Hape Sensations Design Wizard: Wilfried Braun Wilfried Braun ● Toy Inventor ● Germany ● Strengths: Abstract and reverse thinking ● Featured Designs: Quadrilla marble runs, Twiddler Brain Teaser Puzzles ● Wilfried Braun is not a toy designer. However he designed Quadrilla marble runs and Twiddler Brain Teaser Puzzles which have gained universal appeal. This obvious at the World Maker Faire in New York on 21st and 22nd September, when American were so impressed with the toys they played with, they asked for his signature and photo with him when they made their purchase. Once an electrical engineer, Wilfried was worshiped like a rock star! Quadrilla: When Love Combines with Creativity Combining marbles and racetracks, speed and rotation. This is the fundamental idea of Quadrilla where the world’s first marble run rolls on a horizontal plane. 14 years ago, a German electronics engineer Wilfried Braun was walking his 4-year-old son through a local Christmas market, when all of a sudden the two were totally amazed by a traditional marble toy. Then an idea came into being that they’d like to try it out by themselves. A simple drill machine and saw were the only tools available. Because of lack of the right tools, they cut a slot in band of wood to make a path for the marbles and a hole in the blocks to speed up the marble to run horizontally. With this first sample they built a classic marble run where the marbles run from left to right and roll down layer by layer. When the two holes in one rail were not enough, they drilled two additional holes on each rail. These additional holes allowed the flexible system come to life. This was the birth of Quadrilla. Quadrilla is derived from the combination of two German words –"Quader" and "Rille", meaning "bricks" and "slots" respectively, which are also the main components of Quadrilla. Marble run builders can discover the magic behind Quadrilla through the 180-degree horizontal tracks, color-coordinated bricks and colorful marbles. They can also create their own melodies with the Music Motion Set which includes xylophone keys that are placed into different building pieces. This year, eight sets of Quadrilla marble runs have earned the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Seal Award in the USA. The sets are suitable for players from 4 to 99 years old to develop intelligence and deepen parent-child relationship. Furthermore, the Co-Founder of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Stephanie Oppenheim, enthusiastically regards Quadrilla as one of her favorite toy collections. Twiddler: Dazzling Mandalas! The idea for Twiddler Brain Teaser Puzzles, the latest favorite work of Wilfried Braun, can be traced back to childhood of the inventor. Young Wilfried was fond of mandalas and he used to color the leaves and triangle petals as he sat in his mother’s kitchen on rainy afternoons. His idea was to create a game with overlapping circles made by puzzles of leaves, triangles and other bigger shapes, so that colorful patterns could be moved and switched in circles to get new figures. A players’ logical thinking and strategic capabilities can be developed by forming varieties of patterns, and they can decide on the difficulty level by using more or less colored tiles. There is no frustration about high level or less challenge, and it always can go back to the starting point. Twiddler is a combination brain teaser and puzzle with the possibility of creating beautiful patterns. Like most development projects, Twiddler has gone through several versions of planning, design and redesign. Over the years the all obstacles were overcome and today with the its recent launch, Twiddler has received recognition and acknowledgement from its players. As we are all responsible for our environment and natural resources, Twiddler trays are made from renewable material Arboform LV 3. The "liquid wood" has perfectly interpreted the meaning of green toy. In this sense, Wilfried Braun is not toy designer, yet he is one of the most extraordinary inventors among Hape’s outstanding international designer team. All inventions of Wilfried were inspired with love and passion that help children’s mental and physical developments. Wisdom, creativity, and love are the resources of his innovative power. (Photographer: Joan Lee) 8