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Erector Set Turns 100
GospelHead821 writes: "It's been one hundred years since the first
Erector Set was patented in Europe under the name of Meccano (It is sold under this name in Europe to this day). Unfortunately for Erector, the advent of plastic Lego bricks in 1958 spelled misfortune for the more complex, metal frame construction kit. Erector fans should keep an eye out, though! The Brio Corp. may be looking to reintroduce the Erector Set to the United States sometime soon. I remember playing with an old Erector Set when I was a kid, but I haven't seen one in quite a while. Here's hoping it makes a comeback. As versatile as Legos are, there's just something unconvincing about a Martian Destroyer Robot made out of plastic." My ranking is Capsula > Erector > Tinker Toys > Lincoln Logs > Lego.
A CAD type app that had erector qualities would be neat.
They should call the new version "Viagra". Takes about an hour to build anything interesting anyways!
Oh come one, lincoln logs aren't good for anything. Ohh, I made a log cabin. Big whoop. I made a moving plastic dog that shased my car around with legos.
Mod point free since 2001
Has anybody used an Erector Set in an engineering course in the last 10 years?
They sell it as Meccano in Canada too.
Canada don't need anglofied names.
Some professor over in Britain blames the decline in British engineering on the steady growth in dominance of Lego over Meccano. I can believe it -- Meccano/Erector makes you figure out how to build it and Lego doesn't.
Lego is like a prefab model kit, Erector is more like the further projects in those 180-in-1 breadboard electronics kits.
-- Old Man Kensey
Indeed, capsela is one of those great inventions that never really became popular like lego and erector. Sure, it had some limitations, and the fact that nobody bothered to make a "programmable capsule :-)" but, it was really neat and versaitile ... I built boats, land rovers, cpu coolers (Yes... i know...) , wall climbers, string walkers.... you name it, capsela could do it.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I loved the erector sets. When legos came out, they were almost exclusively static objects, as in none of the stuff could move. Erector sets, hwever, were great for that, and only after a few years did lego come out with the movable blocks and stuff. Now however, they are pretty much even. The erector sets do look cooler though.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
There's a good web page here which has some plans for some cool models (dinosaurs, airplanes, diggers, etc.), and some photos of some pretty weird things made out of Meccano, too. :)
i remember those fondly, they still sit in an unused foot locker of mine. the main advantage of legos is that they don't rust/edges aren't dangerous. I remember building an X-wing out of a combination of an old airliner set and some pieces from a monorail spacestation set. quite an accomplishment. and that was before all of the newfangled specialty pieces (although i had to use some nifty transparent pieces to make the x wing canopy)....R2 droids were always fun, quick and easy to make. 30$ for an x wing kit from lego seems a bit much. any one else remember making star wars models out of legos?
moox. for a new generation.
Personally, having had all of those toys as a kid (with the unfortunate exception of the Erector set), I'd rank Legos above Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs.
I made a lot more interesting and creative things with Legos than I ever did with the other two toys. I mean, there's only so many buildings and fortesses you can make with Lincoln Logs, and I ran into limitations with Tinker Toys really quick thanks to the limited supply of sticks in the sizes I needed.
However, I made an endless array of neat things with Legos. When I was five, I made a robot with moving arms and legs using just basic Legos and the wheel-and-axle Lego bricks which had pegs at the center of each wheel. They made perfect articulation points. I was also fond of space ships and castles long before I ever saw the specialized sets come on the market. (Plus, a space ship with ramparts and stone edifice gave me a lot of amusement after I got those sets.)
Personally, I'd rate it as:
Erector Set > Capsula > Legos > Tinker Toys > Lincoln Logs
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
the erector set was very awesome, and so was lego, but, i have to give it up for G.I.Joe (if there was only more "electronics" involved, we could really have had something). Happy b-day erector.
Remember those, they were slick, don't leave them out. By the way, you can't play with my toys.
sniff...i always wondered what my life would have been like had i been given an erector set. but, alas, i was left with only lincoln logs and legos, and eventually computers, circuit boards, and soldering irons. sniff. oh well. personally, i think that many kids outgrow lincoln logs mighty quickly, as there's only so much you can build. as for lego...they need to sell specific color blocks. i always wanted just black ones and blue ones. down with red and yellow! such is life, it goes on, and now i build cool shit.
I used to LOVE these things. I went looking for them a while back and found they don't make them any more. I'd be thrilled to have them come out again.
No kidding! While I hate that Lego kept adding "special pieces" for practically one purpose, the base set and a few cool thinks like pnuematic pumps could build anything! I used to build entire cities out of base parts until lego started commercializing them with "special parts". Lincoln logs build log houses and huts. Maybe a tower or two.
Sure, you could build a city out of lincoln logs, but when's the last time you've heard of a log city (village) surviving very long?
I remember my first erector set. It was a rusty, moldy, parts-missing-aplenty kit that I found in my closet from my brothers' years. I didn't like them, actually. Legos were much, much better. You couldn't die from cutting yourself while playing with legos, unless you were just stupid.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
> Personally, I'd rate it as:
> Erector Set > Capsula > Legos > Tinker Toys > Lincoln Logs
How 'bout a poll?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I just got back from visiting a small-town toy store with my son. Of course I had to walk by the Lego section. To the right, Legos. To the left, Technic. Further left, K'nex. And behind us...Erector Sets! They had about eight different sets that were available. Now I just have to wait a few more years so I can justify buying them (he's not quite two).
science is a religion
It's capsella, not capsula, though I guess they could both be right..
a lly-oriented toy store, where they sold all sorts of educational gidgets and gadgets. Erector sets were among the construction toys they had, but no legos. Without putting legos down, I always felt that my capsella and construx sets allowed me more creative flexibility. Especially if I wanted to make things that "did things". A search for construx on google produced some neat pages, as did capsella. I may go to ebay right now and buy all those wonderful toys from my past! (Until I see them selling for 300 bucks, that is.)
I sure loved my capsella sets. The only place I could find them in town was the local independant-slightly-more-expensive-yet-education
I have to say though, I loved ZOIDS best. They weren't multifunction like construction sets, but they were unbelievably cool. I had some of the very small originals, but I remember being amazed at the huge (and expensive!) zoids at the toy store.
Your
My mom always called my erector set an erection set. I didn't know what it meant until I was older.
Just for the record, here's my ranking of the construction toys I had:
This is not a Fugazi
What ever happened to Construx (sp)? Those little boxes of beams and corner pieces were pretty much the ultimate combination of easy plastic tangibility and sophisticated looking coolness. Much better than anything else on the market for the serious child prototype designing prodigy
-K
Looks really great for building Mini BattleBots. The problem with most of you is that you cannot imagine the hackability of this new set. Legos totally suck, they fall apart. Build it with erector and it will stay together. Linux and erector, what a beautiful team.
Got Code?
meccano
you have to view the french pages, al other under contrustion, but you can see some pretty nifty stuff.
disclaimer:I hated erector sets as a kid. I prefered building radios.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hmm... after seing comments (and reading an article a while ago about Engineering vs. Lego/Erector use by kids in England) I feel that this theory has some confirming data in fUSSR - the popularity of such toys might be among the factor explaining the fact that many more people chose engineering/technical specialties, and that many fUSSR immigrants in USA easily find themselves a career in programming even if they had no previous education/experience in any related field.
All I can say is - my future kid(s) will definitely get to play with Erector set equivalents, be they boys or girls (ok, gotta post quick while wife is not watching - she'd rather see a daughter playing with dolls :)))
Cheers, Daniel
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
Right, I just have to make a quick complaint here, from the article: The Lego people seem unruffled by Sir Harry's criticism. "Lego bricks are about more than engineering," says Lego spokesman Michael McNally. "They're about creativity." This guy obviously knows nothing about engineering or he'd know that creativity is half of engineering. You gotta be creative to overcome many of the problems faced by engineers every day.
</rant>
Anyway, now that's out of the way, I have to agree with the majority of the comments here and post up a healthy "ME TOO" comment. We had a whole plethora of those sorts of toys in our familiy (along with a museum full of ancient computers, and my dad was a lawyer) and in some ways I feel sorry that those sorts of things are found less in the shops around here. Those multi electronic kits were great too.
"I'll take the red pill. No! Blue! AAAaaaahhhhhhhhh"
- Monty Python meets the Matrix
I had one back in the late 80s, I had lots of fun, but my parents did not like how much the sets cost, so they got me lots and lots of legos instead.
Capsela did have a 'programmable capsule' which can be seen here
I don't really mind double posts on
What??? Sorry, but Erector Sets really didn't do it for me. Great for static stuff, but not really there for things that actually move. How can anyone who likes programming not enjoy the modularity of a Lego set? And the pneumatic kits kicked some serious butt.
However, my first love was FischerTechnik. They hurt your fingers, they went together in only the most illogical configurations, but they came with enough gears and actuators to keep a young soul busy for years. The frustration of trying to assemble/disassemble the stuff was just part of the fun. So, sell your car immediately and use the proceeds to buy a kit or two!
Thusly: FT > Lego > Capsela (with an E!) > Clay> Dirt> Erector Set.
How come no one's mentioning Fischer Technik? A German company which made (makes?) kits of nylon parts with interlocking knobs... Neat stuff with motors, etc... Think my uncle got it for me at Marshall Fields - expensive stuff but super cool
:->
;- Although the erector survived quite nicely...
I used to have all their kits when I was about 8 or 9... think I built a working elevator model...
Also had the erector, capsela, lego, and lincoln logs at one time or another...
After you're past 5, the lincoln logs are kinda lame until you turn 15 and discover that they can be fired out of a mini propane cannon with a 3/4" PVC launch tube
Capsela floated nicely - didn't do too well in the burning pit of gasoline
Capsella was great, and the programmability it offered was not available in legos (in my childhood). Too bad the motors were so underpowered. Just about anything really cool that I would build had problems moving about.
I *wish* they had legos back then like they do now. I felt my inner child drooling during a recent slashdot-inspired trip to the Lego web site.
Remember Loc-blocs (sp?)...?
They were dumb, but I liked their size... I wish there were really big lego type things...Anyone know of any?
Robotix was my personal favorite of the construction toys, although it was fun to build a boat with those strange looking yellow floaters on capsela. I really liked the big walker legs on robotix, and the fact that all of the motors were independantly controlled. Although I used to build a robotic arm with it, with that counter weight on the arm, those tiny motors sure didnt sound like they could handle it.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
As far as I can tell, they've never gone away. I got a couple sets when I was younger (late 80s, early 90s). Thye came with the normal stuff of the older kits, according to my Dad. In addition, they had some fancy add-ons, like a battery powered wrench/misc. tool that is basically a lot like a child-size version of the cordless drills that are available today. I still have my kit in the closet, and I get it out and tinker once in a while. It's in a bright red and yellow plastic suitcase type box, that has holes for all the different types. I wonder what the real meaning of Brio's reintroduction is. Is it merely a more intensive advertising campaign, to make them more popular?
Yes! That guy!
Woah, is this true?
I'm concerned about the general demise of building toys, they're mostly what I had as a kid: Lego, Brix Blox (a cheap Lego knockoff), Girder and Panel (bridges and buildings), Tinkertoy, Erector (newer plastic version), Erector (MUCH cooler 1940's version with metal pieces and a 120V AC motor!, found at an auction for a steal), Micronauts (a bit of a stretch, but the city expansion definitely qualifies), Lincoln Logs (what's so bad about cabins?), probably others. Now, almost all of these are gone...
Erector, schmarector.
LEGO rocks. Always has. Always will.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
My ranking is Capsula > Erector > Tinker Toys > Lincoln Logs > Lego
Where the hell are Construx in that list!? Those things beat the hell out of Lincoln Logs, thats for goddamned sure!
No telling how many people that would have got if not for the link revealer bullshit.
IMHO, Construx was the best building toy. It was much less complicated to assemble than Erector and almost as sturdy. The large plastic pieces held together very well and allowed you to create very large structures. (I built myself a desk and chair once!)
Once you built something, you could then *play* with it, without fear of shredding it to pieces.
I think capsela, with one 'l' and an 'e,' but I'm no more sure than most other people. I still have all my stuff from capsel(l)a, and it all works except for the battery holder that comes with it. I've had to take another standard type battery kit and just manually connect the red and blue wires. Other than that, it still works and does neat stuff.
What are zoids? I may have seen them, but what I'm thinking of is more of a geometrical set, with different shapes and lengths of plastic rods.
Yes! That guy!
I have a few Erector sets, but I never got too many as gifts when I was younger because of how expensive they always were. And although I made some pretty cool stuff with my Erector sets (mostly stuff to launch my Hot Wheels through the air at my siblings!), my dream was to own the gigantic set from the movie "The Sandlot."
If you've never seen it, the boy in it has a gigantic set that launches a marble out of a catapult. Probably would have cost about $2000 to get enough Erector parts to build it!
Are you posting this to threads at random?
CLOSE YOUR DAMN TAGS!
I AM yelling, dammit!
I used to build entire cities out of base parts until lego started commercializing them with "special parts".
Just don't use that special "entire-city-in-one" part.
haha that gave me a nice chuckle on this late night...
(not clicking on it, bless those link revealer jobbies...)
You forgot Robotix!
Unique features: slotted connectors for cable management, dinosaur jaws, astronaut action figure, weighted piece for adjusting center of gravity, rough terrain wheels
+++
NO CARRIER
You'll find this hard to believe, but though I had an Erector set as a child, I've never actually seen a "Lego".
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Legos still abound
Erector sets will return
What about Construx?
It consisted of interconnecting "girders" that looked like the real deal and allowed you to build a lattice either of squares or Xs. Then they supplied these thin plastic panels that either looked like skyscraper windows or some other architectural glass panes.
When we were don we took out giant "Voltrons" (I think it was Voltron, maybe a Voltron precursor... all I knew was it was a huge plastic Japanese robot that allowed you to shoot misses that could choke babies, funny I never knew of any one choking and any of them... but more importantly, you could launch their fists! Really far and hard, it hurt like hell!) and proceeded to level our mini city Godzilla style...
Hmmm. After that I don't think we ever played with it again, no wonder they're gone...
Hey remember Micronauts?!....
... huh huhu huh huh huhuh ....
... you said erect
Since I started this thread (so, about thirty minutes) I've been surfing around reading about capsella and zoids. This page will tell you all about ZOIDS!, as will This One.
And, because you care, these are all the zoids I ever owned (sadly..):
Garius!
Elephantus!
Glidolier!
Garantulas!
Aquadon!
Your
I remember having great fun racing with friends to destroy the other guys building first. We would have needed MUCH more powerful projectiles to destroy a lego or erector set building! hehe.
If you think Legos aren't up to your level of creativity, just check out Eric Harshbarger's Lego Grandfather Clock, which includes working mechanics: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/clock.html I got to play with leftover Erector sets given up by older kids. I liked them, but they were going out by the time I was old enough to get that creative. The original Legos, though...you could really get creative with those. I hate the new kits, what's the point of having 25 pieces in a box with a figure? No fun there...someone at Lego said they were for little kids, but why not just make 'em pre-formed? Plus, they have pieces small enough for tykes to swallow, and that's a big P.C. no-no.
We got some
I remember when I was 11, Mom and I and my brothers went to the store shopping for toys. ** I ** (get the message?) wanted Legos. Mom made me buy a Loc-Block Magic Kingdom Castle ("You've got too many legos already--try something else."). I tried everything I could do with those things and they NEVER stayed together. Never. They fall apart like an Afghani compound before a cruise missile.
:)
Viva Legos! If you really feel compelled to get big blocks, take the advice of the other responder, and get Duplo.
What is your Slash Rating?
I heard him say today something like "If Congress can't behave responsibly, they won't get any more classified information from the government."
Some explain to him that Congress is part of the government too.
McMaster-Carr and others sell drilled and slotted steel angles and flats. These are 12-15 gauges steel, a few inches wide and up to 12 feet long. It's like a giant erector set.
t ml
See "Erecto-Slotted Steel Flats and Angles" on this page:
http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/107/html/1387.h
Newbie!
Everyone always seems to be complaning about the special lego pieces, but take a look at this erector set on ebay. Look at the cylinders and the piece for the cab. I have a hard time believing that some of those pieces are "generic" pieces.
"You can't fight in here! This is the war room" --Dr. Stra
...what's good about Lincoln Logs--the taste. Mmmm...creosotey.
chewin' nasty brown logs since 1974
Your mouth is like Columbus Day.
My brother has zillions of them. They work pretty good for building large structural components. Bridges come to mind first. Along with towers.
They are about the closest thing that I can think of that comes to the erecter sets.
Every once in a while I still find a rusty erecter set piece in the basement or on the garage floor. Plus, I think half of the nuts and bolts I have came from old erecter sets.
erector sets do open up a few more possibilities for the budding architect, and perhaps encourage one to think outside of the box (or the brick, as it were) but Lego has its strengths as well.
:(
even with the basic Lego blocks one can quickly prototype all sorts of creations. the more exotic pieces could be recombined to offer alternative strategies. i built a TIE Interceptor way before the official star wars sets came out, and an F-14 w/ working sweep wings thanks to the lego pneumatic pump (and inspiration from Top Gun)
as one poster noted, Construx were also badass. I tried to build a 5ft long star destroyer but I ran out of pieces
When I grew up to be a very old Boy Scout, I joined an Engineering Explorer Post. We had a number of very creative souls there...and some very odd ones. The previous year they had designed and built a hovercraft out of fibreglass and various RC parts.
Anyhow, the year I joined, it was decided to do something completely different. Probably the neatest use of Capsella I've ever seen, it used all of a half dozen Capsella pieces.
You see, we designed and built a blimp. Yes, I said blimp. We pulled two engine capsules, connectors, and propellers (with mounts) out of the Capsella box. Then we grabbed the plexiglass, some "make your own circuit" copper/board, a little plywood, and the RC parts from the aforementioned hovercraft, and built the gondola for the blimp. The Capsella units were attached to a wooden dowell so they could rotate up and down to raise and lower the to-be blimp.
Now, a gondola by itself is rather useless, so we acquired a 12' rubberized adverrtising baloon (yellow with red fins), filled it with helium, and attached the gondola. As long as the dew point and temperature were low, the thing flew around quite nicely....
Bet your Capsella never did that....
What is your Slash Rating?
I imagine the only reason this has been posted on /. is that now we can be amused by all the trolls posting erection comments
According to my mom, the reason that my brothers and I were allowed G.I. Joes was precisely because they WERE dolls.
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another."
I remember playing with Ramagons as a kid... The great thing was that you could also use legos with them, and make some very big designs.
Truth be told, though, I don't like trying to rank these toys... Legos were great for building cities (and space stations), Lincoln logs were nice for the single building/farm look, and I'm sure there was something I liked building with tinker toys, although I didn't care for them as much.
erector sets are what sparked my interest in all that could be deemed as geeky or technical. I have a very warm spot in my heart for erector sets.
i had an erector set in the early seventies! im i that old?
I didnt like them as much as my legos though... the nuts frequently came loose and the contraptions just didnt seem as sturdy as legos.
I was one of the kids who liked building things with legos, then knocking them apart and then rebuilding.
Capsela was okay...got bored with them quickly. I still have a capsela hexagonal piece tied to the end of the light string in my old closet.
-
It was sold as Meccano in Canada too. My set included an electric motor and - best Xmas ever - I got a *working* steam engine!
;)
It was amazing. Had a little boiler that held about 150cc's of water with heat supplied by burning rubbing alcohol in a tray under the boiler. Steam pumped out to a little piston that would *really* fly under pressure.
Damn that thing was dangerous! They'd never make a toy like that today! It was really quite powerful, there was always the danger of steam burns and the rubbing alcohol was almost invisible when it burned.
I'm gonna have to find that thing now that I have sons of my own
I had on as a kid, and I know where it's sitting in my closet at home. It was great. I was sad to read of their demise just an hour ago, so I ran down to my local wal-mart (drove, same thing), and saw a few sets still sitting on the shelf! Erector Set isn't dead, you just have to know where to look! (Wal-Mart has everything)
I only had these two out of the bunch other posters have listed, and I have to say that I can't really pick one over the other. Meccano (my sets were from Germany...) was alot of fun, and there was a lot of, uh, interesting ways you could assemble them. Lego, on the other hand, let you build things that were more fun to "play" with once they were built. The Technics kits weren't out yet when I started playing with Lego, so I'd have to rank Meccano as marginally better for dynamic toys, but Lego as tremendously better for "static" toys. Of course, with all of the Technics kits out now, I'd have to say that Lego ranks right up there. I do kind of like the idea of bolting things together instead of snapping them though... I wonder if there will ever be something along the lines of a cross between Lego and Meccano? Something that allows you to snap parts together *or* bolt them together when you really need the rigidity...
Any prospective inventors out there?
The dry fish swims alone.
There are plans for Lego?
When I had my Lego set, I just got a pile of blocks. The only "plans" were those I created. I created spacecraft, forts, lighthouses (with pieces of a flashlight). As I grew older, I used Lego to build frames for motors, apparatus to work with my 100 in 1 kit from Radio Shack (that dates me, considering they are over 200 in 1 now) (really dating myself - my 100-in-1 kit had an "IC" that was nothing but a ceramic substrate with printed film resistors and a transistor on it).
It's like anything else - games, toys, video tapes. When you give the kid a definition of what they are supposed to do, you stunt their imagination. If you give them the tools, and turn them loose, they develop their imagination. Don't buy the "Lego StarFortress", just buy a bunch of Lego. Buy an [erector|mechanno} set, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, [1-n]00 in one kits. Let the kid read books, not watch Disney. When they are older, get them playing D&D, not Stupid Moron Brothers by NonMindO.
(Of course, my earlier experience with small, modular components might account for my being a big OOP fan. Use at your own risk.)
www.eFax.com are spammers
I was partial to the 7400 series myself.
-- MarkusQ
They burned really well. We you entered that destructive phase and fire entered into your lego vs action figures vs licoln logs vs tinker toy wars, licoln logs were the best cause they burn for a while so you guys go run across the flaming ramparts. Legos melted and your guys got stuck, and tinker toys would fall apart quickly, and erector sets didn't burn.
what about contructs? Now THATS a kickass building set...
I modified a network rack using standard erector set pieces from my childhood to include my linksys switch and a desktop PC. If I wasn't under the influence of a controlled substance I get off my butt and take a picture , but too much effort now sorry.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I got my first erector set when I was sick with the chicken pox. My uncle brought it to me along with a copy of Dr Seus "On Beyond Zebra." It had multi-colored parts and some great things to be built.
A few years later I got a HUGE Erector Set for Christmas that would let me build the parachute drop from Coney Island or a replica of of steam engine. It was great because they showed you how things fit - but you had to figure out how to really MAKE it and assemble it.
It's a perfect example of a toy that teaches.
This was, by the way, in the 50s. I think I got that monster erector set in 1960.
Wish I still had it.
Since were all talking about our childhood toys, can ANYONE remeber a toy like this:
It was a red vs blue team 'game. YOu were given blocks, which you used to construct a castle - anything you like - your aim was to build something that would withstand, and protect your set of 'targets' - from your opponent who would use a small catapult to attack you. It was like a game of siege with two players.
Anyone remember this one?
As for Mechano, forget it, Lego was it - more modular, more variety, less direction dictated by the toy itself, you really could build any model with Lego.
Erector + Viagra = Metal Gear Solid?
If you still got a bunch of lego dudes you can really save some money you'd probably spend on Warhammer troops and play some cool games. Last week I started working on a room in my house to be a Lego strategic gaming room. One thrifty idea for a battle area was takin an old bedframe and boltin plywood to it, etc. Heres a few links to some lego wargame sites for anyone else who needs inspiration or gaming rules or whatever.
http://students.ou.edu/F/John.P.Franklin-1/
lego.htm
http://www.brikwars.com/
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/sean/legowars/
wars.htm
If the Brits can build schools out of cardboard, and Sadam Hussein can make guidance systems out of playstations, I'll be danged if I spend all my hard earned cash on expensive wargames just to have fun.
erector sets were definitely cool. tinkertoys were fun too, you could build stuff that moved, and you could do weird stuff with rubber band powered projects. way back when, in a first year engineering graphics class, i took a poll - the kids who could visualize the 3-d from the drawings and do the projections quick & easy had tinkertoys, the kids who were clueless didn't. one guy went out and bought a set and played with them, he said it helped. and kenner girder sets were cool too, the one with the pumps and water thingies was great.
Does anyone remember ?Girders and Panels [ultranet.com]??
I had totally forgotten about those. Yeah, I had got the "Bridge and Highway" set for Christmas in 1977.
Hey remember Micronauts
Yep, far more interesting than Star Wars figs, but without a movie tie-in, they were doomed.
I found myself in need of some special drive mounting brackets yesterday. I went nuts looking for some pieces of my old erector set. I finally gave up, grabbed a drill, a case blank, and a hack saw. It was more than nostalgia. It was necessity!
The proper order for great toys is:
Apple IIGS > Capsella > Erector > Lego
Capsella had those water kits. Those were just so damn cool!
Nice job.
ERECTOR.
Bricks > Mechano.
'nuff said.
Meccano = C
Lego = Visual Basic
Duplo = VBScript
I've never had dealings with these people and therefore can't vouch for their reasonableness, but it's good to see that at least Erector sets are being sold again:
http://www.iqkids.net/erectorsets.html
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
Now sure you can architect non-objected Meccano (Erector in US-speak), but no-one forces you to. You can also attach wheels, pulleys and bits from dot-matrix printers.
1. Meccano (erector) == C?
2. Lego Technic == C++?
3. Capsela == ???
Anyone else want to comment on the system architectures of other geek toys?
For the record, I coveted Capsula and Meccano, but had to make do with having the run if dad's workshop (bench grinders, drills etc. etc.). My best Xmas was when I got the Lego Techni car (when I was already in junior college I think)
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Never seen the Marklin stuff. I grew up playing with a different German erector set, called TRIX Baukasten. It was passed down by my dad, who played with it when he was a boy. I still have all the pieces and manuals in a large wooden box that he built. I've always felt that the TRIX system was superior to any of the other erector sets I'd seen. My dad is a master machinist, so perhaps it was a contributing factor. :)
I found a page of example models at
http://www.metallbaukasten.de/trix/modelle.html (in German)
Legos have some cool pieces nowadays, but the real problem with them is that they come apart easily. If they had LegoPro(tm) which screwed together, perhaps, then it would be a more useful prototyping tool. I've done some good work with it even so.
Capsela, well, it sucked. The units came apart far too readily. Lincoln logs? Oh joy, the challenge of building small log homes. I can barely contain my excitement. Construx was okay for building space stations, but that was about it... Lego was excellent for building any kind of structure or vehicle, given Technics.
In summary; Sharp toys are good. Toys that come apart easily are bad.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I had the Maxx Steele erector set as a kid. For someone who was a whiz at Lego, I never did complete building of that Maxx Steele robot. I had difficulty with the instructions of which piece(since some were remarkably similar in size) whent where, and just gave up.
Now, I spend my time trying to design Lego car transmissions and I'm 25 years old. I have no life.
I amazingly never had an Erector set when I was a kid, but I still have all of my Lego stuff. Also had a ton of Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Bristle Blocks, and Ringamajigs, which looked a lot like the thing they stick into the middle of your pizza so the box doesn't get crushed down into the cheese, except the circular part was (obviously) a ring instead of a solid circle. There were 4 nubs on top of the ring, 90 degrees apart from each other, and the rings sat on legs about an inch or so high that had hollows in the bottom that the nubs snapped into. They were kind of limited, but made for some pretty colorful structures. A quick Google search uncovered the rather impressive resume of their inventor.
~Philly
Both A.C. Gilbert and Meccano of England are defunct, but a company in France bought both names and sells Meccano under both names. The Erector system is dead, except as a collectable.
Meccano (= Erector) is going strong in Australia.
As a kid, I used to build plenty of neat stuff with my grandfather's meccano. He even had a couple of chunky clockwork motors to run the contraptions.
Back in the day, my cousins and I built lego cars that were designed to last with a lego person in them throughout numerous crashes. the rules were, it had to have wheels and carry the guy to still be operational. We would crash our cars into each other...legos would fly everywhere and it was great fun, seeing whose would last the longest. My best car had wheels on the top and bottom, and the guy was layered in. It was a beautiful thing...my cousins all had plain cars with one really reinforced set of wheels. guess who won....
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
We also would build sets of lincoln-log forts, big complicated things, and put up two different "armies" of army men on them. Then, we would shoot rubber bands at the army men, one rubber-band for each man left in the "army". Great stuff.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
Boy is there a lot of misinformation here, starting with Popular Science.
ERECTOR was originated by A. C. Gilbert in Connecticut much less than 100 years ago.
It is a matter of conjecture whether A. C.
copied Frank Hornby's Meccano or not.
Many, myself included, think that Gilbert was
influenced by the Meccano, but that he did a complete redesign to make it more akin to the actual mechanical engineering of bridges and like structures of the day.
As a preteen I inherited my older brothers pre-WWII green metal 'suitcase' set with electric motor that was a miniature of 'traction-motors' of it's day.
Then, around 1950, I got the number 8 1/2 for a Xmas present - it would build a Ferris Wheel that was nearly two feet tall, plus just about anything I could dream-up.
To the best of my knowledge, plastics tolled the death-knell for ERECTOR, and at A. C. Gilbert's death, both the ERECTOR and the S-guage electric trains which were also produced by him went KAput.
I think that both were actually sold, but that the buyer introduced a much cut-down version of ERECTOR that included plastic parts.
ERECTOR and Meccano were not the same company. I believe that Meccano may have acquired the ERECTOR 'name' and patents in these much later years, but the day of the realistic, rugged metal construction toys seems to have passed. Both company's remains are now held by an Italian company.
I wish them luck. As an old fart, I equate ERECTOR (and Meccano) to the Ford Model 'A'.
It ran until you actually beat it to death, then resurfaced as a home-rigged truck, farm tractor, or log skidder.
The early plastic'y' legos I equate with the Ford Pinto. A car which ran for quite a while, then just melted as if it had deplasticized.
Couldn't figure out how to use the little wrench? Righty-Tighty, Lefty-Loosey.
There was a cool "game" that shipped on 5¼" disks only - taught logic with AND gates, as well as similar devices. Could not get my kids to play with it, but Rocky's Boots was great.
/. account up on this box)
(I'm an AC because some jerk with a dumptruck pulled down the AT&T cable pole at 5:15 eastern - too lazy to set my
If you owned an erector set you've built a crane. Which inevitably gets a wrecking ball. Which is pretty useless unless you have a nicely crafted log cabin your little sister built to knock over.
What about construx? Anyone remember the blu knots, and the long beams?
May I put in another plug for a German engineering toy, Fischer Technik (US distributor) and Fischer Technik (parent company)? No, I don't own their stock or get any kind of bonus, I just think it's a great system that deserves to be more widely known. The picture you see on the US distributor's site is pretty typical of what kids used to build with it: highly functional designs that don't try to imitate looks. It's the ultimate geek toy for the budding engineer.
Lincoln Logs are not Turing complete and are therefore not listed.
Ultimately I prefer a mill, lathe, drill press, and some aluminum stock.
Fully stocked machine shop > Lego Technic > Erector > Capsela > Tinkertoys > Lincoln Logs. (if I wanted to deal with erector, i'd be just at well off machining things from scratch. However, I find Lego Technics are quite good for prototyping mechanisms.)
I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!
Meccano wasn't just for kids. People used to prototype gadgets and ideas with Meccano.
...
My favourite was the Meccano analogue differential computer that I saw in a museum around 1985. It was built during World War II to solve differential equations and occupied the area of good couple of dining tables. I think it was used by the British War Office for bombing calculations?
A equation was feed in the machine in analogue fashion by moving a mechanical probe over a graphical plot on paper. From here a series of cogs, levers gears, and whatever else, somehow analysed the equation to give a graphical output to a pen on a similar probe arm.
They even had some sample inputs and outputs they had run through it. Having just finished my University Engineering maths papers and being a kid brought up on Meccano, it left a lasting impression.
Alas, the Meccano computer is no more. The museum is run by keen amateurs; during building renovations someone cleaned out a pile of slightly rusting Meccano from a storeroom
In case anyone else remembers, the museum is MOTAT in Auckland, NZ
Until the end of this month there's a temporary exhibition "Meccano: Twentieth Century Toys" at The Museum of Liverpool Life and Merseyside Maritime Museum.
See The NMGM website for more.
I hope I can still get an Erector when I'm 100..
You might be surprised. My brother and I used to have an old Meccano set that was, well, absolutely ancient. It had a bunch of books with it containing diagrams for building all sorts of things using Meccano parts that were not in the set that we had. Steam engines, cranes, you-name-it. Apparently those parts were available at one time.
Thinking about it, that old Meccano set might be worth a fair bit of cash these days. I remember that it was in a fair-sized wooden box so there were quite a few pieces, and they were a better grade of metal than the "new" sets. Someone bought us a "Meccano clock set" at one time, and I remember that I could tell even as a kid that the new "Meccano clock set" materials were nowhere near the quality of the old set that already had.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
My last job was at a hobby store that sold Meccano sets all the way up to Number 10. In about '91-'92 in one of the frequest Meccano management changeovers they Ditched the #1-#10 series (with the 1x,2x etc) and just went to the #1-#6 sets and introduced all-plastic sets with larger sets.
The original #10 set could build a nice locomotive, cranes, and a working Eifel tower, as well as every model from the #1 to #9 sets. In fact, our store had a 15 foot tall Eiffel tower at the front of it, which seemed to eternally rain bolts, a 10 foot long ship, steam powered Ferris wheels.
But then they fell into the Lego Trap, and started making things too pre-defined. Also, they ditched all the brass gears and went too much into Brass Bushing / plastic parts (CURSE YOU MS22P !!)
But compare
The cheap plastic junk of today with
with the beauty of
The Block Setting Crane from the old #10 set
The Blocksetting crane instructions basically said "You need this many parts, here's a picture of the pully set, here's a picture from below of the rotating part, heres some more pictures from each side, right build it!"
Was a puzzle as well as a engineering challenge.
Toys always seem to be being dumbed down nowadays.
My neighbor had a mechanical flight simulator made with erector set and a model airplane, the plane flew around a central tower, and you could take off and TRY to land on a runway that covered 180 degrees of the circle
Erector fans should keep an eye out, though!
Actually, most Erector set fans probably already have an eye out, sometimes two eyes out.
In addition to a small Erector set, I had two other types of building sets when I was a kid. In the mid-50's a set called American Bricks allowed you to build houses and other buildings from a set of red and white plastic bricks that looked a lot like Lego. These bricks were linked together in the same manner as Lego but were made of hard plastic and did not stick together tightly - they relied on gravity to hold them together.
The other was the Kenner Girder and Panel sets. These were a set of plastic snap-together girders and thin plastic panels that snapped over them to form walls. You could build all kinds of 60's-looking buildings from them. They also sold two variants: the Bridge and Turnpike set included plastic road segments that could be attached to the top of a girder bridge, and the Hydro-Dynamics set was basically the Girder and Panel set with a bunch of clear plastic tanks, hoses and pumps so you could build chemical plants and oil refineries.
All this Kenner stuff was approximately HO scale so you could integrate it with your train set or even your Auroro Model Motoring slot car set. I spent untold hours building all kinds of elaborate buildings and road systems.
Alas, I think both American Bricks and the Kenner sets are no more. 'Tis a pity.
No sig? Sigh...
They're not "generic" in that they didn't come in a basic kit but they are from the factory. Meccano had all sorts of add ons like real steam engine power sources and electric motors so that kids could build real machines.
There is also Märklin (which was compatible with Meccano). Check this page out.
I had lot's of both and in my later child years it beat Lego by length's. I had axels, wheels, motors - the whole lot - and build aaaamazing machines with it.
Enough LEGO bashing. The proliferation of special peices is annoying, but that is limited mostly to the basic sets.
LEGO Technic beats the crap out of anything else, fisher-technik, erector, or capsela (can't believe this is even in the running). Technic has more and better pieces that are easier to put together, and won't cut up your hands and tire you out.
And of course Technic isused for the semi-famous MIT Autonomous Robot Design Competition.
but I only had a set or two that I picked up at a garage sale, but they still were fun. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
The gears-and-shafts-in-clear-plastic-bubbles toy is Capsela, not Capsula. Had many a fine afternoon making power boats, cars, and other motorized vehicles with Capsela. Liked my Meccano, too.
Twoflower
--
Twoflower
They made great break-away walls for smashing my Hot Wheels into. As far as a construction toy, yeah, they're severely limited. Good for the really young -- no tiny screws and nuts to swallow.
I built all sorts of things with my Erector Set when I was a tyke. The thing I remember most was that you had to master getting those little nuts onto those little bolts. This really helped to train my fine motor control. (Well, that and the 10 years of classical piano lessons.)
The snap together kits allow for quick-and-easy construction, and that, to my mind, is where they fall short. Working at tasks which are physically, as well as conceptually, challenging is an important part of a child's development.
I'd bet that a child who grew to adolescence in a zero-G environment would have a really hard time learning how to walk, even if his muscles could be exercised up to proper strength. His sense of balance would not have developed well enough to allow him to operate in gravity.
Americans have an unfortunate tendency to want everything to be easy for their kids, forgetting that it is life's early challenges that teach us how to persevere.
The closer you are to the code, the happier you are. - Ancient Geek Proverb
I still have one old big wooden box (when i was 6 when i got it that box seemed huge) with meccano. I loved that stuff, especially the big wind-up engine, the gears, the tiny nuts and bolts..
It came with wonderfull illustrations which looked like a catalogue, come to think of it, but not much building instructions.
In short, to me, this stuff inspired to design things myself, not just to follow instructions like lego or plastic modelkits.
I am getting very curious now though how i might date the meccano i have. I know its over 80 years old, but thats about it. Not to sell it, i'd never do that. This stuff is still brillaint, and should it ever get that far, i'd love to pass this on to my kids.
This just made me curious now in what shape it started, and which options came along the time line.
Sentry23
-no brain, no pain
Building Erector set models certainly helped me learn about bracing load bearing structures. I've bent more than a few Erector girders.
Also, I'm sure those science class molecular models originally started with Tinker Toys.
heh heh... you said "logs".
I think I had one the late 70s sets from Kenner, though its hard to be sure since they don't seem to have any pictures from that period. It was a drawbridge set with black girders and grey road panels that were designed to accomodate Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars.
That's about all I remember - must've been 1977 or '78, which was around the same time Micronauts became popular. Micronauts were cool, but the basic figures were so damn fragile that it didn't take much to rip an arm or leg off of them.
Here in New Haven Connecticut, A.C. Gilbert is a home-town hero. Before he invented the Erector Set, he was a gold medal high jumper (1908 Olympics), a Yale graduate, and a maker of magic sets. The Eli Whitney Museum has several exhibits devoted to Gilbert.
I wrote a personal essay involving Erector sets, called "Be an Erector Engineer". It is here.
It is said that, in the 1920's, Gilbert wanted to motorize his Erector Sets and so worked on miniaturizing the electric motor. The design evolved and became an integral part of the sets. Gilbert then realized these miniature electric motors might have practical applications, and he invented, among other things, the electric blender, the electric vacuum, the electric washing machine, and the electric vibrator.
The Eli Whitney museum has a display of those early motorized applicances. The vibrator looks particularly dangerous, a metal pistol handle with a frayed electric cord coming out one end and with a spindle rod tipped by a rubber cup. They show early advertising for the vibrator. The copy promises health benefits, but the picture shows a young couple running hand in hand out of the surf...a hint that even then they knew what the vibrator was for.
I would highly recommend Fischer Technik as well. I grew up with a friend who had quite a lot of this stuff, and although he was way brighter than me at math in general (probably a grade or 2), I remember him making simple robots with it at the age of 8 or 9. This was in the early 70s.
It is kind of expensive if I recall, but one fine day I plan to get some to see if I am smarrt enoughg to use it. The connectors are pretty funky and an IQ test in themself.
Cheers,
Winton
How come toys that foster creativity are so expensive? It's too bad that someone can't create a look and feel of these products that becomes widely known and sold as a generic toy of this nature.
I remember growing up and wanting to play with legos, construx, etc, but the toys were too f'n expensive for my parents to purchase for me. Our family was lower middle class, so it wasn't like I was living in poverty?
Have you seen the price of Legos?
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
I loved them! Unfortunately, the little plastic tabs on the cross beams that fit into the slots on the uprights were prone to break off under disassembly. Maybe I should have been an architect instead of an EE.