Hi GraviTrax fans! This is Chris from the Masked Marble.
Guess what? GraviTrax C is coming out in September. What is GraviTrax C? Let's find out!
In September 2022, the GraviTrax C universe is launching. GraviTrax
C stands for GraviTrax Connect. GraviTrax C is all about connecting. Here's the description we've
seen: “Each of the GraviTrax C extensions has an electronic element that allows you
to communicate with your GraviTrax track, and control the course that your marbles will take.
Learn the basics of coding as you can communicate on the red, blue, and green channels.”
Now, I am going to take that description and make some educated guesses. I could be wrong,
but I believe this is how GraviTrax C will work. First of all it says “learn the basics of coding.”
That implies that there will be an app that allows you to control the elements based on
a programming logic flow. It also says that you can communicate on red, blue, and green channels.
Well, let's take a look at the extensions that we know of so far. Look at these two.
They both have an LED. I am assuming that this is an RGB LED that Ravensburger is putting in these
elements. An RGB LED is a red green blue LED. It's 1 LED that can show 3 different colors, and
actually any combination of colors, by combining red, green, and blue together. I am assuming that
this LED will show the color that this particular extension is set to. It looks like that LED is
also a push button that would allow a user to toggle which channel the extension is set to.
Now let’s look on the left. There is a switch. There are no
tabs on that switch that would allow a marble going through the switch to toggle it.
Therefore this switch must be electronically actuated. There is also a push button behind
the switch, which I assume allows a user to manually toggle the switch. But since
it can be electronically toggled, then we could programmatically control which way the marbles go,
because the description said you can control the course that your marbles will take.
On the right, I believe that is a sensor. The reason I believe it is a sensor is,
let’s take a look at the cover of the Starter Set Onset Set. Starter Set Onset Set.
That kind of is a tongue twister. Near the end of this course you see that this piece is
right before the landing pad. Therefore I don't think it is a launcher or like a marble cannon,
because that would not make sense right before the landing pad. Therefore I think
this is merely a sensor that senses when a marble goes through it, and sends a signal
that can then trigger another action on one of the other GraviTrax C action tiles.
You see, it looks like it's communicating back to a launch pad. It looks like this is an electronic
launch pad that can launch marbles electronically. I don't know if it does that by spinning. It's
hard to see the details. But it looks like you can hold six marbles that could be launched
electronically, which would be cool.
So this is the Starter Set Onset. It looks like it comes with at least
those two GraviTrax C components. I don't know what other GraviTrax C components are in it,
but I would assume if it had more, they would be shown on the front of the box. So I am assuming
that the Starter Set OnSet only comes with those two GraviTrax C electronic parts / extensions.
Okay, let's take a look at what else is in the GraviTrax C universe. We have
seen a picture of an electronic scoop. Now, the scoop still has the weight marbles on it.
Therefore, I assume that it still uses those marbles and gravity to lift
a marble on the track. Therefore, it would make sense that the electronic portion of the scoop
is a self-resetting function… a scoop that could reset itself without having to manually reset it.
The other option, and maybe it’s both of these, would be sensing which position the scoop is in.
And lastly, there is an electronic lift coming. This lift is a stair lift that is wrapped around
a cylinder. So it is a curved stair lift. Now, the only detail we know about this
stair lift is that it is 7 height tiles tall. So it can bring several balls up 7 height tiles
without manual intervention. So this is the same height as the pillars in the Pro Series.
So these are the fun things that are coming with GraviTrax C in September of 2022.
We’ll have to find out more details as Ravensburger releases them next week.
Thanks for joining me, and we'll see you next time on The Masked Marble for more GraviTrax news!