Erector sets, American Bricks, Skyline building kits and Block City...anyone using them on your layout?

No. They are way too basic. Lego's make these items look like their from the 1950's...

Another reason is they are easily purchased on the secondary market. Like O gauge trains, they were overproduced and demand has dropped.

I used to love the kenner Building sets: Bridge & Turnpike, Girder & Panel. They were great toys for their time.

Peter

They would sell at my house, I love those sets!

Jim, in my opinion if sold today they would probably be purchased only by us old retreads.  I don't think the current generation would have the patience to construct anything with an Erector set.  Too much time and effort.  I watch my Grandchildren and they are virtually obsessed with computer games like Mine-craft and Roblox where things can be made and or destroyed in a manner of minutes-instant gratification. 

American Bricks were a great item and my wife and I still construct buildings with them for our Christmas layout each year.  We have had them for decades and enjoy them but the finished products are very fragile and easily toppled.  Today's snap together toys like Legos are much sturdier when put together.  Again, I think the patience of this generation  would wear thin very quickly with American Bricks so I doubt they would sell very well.  The other two products you mentioned, Skyline building kits and Block City, I really can't comment on since I'm not familiar with them.  Anyway, if someone would produce new Erector sets and new American Bricks I would buy them but then again I'm and old retread.

Putnam Division posted:

I used to love the kenner Building sets: Bridge & Turnpike, Girder & Panel. They were great toys for their time.

Peter

I've got mine  (11th birthday present from Sears)

Lou N

I would like to see the Skyline building kits brought back. I love the look and relative simplicity of them. 

John

Spent a ton of time with the plastic bricks, would go for another set or two.

jim sutter posted:

If someone would reproduce these toys from the 50's and 60's would they sell today?

For what its worth....

Over the youthful years I had two smaller Erector Sets.  They are missing parts from much usage.

This past summer the A.C.Gilbert Heritage Society had their annual convention in Akron Ohio.  My wife and I went and my prize for the day was a complete Erector 8 1/2 set for 50 bucks!  It was a good time besides.  

So to your question Jim, would something like that sell today, even at $50???  I tend to doubt it; we've lost our stimulating industrial arts programs in high schools (wood shop, drafting, print shop, metal shop, and electric shop).

On the other hand, after 45 years in the electronics industry I am now teaching.  The degree program is called MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems).  I have 24 very engaged students who are learning the inner workings of the electronics that is so popular today.  The lecture for the course is about the small components and what they do.  The lab is hands on application of these devices.  So there are still folks that consider building and learning how to manufacture something, only at a smaller scale.  

Regards,

Lou N

Putnam Division posted:

I used to love the kenner Building sets: Bridge & Turnpike, Girder & Panel. They were great toys for their time.

Peter

I was more of a Lego kid, but my brother had a Girder & Panel set which I occasionally got to play with. While the panels were a bit flimsy, the girders (as far as I remember) were sturdy and pretty prototypical - I think they would sell for people who want to add a building under construction to their layout.

Tonkanut, Whatever kit built that Piasecki whirlybird is something many an aviation enthusiast and old pilot would enjoy finding. I flew the Boeing Vertol follow on CH-46 A/D/E for 15 years and had a blast.

As far as Erector/Meccano sets go, the market for the sets is niche but strong. My set was the basic one as a kid but I built more project toys with that, found I enjoyed the abstract designing ability and learned a lot about engineering as played. My grandkids, only 4 and 3, enjoy helping Gramps build simple things for their Brio train. It may not last but the memories are priceless. I am actively planning to build several animated scenes using the motors from a set of  erector parts and belts.

Add Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. I wonder if Erector set helped develop my mechanical aptitude?

Ron_S posted:

Tonkanut, Whatever kit built that Piasecki whirlybird is something many an aviation enthusiast and old pilot would enjoy finding. I flew the Boeing Vertol follow on CH-46 A/D/E for 15 years and had a blast.

As far as Erector/Meccano sets go, the market for the sets is niche but strong. My set was the basic one as a kid but I built more project toys with that, found I enjoyed the abstract designing ability and learned a lot about engineering as played. My grandkids, only 4 and 3, enjoy helping Gramps build simple things for their Brio train. It may not last but the memories are priceless. I am actively planning to build several animated scenes using the motors from a set of  erector parts and belts.

Hi Ron...the Whirlybird is a ready-to-run Remco product from the early '60s. Two onboard D cells power a motor that drives an array of features as shown in this neat vintage TV ad:                 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5vX8uivsuI

It sounds like you had a neat past and are building a fun future!

TJ

Their might be a small selective market for these toys today, I had an Erector Set, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, American Bricks and Block City. These toys let us use our imagination and skills as children to built steel structures, houses,etc., many of us benefited from these learned skills in choosing work careers.   

My brother and l had Gilbert Erectorbrik sets, loved them, and played with them for years, including building structures for our Marx trains.   I managed to find a couple of small sets, but look for others.  They are a heavy mineral and look and weigh like real bricks. Had American logs and Tinkertoys, as well as a small Erector set, but nothing held our interest like Erectorbrik.

American Plastic Bricks: see these pages, updated in 2009, but still on-line:

http://americanplasticbricks.blogspot.com

I built this building, using them:

I don't think any "toy", that did not give instant gratification, would find much interest today.

brr posted:

No. They are way too basic. Lego's make these items look like their from the 1950's...

 

I agree.  It appears the flexibility of Lego's has surpassed all of these.

Rusty

Boy, does this bring back memories. I had an Erector set, the Whirly Bird (and remember the TV show), the Kenner skyscraper set, and the Tinker Toy & Lincoln Logs. I know the Logs were still made when my daughter was little (her first set was a give-away from Dinty Moore Beef Stew, "Just send in three labels, etc.") , and the new Erector/Mechano sets were still around a while back because I built a turntable before the Atlas model came out, and a small (manually operated) Bascule bridge. 

But Joe is probably right. It's not fast enough for kids today. Even the Legos come in sets that are made to build pretty much ONE item. 

No wonder we live in a throw-away culture. Nobody knows how to make or fix things anymore.

TonkaNut posted:

They would sell at my house, I love those sets!

Jim thanks for this topic and TonkaNut thanks for the pics to refresh my memories.  For such a long time I couldn't remember the "American Plastic Bricks" brand name and each time I'd see a Lego display or commercial would think about the "other" building bricks that I received from Santa and played with as a child.  I would agree w/ the comment that the "American Plastic Bricks" structures are "fragile and easily toppled" since the interlocking connecting nubs were not that deep, but they provided many hours, days and years of fun.  I think I eventually had 2 tubes of bricks which were later passed on to a younger cousin. 

Also had the Tinker Toys and a small erector set.  Later years in the early autumn we would tie a long string through 1 or 2 Tinker Toy wooden wheels and swing them up into the many nearby chestnut trees so that we could shake the branches to drop the spiny chestnut pods to the ground and open.  It was a neighborhood competition as to which kid could collect the most number and pounds of shiny brown chestnuts.  However, it was not that popular with our parents weeks later after finding several large paper grocery bags full of chestnuts that were starting to rot or be full of worms.  This parental discontent combined with someone in the group getting a slingshot eventually and led us to the next use of the chestnuts.  Truly a model of youthful creativity/ingenuity with simple toys.

I don't recall the plastic American Bricks. The set I had, were made of wood. Last year, I saw Lincoln Logs for sale at the Wal Mart Store located in Indiana, PA.  

artyoung posted:

... Even the Legos come in sets that are made to build pretty much ONE item...

I was thinking the same thing about the Erector sets. I had Legos and Knex when I was a kid.  When I was maybe 12 I got a modern Erector set that build a crane and I think there were instructions for a car as well. I build the crane so I could use it on my train layout.  Overall though, the pieces were so specific that it didn't really inspire creativity.  The Legos and Knex sets became like that over the years too.  I remember the old Knex sets use to come in a different color/size plastic carrying case depending on how many pieces were inside and there was a booklet that mostly just showed pictures of completed items you could build with that many pieces, but it was up to you.  Then over the years they made specific sets, same with legos.

At probably 14 or 15 I did gt my hands on a few classic Erector sets at a yardsale and maybe a train show and loved the classic girders.  I was off building all sorts of stuff.  Of course, I've always like the older stuff; I tell people I'm 29, but I'm 65 at heart

I had an Erector set, a set of Lincoln Logs, and Legos. I still had my Legos when I got married and both kids got some so now we have huge totes of Legos waiting for grandkids to appear! Erectors and logs all long gone.

One thing about the Erectors. Growing up in the '70's my sister and I had some action figures like GI Joe, but different. One guy's legs got broken off, so taking a queue from the Bionic Man TV show, I used Erector technology and built him new legs! LOL 

brr posted:

No. They are way too basic. Lego's make these items look like their from the 1950's...

Another reason is they are easily purchased on the secondary market. Like O gauge trains, they were overproduced and demand has dropped.

Not that Lego has a place in my world, but I have sure seen them and their results, and I have never been impressed with the appearance. If I were 5, maybe...but Erector Sets they are not. (Nuts and bolts - what a concept!)

"Overproduced"? No - produced at appropriate levels at the time. The customers died.

They wound up in yard sales and auctions.

MIKE CT,

You have the same erector set that I had.

handyandy posted:

I had an Erector set, a set of Lincoln Logs, and Legos. I still had my Legos when I got married and both kids got some so now we have huge totes of Legos waiting for grandkids to appear! Erectors and logs all long gone.

 

One thing about the Erectors. Growing up in the '70's my sister and I had some action figures like GI Joe, but different. One guy's legs got broken off, so taking a queue from the Bionic Man TV show, I used Erector technology and built him new legs! LOL 

LOL, love the bionic man story. Our kids played with April O'Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise so much that her joints loosened and she didn't have a leg to stand on. We braced her with old coat hanger pieces that stiffened her up but we knew she would never make it past airport security again.

"Boy, does this bring back memories. I had an Erector set, the Whirly Bird (and remember the TV show), the Kenner skyscraper set, and the Tinker Toy & Lincoln Logs."

I grew up about 1/2 mile away from the small, rural airport where "WhirlyBird" was filmed.  After school, we used to watch the production....  The airport was a couple of hundred yards away from the SP Coast Route (so, this post is now train related!) which, at the time, gave us passenger and freight trains much of the day & gave me my fixation on the SPRR.  

I had a Meccano set back in the day that I would build all kinds of things to go with my 302 AF Atlantic set as a kid

  If anyone is looking for any Kenner construction sets I know of a few locally that are for sale

  They are from the late 50s

Al

Erector sets in the box in good condition are worth $10,000 in the toy collector market.

artyoung posted:

Boy, does this bring back memories. I had an Erector set, the Whirly Bird (and remember the TV show),

"Longwood Field, this is N975Bravo, come in please..."

"Whirlybirds" actually used a Bell 47G and a 47J Ranger, but dual rotor Sikorsky's are cool, too.  When I was 6 or 7, I got to ride in a 47G.  Somebody was selling rides as a fundraiser(!) and taking off from a local schoolyard.  I went up with my dad and brother.  The first thing the pilot asked was did we watch Whirlybirds.  The second thing he said was "don't touch the pedals."

Oh, yeah... Railroad content.  We flew over a local quarry and could see the quarry's railroad.

Rusty

Another hobby that I enjoyed in the mid 1960's while in high school were the Guillows wood aircraft kits, I built some of them and never applied the tissue paper and dope. These kits were put together with Ambroid glue and detailed the overall assembly of the aircraft structure. 

Tonkanut, I got to play at being a kid for 15 extra years, I was able to fly in every billet held, which was not career enhancing but what I relished. I had to give up my license in 2002 due to medical issues and injuries. You have to love it when your given an aircraft, a fuel card and a mission to enjoy, combat was not always fun but the pleasure of flying is something near spiritual that is seldom replicated.

A good Harley trip , working on one of my classic vehicles and trains and grandkids combined come close these days and much safer.

I am a 65 year old kid who never grew up, but do get yanked into the adult world all too often these days.

jim sutter posted:

I don't recall the plastic American Bricks. The set I had, were made of wood. Last year, I saw Lincoln Logs for sale at the Wal Mart Store located in Indiana, PA.  

They were called American bricks when made of wood, American plastic bricks when they changed over to plastic.

John Ochab posted:

Their might be a small selective market for these toys today, I had an Erector Set, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, American Bricks and Block City. These toys let us use our imagination and skills as children to built steel structures, houses,etc., many of us benefited from these learned skills in choosing work careers.   

If I remember correctly Block city blocks did not have anything to hold them together. I bought a set and quickly sold it as it was not good for much.

jim sutter posted:

If someone would reproduce these toys from the 50's and 60's would they sell today?

I think this could be a special line of retro gifts around the holidays.   Marketing toward the nostalgia buyers would be key. I doubt it could become a big seller though.  I have noticed that many stores seem to have more board games for sale than in years past.  I have read that new generations are now seeking some tangible interests outside of the screen.

you are all talking about a world without transistors or ICs or microprocessors. as that man at the WH said get over it. Those days are gone.

In 1998, my son's Lego set was called MindStorms and had a computer integrated with the blocks with programmable actuators. 

I wont bore you with what he makes today at his new startup in San Francisco.

TonkaNut posted:

Blast from the past!   That is the only toy I wanted that Christmas.   The blades would spin as it flew through battle scenes in the TV ad.  Well, I got one that Christmas and suffered the first big disappointment of my life.  It did not actually fly . . .

Still, a great toy.

Bob

FYI, at York in the purple hall, there were lots of erector sets.

ERECTOR SETS 

are back go to amazon and type in erector sets , amazing   

Good evening everyone.

I would like to say thank you to everyone that responded to my question. Hope each and everyone of you have a great Thanksgiving.