrical engineering. But lest you think this “science discovery toy” was strictly for nerds, we should point out that these engineered models included cars, robots, bulldozers, pontoon boats, cranes and tanks. Okay, it was still mostly for nerds, but didn’t we all have a little bit of nerd buried somewhere in us?

The heart of any good Capsela set were those roundish clear plastic capsules with knobs sticking out of the top, bottom and sides. These were your building blocks, and they were amazingly versatile. Some capsules had a small electric motor inside, others had tiny gears, and others simply served as filler. Depending on the set, your Capsela building materials may have included everything from wheels (large and small) to a chain drive, fans, girder-like connectors, pulleys, and even yellow plastic pontoons for floating watercraft.

Your job was to assemble these blocks into the design of your choice, be it land- or water-based. The Capsela manual gave a few suggested models, but as we all know, learning toys are all about experimentation, no matter how horribly awry it may go.

Another plastic capsule was shaped to hold batteries, the spark needed to give your mechanical Frankensteinian creation life. Hook up the red and blue wires to that motor capsule, switch the thing to “on,” and watch your new toy roll, walk or glide across the water (the batteries were airtight, by the way, in case you’re having horrible visions of bathtime play turned shocking).

Capsela toys were never as widely popular as Legos, but they had a very devoted following among future engineers, electricians, and kids who just liked building stuff that actually worked. Over the years, Capsela incorporated computer controls, futuristic designs, and even voice control, but the classic capsules, wheels and pontoons are still there and waiting to be combined into the toy of your dreams. Go ahead… let your inner nerd out.

Release History of Toy

1978 - Capsela

Sub Categories of Toys

electronic toys
models

Toy and Game Manufacturer

Play-Jour, Play-Tech

Other Toy Links