BathySphere bathtub water toy
rugged construction
Design Intent
What is Little Tikes?
To design a water themed toy for Little Tikes that provokes the child’s imagination while challenging their hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
Little Tikes is a producer of children’s products that range from ride-on toys to backyard sandboxes and play forts, creative arts and juvenile furniture. Little Tikes products cover a wide range of ages and levels of child development, from infants to 4+ years.
empowering play patterns
To design concepts for Little Tikes provided the opportunity to study brand language and create a product that fits in with someone else’s aesthetic.
SANDCASTLES!!
1 Bathysphere
classic design
bubble-blowing manta kite
Initial Thoughts crab claw sand shovel
Initial ideas focused on the beach and backyard as play settings. Concepts ranged from sand castle building equipment to ride-ons.
pirate spin-a-whirl with water cannon
tentacle sand-packing glove ship-to-ship cannon battles
screw-driven pedal boat
beach trike wagon
body doubles as beverage cooler
robot submarine wagon
Bathysphere 2
Refinement Although initial concepts were based outdoors, my final direction took things towards a submarine diving experience in the bathtub.
water effects powered by faucet
each porthole displays different deep sea creature
modular portholes held to tile by suction
‘steampunk’ design cues
early abstract geometric form studies
3 Bathysphere
Refinement Cont’d I wanted to create a deep sea diving experience, so my designs function as a submarine command post. Inspiration from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as well as real submarine vessels inform the aesthetic.
Bathysphere 4
Bathy-Sphere The Little Tikes Bathy-Sphere brings deep sea adventure to the bathtub! The 3-4 year old will experience the exciting hunt for treasure, the discovery of new sea creatures and the basics of submarine operation.
Benefits The Bathy-Sphere encourages interaction and promotes motor skills and hand-eye coordination through simple cause and effect water features.
5 Bathysphere
Pump All of Bathy-Sphere’s features are human powered via water pump. Water is drawn through a hose from the bath itself.
Pressure Gauges/Sonar Pressure gauges spin wildly and the sonar pings back and forth to give the pilot the status of their vessel as well as the position of any bogies from the depths.
Bathysphere 6
Treasure/Creatures
Spray Nozzles
Coins with various sea critters on the surface are placed in the top specimen tube.
The specimen then swirls around the porthole for examination.
nozzles located in the five rivets surrounding the port window ‘leak’ water.
suction cups mounted on a flexible rubber strip allow for a variety of secure positions Finally the specimen is released back into the wild to be restudied.
7 Bathysphere
Suction Cups
Bathysphere’s large scale fully immerses the child in the deep sea diving experience, giving the impression that they’re inside a real submarine!
Bathysphere 8