Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for February 12, 2016

I had Lincoln logs, blocks and Erector sets at the same time

I remember those as well as the electronic sets that allowed one to make a receiver (amongst other things) and chemistry sets as well. Lots of fun in the pre-video games day.

Remember Kenner building sets? The girder and panels…? They were cool…I always fantasized about having two hundred sets of them….Just to see how big a building I could make…..

Chemistry sets were a disappointment to me…..I could never blow anything up….I did manage to deface a couple counter tops….

When our son was young we subscribed to “Things of Science.” It was a monthly subscription, like a magazine. Each month a small blue box arrived in the mail with a science topic or project to study or build. He loved them and it inspired a love of science. He is now a PhD in Microbiology teaching and doing research at Yale.

I remember my logs as square in cross-section, or was that a different brand?

And when my kids were small, shag carpeting was the rage. Made for some interesting walks! And then there were the hundreds of dollars worth of Legos lost to the vacuum.

I had Tinker Toys. You could build some pretty interesting stuff with them, but really did want an Erector set, but back then “Gils didn’t play with such things”. I still have a kitty-litter bucker full of Lincoln Logs we bought for the girls. Grandkids and great-grandkids have all played with them.

We had Lincoln Logs and also American Bricks, which were kind of like brittle proto-Legos, except they only came in the form of tiny literal bricks and did not connect as tightly, so you couldn’t pick up the house you built with them.

As a child I had an Erector set, Lincoln Logs, and Block City (a rival to Lego that was obviously much less successful, though just as painful to step on). Still have the Lincoln Logs in the attic, waiting for grandkids. Then there was American Flyer….

Ah, Legos and bare feet. Some of the funniest memories I have about my dad. He doesn’t see it the same way.

Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys were wonderful things that worked to develop your brain’s ability to visualize and plan. Erector Set, too, but it was the most commercially viable one, because, like Legos, you had a bunch of accessories you could add. One was the electric motor with multi-speed gear transmission. .I see Tinker Toy has given in to plastic and has been redesigned and has substantially surrendered to the lamentable practice of providing only scripted play so kids can grow into adults who can’t do anything not directed by an app. BUT, I also see you can still get the big classic Tinker Toy set, all wood, except for the little flag, in the tall round container. The cost of recapturing childhood is about $175. Also available quite cheaply on eBay. .Lincoln Logs are still for sale and pretty reasonably and all wood. There’s also a competitor, Frontier Logs. Frontier Logs come with “action figures” so your cowboys can kill some hostile Indians. (Ahh, the good old days of ethnic cleansing.) ((Yeah, it was fun, phfffft.)).Erector Set has also mostly caved in and mostly markets specific kits, although you still by a large set of mixed parts, all plastic now.

Nice reference to Lincoln Logs on what is Honest Abe’s actual birthday.

James Maxwell, your story is one of the nicest I’ve read in any comments for a long, long time. Got tears in my eyes. Thank you for sharing!

Happy Lincoln’s Birthday!

Still, undoubtedly better than “Luddie Logs”! :-)

@sbwertz Well done!

Now days kids build things on Minecraft, on their tablets. So sad.

As a mom of small kids, I’m sorry to say that if you’re not finding basic building tools, you’re not looking hard enough.

Besides Lincoln logs and tinker toys, and more expensive specialized LEGOS and knock offs than I can name there are still blankets and chairs :P When my kids were 2 1/2 and >1 I got them these cardboard bricks you fold together — so it comes in a flat package but they’re mostly hollow — that are larger than life (8′×4′×3′ for the smallest ones) and they more than once built houses, roads, even a church for themselves, their toys, and us to be in.

Step on a 1D4, makes lego’s seem like fine sand

ROFLOL!

One could make more than a log cabin with the set. Arlo must have lost the idea sheet.

Although we left almost everything behind when we emigrated (1953), Dad brought one small suitcase containing his childhood Mecanno (English version of Erector) set. He had built it up over the years, and we continued to add to it here in Canada. I spent many happy hours with Dad, squatting on the living room floor creating Mecanno marvels together!

celarius“I had Lincoln logs, blocks and Erector sets at the same time”,Rich kids !I had a Stick !(Actually, most of my toys WERE things lying around. Old tires to relive TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD , old crates disassembled and used to build a shack/clubhouse, huckleberry wood to make a bow and reeds to make arrows, et cetera)

I kinda liked them I built a village with them and ran my Lionel train around and thru them it was fun on rainy or cold snowy days. Back in the day.

@1941gko“Notice that was all in the Pre-Consumer Product Safety Days when it was NOT assumed everyone was so stupid they couldn’t be trusted with those items; and if someone did injure themselves ".They should have.I was.Smart enough to think up new ways to hurt myself, dumb enough to not not do it.All the folks in the ER knew me by name.It is a wonder I survived to adulthood.

Mr. Jonson neglected the BEST use of lincoln logs: putting a green “shingle” piece across a log, and using it as a seesaw/catapault to launch logs across the room!