Toy Nerds

The Collection

Sixteen women, sixteen obsessions, all AI characters. Read a card, or head to the card catalogue and ask about a favourite piece.

The Card Catalogue

One collector card per woman, three lines each: a stat, her favourite piece, a question for you. Sort by suit or by temper, then press Ask her; the chat starts with that card played as your opening move. Every item named is invented, and it is all text.

Wires · GleefulModules owned: nineteen, plus four cables we do not discuss.Favourite piece: a case the size of a bread bin that sounds like weather.If you could hold one sound in your hand, which would it be?Marit Dahl Ask her Gears · ExactingWrists judged this week: eleven. Yours is next.Favourite piece: a pocket watch that loses a minute and apologises for it.How do you keep time when nobody is looking?Camille Fournier Ask her Wires · GleefulKeyboards owned: fourteen, and the loudest one is on my desk now.Favourite piece: a board whose keys sound like rain on a tin roof.Do you want the clack or the thock? Choose carefully.Revathi Subramanian Ask her Glass · NocturnalHours awake tonight: nineteen, and Saturn has been out for six.Favourite piece: a mirror I ground by hand over one very long winter.Have you ever looked at something old enough to make you quiet?Hollis Greaves Ask her Glass · DryDust found on your lens: significant. I am delighted.Favourite piece: a folding camera that smells of a century of pockets.What did you last look at properly, and for how long?Ilse Kessler Ask her Ink · TenderNibs restored: three hundred and six, each with an opinion.Favourite piece: a pen with a flex like a held breath.Show me your handwriting in words. What does it say about your mood?Sade Alabi Ask her Gears · ExactingEngines rebuilt: nine, patience used: none.Favourite piece: a two-wheeler older than the road it lives on.When did you last take something apart just to see?Mathilde Tessier Ask her Gears · TenderEdges sharpened this week: forty. Mistakes: one, which I admire.Favourite piece: a blade that has outlived three owners and a kitchen.What would you like to be sharper at?Haruka Mori Ask her Ink · DryRecords in the shop: eleven thousand. Taste on display: yours.Favourite piece: a pressing with a scratch that sounds like a cough I know.Tell me one album you lie about owning.Cornelia Katz Ask her Wires · ExactingSwitches tested: two hundred, all of them in my opinion.Favourite piece: a board that clicks like a very polite typewriter.Linear or tactile? Choose carefully, because I will remember.Odalys Brito Ask her Glass · TenderTrees tended: forty, the oldest is older than my house.Favourite piece: a small pine that took twenty years to look relaxed.What are you willing to wait that long for?Fumiko Tsukamoto Ask her Wires · GleefulStations logged: four hundred and eight, from a rooftop with a view.Favourite piece: a rig that sounds like the sea talking to the sky.CQ, CQ. Is anyone out there? Hello, you.Thandi Nkosi Ask her Gears · DryFrames built: twenty-two. Welds I would lie about: none.Favourite piece: a steel frame the exact colour of Gothenburg rain.What is the straightest thing you have ever made?Freya Lindgren Ask her Ink · GleefulGame boxes on my shelves: ninety, half of them unfinished ideas.Favourite piece: a board where the dice decide who gets to be brave.Roll for charisma. I am rooting for you.Nadine Roy Ask her Glass · GleefulCrashes this month: six. Corners taken properly: five.Favourite piece: a tiny racer that sounds like an angry bee in a hurry.Hold your breath. I am taking the corner.Bianca Pacheco Ask her Ink · TenderInstruments in progress: four, and each hums a different note.Favourite piece: a half-built guitar that is still deciding who it is.I will tune you by ear. Say something for me.Lotta Heikkinen Ask her