Over the weekend, Melbourne’s Scienceworks museum played host to a series of workshops previewing Nintendo’s Labo. Labo are cardboard stencils designed for the Nintendo Switch. The kits use the motion controllers and infrared cameras of the console to create a series of cardboard toys, reminiscent of the science kits I would play with as a child.

This bizarre and playful product is so quintessentially Nintendo; it’s hard to imagine another company coming up with the concept, and few have a product like the Switch that could accommodate the idea. Some of the company’s previous experiments, like the motion controlled Wii, or even the Switch itself have gone on to be record breaking hits. Others, like the Virtual Boy or Robotic Operating Buddy, survive only as oddities in museum collections. Reactions to the workshop on Saturday suggest Labo is more the former than the latter.

At the event, families had the opportunity to create a remote control car, the simplest creation from the Variety Kit, one of two Labo kits that will go on sale in late April. Assembling the car took just a few minutes, with easy to follow instructions provided on the Switch screen. The Variety kit features far more complex models that can take an hour or more to assemble; and includes a playable piano, a small interactive house, a motorcycle handlebar, and a fishing rod game.

The final creations feel wonderfully old-fashioned, something about the imperfect folds of the cardboard gives each toy a homemade charm.

At just two years old - “I’m two and a half, daddy!” - my daughter Penny was too young to assemble the remote control car by herself. But she had a great time anyway, decorating the cardboard shell with streamers and googly-eyes, and she was amazed to see her creation come to life when we were done. The older kids in the room had no problem building their cars, and were equally impressed with the final product.