zounds

The Zizzle Zoundz is a psychedelic electronic music toy that looks to me like it might be as much fun for parents as it is for kids.

Apparently it uses RFID embedded in the pieces that act as triggers.

Here’s the official description:

Zoundz creates a fusion of self- composed music with an accompanying light show. With it, users can create musical light shows never seen before. They can create their own riffs by placing one of Zoundz TM’ pawns on an interactive “hot spot” on the sound board. Each pawn associates with the sound it makes and by placing them on different locations and in different combinations, users can compose music all their own.

The music portion can be fine tuned with the mode switch which enables users to adjust the tempo of the music, raise and lower the volume, increase or decrease an echo, or sustain and draw out specific sounds. Each interactive “hot spot” lights up when a pawn is placed on it and will groove to the tempo of your music.

The color of the light also reflects what type of music the pawn produces with red indicating a sharper tone while blue reflects softer more soothing sounds.

Here are a couple of videos that show the Zoundz in action.

This looks like it could have great circuit-bending potential. Reminds me a lot of the AudioCubes, too!