Robotime and the worlds you build yourself

Behind Rolife there is no single artist, but the Chinese company Robotime and a team of more than 500 designers. It began with a wooden dinosaur and arrived at miniature rooms and characters made for collecting.

A company, not an artist

Robotime was founded in October 2007 in China. Its founder, Andy, studied mechanical engineering and was obsessed with robots — he wanted static models to start moving. With that idea he won a startup competition held by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and secured the company's first funding. You won't find an artist's name on Rolife boxes: every house and every character is the work of a team, signed with the brand's name.

From dinosaur to dollhouse

In 2008 Robotime built the world's first wooden, electric, build-it-yourself T-Rex. Music boxes and the first miniature houses followed, and in 2016 a whole DIY miniature house series — the one from which everything you now associate with Rolife grew: tiny flower shops, cafés and libraries with real light glowing inside.

Brands under one roof

Nanci and Suri

In 2019 Rolife released its first original character. Nanci is a girl with two buns, closed eyes and her head tilted to one side, as if she were blowing bubbles. With her, Rolife became a character brand, not just a model maker. After Nanci came Suri — a wanderer through fairy-tale lands who, in the Magical Animal series, dresses up as magical creatures.

A world to assemble

You slide a book nook between the books on your shelf, and suddenly there is a Tokyo alleyway or a potion shop in your bookcase. Rooms from the Super Creator series connect into a larger house, and ROKR mechanical marble runs genuinely work once assembled. Everything starts from flat sheets, glue and patience — and that is exactly where the pleasure lies: building isn't the prelude to play, it is the play. For every product sold, Robotime donates part of the proceeds to tree planting through One Tree Planted.

Brand website: Rolife · Robotime