Screenshot: Teenage Engineering
Teenage Engineering, the Swedish electronics firm, is known for its beautiful but pricey products—the bulk of which amount to functionalist art. Need a $1600 aluminum desk? TE’s got you covered. How about a $2,000 set of singing, wooden dolls? Again, the company is there to serve. We also wouldn’t have the Nothing Phone—arguably, one of the coolest-looking phones to ever exist—without the company’s helping hand.
Spoilers of the Week April 18-22
Well, Teenage Engineering has debuted yet another one of its pricey playthings for adults and it’s about what you’d expect: a $250 toy car.
The new product, which Teenage Engineering calls a “grip car,” is made with aluminum, steel, and smooth ball bearing rubber wheels, and the company’s website says its designed so that you can “simply grip onto the car, and move it in any direction.” Yep, that’s pretty much how a toy car works! TE also says that the car comes in red, black, and aluminum coloring, and was designed by the Danish designer Anders Hermansen.
It’s a bit unclear who the target demographic for this product is. Maybe a really rich child with weirdly minimalist tastes? A C-suite exec who needs a desk ornament but also wants to play with it in between Zoom meetings? At any rate, nobody’s saying it’s not a cool product. It just might not be what you’d call a necessity buy.
That said, Teenage Engineering seems be gearing up for something decidedly more exciting than its underwhelming new toy. The company’s website is currently alight with shifting graphics, the likes of which seem to portend some upcoming event. A company spokesperson recently confirmed to Engadget that a big announcement will be forthcoming at some point Wednesday. TE fans should hold tight for whatever that announcement ends up being (hopefully it’s not just another toy car).