Given the choice of a cardboard box or the Xbox One games console, which do you prefer?
It doesn’t look much, but a cardboard box comes with endless possibilities. Image by Myimagine (via Shutterstock).
Games consoles or cardboard playthings? A cardboard box or the Xbox One? Which do you prefer? In Newcastle, Australia, they have taken undertaken a scheme known as the Cardboard Box Challenge. The challenge is about boosting imaginative play. It is part of a global scheme organised by the Imagination Foundation.
The Imagination Foundation was inspired by a film entitled Caine’s Arcade. In this short film, a young lad in America created an amusement arcade made of cardboard boxes. With grab machines and other amusements, everything has been designed by the nine-year-old child of a car spares shop owner. Here’s the heartwarming film.
Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.
Let’s Compare:
Xbox One
- Price: £239.99 (Tesco, Minecraft bundle);
- Age: almost three years old;
- Games Available: 1,008 (as of 30 January 2017);
- Peripherals: wireless control pads, stereo headsets;
- Power Supply: 230 Volts AC, 50Hz, three-pin plug (included).
Microsoft’s Xbox One offers hours of pixelated fun for all the family, but fun is limited to the number of games you have in your software library. Also as to how many add-ons you can afford. Unlike cardboard, an Xbox One is useless in a power cut or without internet access. Adult supervision may be required, especially if the console needs switching off.
One Cardboard Box
- Price: readily available free of charge – ask at your local supermarket;
- Age: cardboard has been with us since the early 20th century;
- Games Available: Infinite;
- Peripherals: bubble wrap, polystyrene, poster paints, PVA glue, felt tips;
- Power Supply: anyone big enough to climb into a cardboard box.
Cardboard boxes are a most flexible plaything. The bigger they are, the better. They can be improvised as cribs, caves, make-believe electrical goods. Their flexibility is unrivalled: customisation options may include poster paints, PVA glue, and other cardboard boxes. Cheap and very cheerful indeed, but keep away from fire.
Romiley Board Mill, 01 February 2017.
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