by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief

You may have heard that another brand of magnet novelty has recently come under attack by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This myopic attack by the CPSC on that other brand has now put all brands of powerful magnets under scrutiny and endangered not only the fun of building, creating, and learning with Nanodots and competing products, but also threatened all the jobs of those that manufacture, market, and sell these wonderful learning tools.

Not one to sit still and let their competitors have all the “fun”, Nano Magnetics, Ltd., the creators of Nanodots have now taken some serious steps to ensure that their awesome products are recognized as the safest such products could possibly be. Nanodots have three new features:

1. The new Color Coated Nanodots utilize AversiveTech™, a new patent pending technology developed by Nano Magnetics. These Nanodots are infused with a very strong aversive taste. Did you Know: Infants have the highest sensitivity to taste. Our sense of taste gets worse as we get older! AversiveTech™ does not wash off, is extremely durable and the degree of aversion can be modified according to requirements. Strangely, as powerful as the bitter taste is, there is no smell at all.
2. They’ve added a further warning on the bottom cap that can be clearly seen when the NANO canister is assembled.
3. The New packaging reassembles to form a durable canister. It hides the Nanodots from sight for those who may be attracted to shiny metallic spheres and is very difficult for infants (or small children) to open. Here is how to assemble the canister:

If you have not yet tried Nanodots, it’s probably for the best. They are addictive for anyone, but let your ADD geek friends get hold of just one set, and you will see how quickly that lovely learning addiction will spark into a raging inferno of mathematical nerdgasm of joy with extra sciency amazeballs awesomesauce!

I may have said too much.

How can you learn more about what you can create with Nanodots? First start at http://dotpedia.com. There you can check out thousands of creations from beginner through professional levels. Comic geeks might appreciate this profile in particular, as Eewok uses Nanodots to create two-dimensional logos and fan art. While were happy to see our friend Joe from SceneSnaps.com, where the heck are the photos of the ComicsOnline staff with our creations at the Wired Lounge at San Diego Comic-Con 2012?

The bottom line is: Screw the man. Cigarettes kill how many people each year? …And yet the CPSC wants to ban the sale of magnets? What kind of stupid government… Nevermind. Again: Too much.

The sub-bottom line is: Nanodots are freakin awesome. Except now that the safety scare has caused Nano Magnetics to reformulate the coatings with AversiveTech™, you’ll want to wash your hands after using them, as the AversiveTech™ flavor will get on your hands and the bitterness is quite powerful. In fact, we tested the flavor on a kid in the video below…

ComicsOnline gives Nanodots Magnetic Constructors 5 out of 5 amazeballs (made safer with AversiveTech™).

Keep building your magnetic lattice back to ComicsOnline.com for more product reviews and everything geek pop culture!