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Description
I'm not a difficult man to figure out. One look at my fan art folder and it's apparent I'm an avid Nintendo fan boy. I was eager and curious enough to give Nintendo Labo a go when it launched back in April. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would! I picked up the Variety Kit and had a wonderful time constructing each of the unique Toy-con's, and learned a lot about the potential of the Nintendo Switch hardware. And I had a lovely teacher to assist me!

This is Lerna Lotte , head programmer at the Labo research facility found in the Discover section of the game. Alongside her partners Gerry Riggs and Plaise Allatyme, these three teach you the ins-and-outs of Toy-con's, explaining how they work, different ways you can customize them, and other ways to have fun with your new cardboard creations! It's all part of the "edutainment" portion of the Nintendo Labo software, to be sure, but I found these characters very charming, and I was falling in love with Lerna's spiels of technological know-how and love of science. It didn't take long for me to want to see her in a predicament like this...

Needless to say, I found myself wondering what it would take to create a "tickling machine". It's actually... much easier than you might expect!!

The Toy-con RC Car included in the Variety Kit not only uses the controller vibrations to move, it can also utilize the Joy-con (R)'s IR (infrared) camera to see whatever's directly in front of it. See the white shiny stickers directly underneath Lerna's feet in both the main image as well as the IR camera view? IR is very good at detecting reflected light, hence the way they're "glowing" in the upper-right corner there. That's how this magic can actually happen: the Toy-con RC Car has an automatic mode! Provided it can see the IR stickers in front of it, it will go to it automatically, be it through an obstacle course or a racetrack made out of reflective tape. But the Toy-con only works best on a flat surface. At an angle, it can only really wiggle back and forth... Hmmm~ Makes sense how this works now, right? The IR camera sees the stickers under Lerna's feet and tries to approach, but it can never truly advance because it's too weighed down by its own controllers. All it can do now is wiggle around, tickling poor Lerna's soles with two very tickly feathers until the batteries peter out! Or someone finds that Switch!! (psssst, it's probably in the box...)

Did you get all that? If so, then you probably realized that, yes, this Toy-con Tickling Machine definitely totally absolutely works!! Who says I don't put any thought into my art!? If anything I overthink this stuff all the time!! I even tried to utilize as many actual Labo pieces as possible when putting this together-- bonus points to anyone who recognizes that big box her feet are on top of! But I'll admit the cardboard handcuffs were something of a creative liberty~ I had a blast drawing this, making this piece my first completed one of the year. I hope the end result is worth it!!

Lerna Lotte and Nintendo Labo © Nintendo

Description
I'm not a difficult man to figure out. One look at my fan art folder and it's apparent I'm an avid Nintendo fan boy. I was eager and curious enough to give Nintendo Labo a go when it launched back in April. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would! I picked up the Variety Kit and had a wonderful time constructing each of the unique Toy-con's, and learned a lot about the potential of the Nintendo Switch hardware. And I had a lovely teacher to assist me!

This is Lerna Lotte , head programmer at the Labo research facility found in the Discover section of the game. Alongside her partners Gerry Riggs and Plaise Allatyme, these three teach you the ins-and-outs of Toy-con's, explaining how they work, different ways you can customize them, and other ways to have fun with your new cardboard creations! It's all part of the "edutainment" portion of the Nintendo Labo software, to be sure, but I found these characters very charming, and I was falling in love with Lerna's spiels of technological know-how and love of science. It didn't take long for me to want to see her in a predicament like this...

Needless to say, I found myself wondering what it would take to create a "tickling machine". It's actually... much easier than you might expect!!

The Toy-con RC Car included in the Variety Kit not only uses the controller vibrations to move, it can also utilize the Joy-con (R)'s IR (infrared) camera to see whatever's directly in front of it. See the white shiny stickers directly underneath Lerna's feet in both the main image as well as the IR camera view? IR is very good at detecting reflected light, hence the way they're "glowing" in the upper-right corner there. That's how this magic can actually happen: the Toy-con RC Car has an automatic mode! Provided it can see the IR stickers in front of it, it will go to it automatically, be it through an obstacle course or a racetrack made out of reflective tape. But the Toy-con only works best on a flat surface. At an angle, it can only really wiggle back and forth... Hmmm~ Makes sense how this works now, right? The IR camera sees the stickers under Lerna's feet and tries to approach, but it can never truly advance because it's too weighed down by its own controllers. All it can do now is wiggle around, tickling poor Lerna's soles with two very tickly feathers until the batteries peter out! Or someone finds that Switch!! (psssst, it's probably in the box...)

Did you get all that? If so, then you probably realized that, yes, this Toy-con Tickling Machine definitely totally absolutely works!! Who says I don't put any thought into my art!? If anything I overthink this stuff all the time!! I even tried to utilize as many actual Labo pieces as possible when putting this together-- bonus points to anyone who recognizes that big box her feet are on top of! But I'll admit the cardboard handcuffs were something of a creative liberty~ I had a blast drawing this, making this piece my first completed one of the year. I hope the end result is worth it!!

Lerna Lotte and Nintendo Labo © Nintendo