You're reading: Innovative Ukrainian toys, gadgets, services that make great holiday gifts

Christmas and New Year’s Eve will soon be upon us, so it’s time to get presents for friends and loved ones.

Fortunately, plenty of Ukrainian companies and startups have created innovative toys, games, gadgets, and services that will make for good gifts.

Time for Machine

With its sleek functioning designs, Time for Machine takes children and their parents back in time when there were no gadgets. The startup produces mechanical models that, after they are assembled, make for great toys or beautiful pieces of interior design.

The best models — which include a train, a tank and a plane — are constructed out of metal cogwheels, struts and panels that can be put together with no glue.

Assembled, all of them move or have movable parts. The plane model, for example, has spinning propellers that move once wound up. Meanwhile, the cars can move, have opening doors and compartments.

Each model comes with a manual in several languages and can be assembled with tiny pliers and by hands. Some have plywood molds that help adjust the form of some elements.

Time for Machine also has a few wooden models — a nod to its founder Denys Okhrimenko’s previous business Ugears. Okhrimenko was pushed out of this million-dollar company by his former partner, but he bounced back to create new, more sophisticated wooden and metal models.

Prices for Time for Machine metal models range from $26 (a card case) to $160 (a train), and for wooden models — from $34 (a spider) to $46 (a bulldozer). Most models can be bought right away, but some have to be pre-ordered.

Time for Machine: $26–$160 at www.timeformachine.com.

Children play with PAGL Family Store Kit that has 111 building blocks and decorative elements. (PAGL)

PAGL

Another of Okhrimenko’s innovative projects is PAGL — large-scale construction kits for children to build structures the size of a person.

The kits consist of brick-sized blocks made of cardboard, which makes them light, safe and 100% environment-friendly. They are colored with natural dies.

When designing PAGL, Okhrimenko wanted to create a universal building material for children to build houses, forts and towers when there’s no snow or sand for these purposes.

PAGL is available in four kits, each containing 111 multi-colored building blocks. Taken apart, the blocks can be neatly packed away in a box the size of a suitcase, taking up little space at home.

PAGL blocks resemble egg cartons. Their creator Okhrimenko says they were carefully designed to have perfect dimensions, weight, density and elements that allow even 3-year-old children to build tall towers. They won’t lose their shape even under weight or when exposed to water.

Prices for PAGL kits in Ukraine range from $55 to $72. For international sales, the price of PAGL kits is higher due to shipment costs — from $102 to $114.

PAGL: In Ukraine, $55–$72 at www.pagl-corp.com and the Antoshka toy stores. Internationally, $102–$114 at www.paglcorp.com.

Frogwares studio’s latest game “The Sinking City” tells the story of a war veteran who investigates the mysteries of a flooded city in Massachusetts, USA in the 1920s while trying to preserve his sanity in a world inspired by the horror stories of H. P. Lovecraft. (Frogwares)

Video game ‘The Sinking City’

For adults that like video games, a horror investigation game “The Sinking City” could be a gift to give at least 20 hours of fun and immersive play.

It’s the latest game by the Ukrainian Frogwares studio, where it used its innovative “free investigation” concept. Unlike other detective games, where investigations are heavily scripted and set in a linear environment, “The Sinking City” lets players freely pursue any cases without much in-game guidance.

Frogwares is best known for its “Sherlock Holmes” game series that are among the world’s most popular in the detective video game genre. But instead of using their new “free investigation” techniques for another game based on the books by Arthur Conan Doyle, the studio turned to another classic author — horror fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

“The Sinking City” is set in a world inspired by the books of Lovecraft, the kind that scares readers with phenomena beyond human comprehension. The video game tells the story of a war veteran who investigates the mysteries of a flooded city in Massachusetts, the United States, in the 1920s while trying to remain sane.

The studio says that their decision to turn from the rationality of Doyle to the madness of Lovecraft was in many ways informed by the sudden start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in the Donbas in 2014.

“‘The Sinking City’ would not be as dark and grim without Donbas,” Sergey Oganesyan, Frogwares’ community manager, told the Kyiv Post.

“The Sinking City” is available for the three major video game platforms — computers, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One. It ranges from $56 to $76, depending on the edition.

“The Sinking City”: $60–$76 at www.thesinkingcity.com.

A young lady writes with the Nuka “eternal’ stationaries. Notes in the Nuka notepad can be easily erased and written over, and the Nuka pencil is made of a special metallic alloy that never runs out. (Nuka)

Nuka

This gift can last forever.

Or at least for many years. Meet Nuka, an “eternal” stationary that combines a notebook and a pen, which paper and ink never runs out.

The Nuka notepad is made of durable, waterproof materials resistant to tearing and other physical damage. Notes can be written there and then easily erased. A mobile app that goes with it stores photographs of the notes online.

The pen — which is in fact a metal stylus — is made of a special metallic alloy. It doesn’t need to be sharpened and lasts forever. For its design, Nuka won the prestigious Red Dot design award in 2019.

Three young Ukrainians invented Nuka when they were just 17 years old. One of them is Kateryna Mykhalko, now 18, this year’s winner of the Kyiv Post’s Top 30 Under 30 Award.

Nuka notebook and pencil can now be pre-ordered for $69 through Indiegogo crowdfunding website. It will start shipping in January.

Nuka: $70 for a notebook and pencil pack at www.nuka.me.

Ajax Systems produces a wireless security system for residential and business premises. (Ajax Systems)

Ajax

The year 2020 — and the years that follow, in fact — can become much safer if one gets the Ajax Systems wireless security alarms as a gift.

The Ukrainian company founded in 2011, now produces 20 devices that monitor and control most aspects of people’s homes, making them smart and secure.

The high-tech company produces a wireless security system for homes and businesses that includes sensors to detect intruders, fire and flooding. It also makes gadgets to control household appliances, climate, locks, and lighting. The system reacts to real dangers but ignores false alarms, such as animals running around or thunderclaps.

All Ajax devices connect to the system’s central hub that collects their information via Ajax’s own radio technology called Jeweller. The hub, in turn, connects to a mobile app via both Ethernet and GSM (GPRS), allowing users to take full control of their homes from far away.

Besides, the Ajax devices have a sleek design and come in two colors, black and white, so they can suit any home.

Ajax kits range from $245 to $320 and can be complemented with additional cameras and sensors ranging from $40 to $135.

Ajax: $245–$320 at www.ajax.systems.

Grammarly helps improve English-language text with grammar and spell-checking tools, provides suggestions on context-specific language, clarity, engagement, tone and delivery. (Grammarly)

Grammarly

Since English writing skills have become so crucial for professional success around the world, one of the best gifts to give is a subscription to Grammarly — a service that helps improve any English-language text.

The Ukrainian company founded in 2009 with only some simple grammar and spell-checking tools, now provides suggestions on context-specific language, clarity, engagement and delivery. This year, Grammarly also released a tone detector tool, which identifies whether a message sounds friendly or formal, for example, and helps tailor the tone to a specific audience.

The program uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve any text the user inputs. It works with messengers, email clients or online word processors through a web browser extension. It can also check text in desktop apps, on smartphones with special Grammarly keyboards and as an add-on for Microsoft Office.

Grammarly learns from the vast amount of writing it processes and adjusts its recommendations based upon usage. Users can select whether they want to write in American or British English.

Grammarly’s basic spelling and punctuation checker is free. A subscription to the more sophisticated tools that check for genre-specific writing, tone and consistency as well as detect plagiarism ranges from $30 for a month to $140 for a year ($12 per month).

Grammarly: $23 per month and $140 per year at www.grammarly.com.