Nintendo's cardboard creation kits for the Switch only hit store shelves last Friday, but people have already come up with incredible gadgets, songs and games using the "Labo" framework (and, occasionally, some tape). Whether you think it's the most Japanese product​ or the most Nintendo product the company has released in a good long while, it's clear that "Labo" has hit upon a well of creativity rarely struck by your average toy or video game.

Gadgets

"Labo" users who want to create entirely new functions for their Switch can use the "Toy-Con Garage," which lets users design around the Switch and its sensor-rich controllers via a limited visual programming language. Check out how complicated this simple clock program is when creator @jeremyzorek opens up the web of inputs and outputs:

Here it is! A working #NintendoLabo clock! I plan to add an alarm function, but it's fully programmable to minutes and hours! pic.twitter.com/fG6gAjQeo4 — Jeremy Zorek (@jeremyzorek) April 25, 2018

With the aid of some included cardboard and the infra-red camera on the right Joy-Con controller, @LeavingLuck rigged up a system that tracks how many playing cards have been tossed into a hat:

My first #NintendoLabo ToyCon Garage project aka throwing things at a hat. #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/fCdagEDN1x — Leaving Luck (@LeavingLuck) April 21, 2018

You can also make programs in the "Toy-Con Garage" that take inputs from the Switch's touchscreen, which is how @mithical1 made this program that resembles a midi controller:

The Joy-Con controllers can be used as interesting inputs for a synthesizer, as this eerie drone synth from Navernoesleep on Instagram demonstrates. Listen for the note bending as the red controller is turned on its side:

Music

You don't need to program your own software to make music with "Labo." The variety kit comes with building instructions and polished software for a tiny cardboard piano that you can write and record music on, and people are already pushing it to its limits.

This video from YouTuber Ahngekor2 shows off the piano's special waveform reader. Users can insert a pattern made from a piece of cardboard into the piano and have the infra-red camera scan it, setting the piano to that shape's sound — here's what the included "Fish" card sounds like:

Maker Hunter Irving went a step further and 3D printed a series of waveform cards for the "Labo" piano, yielding great-sounding results that testify to the power of the infra-red scanner (and to how difficult it would be to cut precise waves out of cardboard).

Video Games

Of course, since "Labo" is a Nintendo product people naturally want to make proper games with it too. While you won't see folks making super-complicated games any time soon, a few folks have already figured out how to clone old Nintendo Game & Watch titles — LCD handheld games that preceded the GameBoy — with the aid of some cardboard stencils that cover the screen.

Here's a remake of a game where you catch people falling from the sky:

And another Game & Watch classic based around juggling:

I got way too ambitious with my second #NintendoLabo ToyCon Garage project, and others have beaten me to the punch. But I enjoyed puzzling it out and learnt a lot about what the Garage is capable of. pic.twitter.com/YLhPjxNPaX — Leaving Luck (@LeavingLuck) April 25, 2018

There's certainly potential for more complicated games down the road, but creators are gonna need some more time to squeeze everything they can out of the visual programming tools. This proof-of-concept roulette wheel by Redditor kaeyae suggests that we could see all kinds of games crop up for "Labo."

Please, please can someone make and post instructions for a "Labo" version of "Bop It"?

It'll be exciting to see what people come up with for "Labo" next, but it doesn't all have to be complicated song- and program-writing. Even a little "Labo" RC car painted to look like a Pokémon is worthy of praise in our book.