By Andrew Liszewski
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so somewhere the inventor of Lite Brite must be blushing because the Illumino looks awfully familiar to me. The bulb shaped pegs (what innovation!) glow as they’re inserted into the perforated canvas, and the base has a series of covered compartments to store the collection of 160 multicolored pegs it comes with.
While the size of Illumino’s pegs actually means your artistic creations will have a lower resolution than the ones I made on my Lite Brite as a kid, it does include a built-in timer that will cause the backlight to gently glow for about 15 minutes, allowing it to also be used as a night light. So suck on that Hasbro!
You can find Illumino at HearthSong for $49.98. And just for reference, Amazon sells the current version of the real Lite Brite for $44.99, which means Illumino doesn’t even get a point for being a cheaper knock-off. Lame!
umm…not to mention it looks exactly like a 4rd generation iMac.
^^beat me to it