Engineering Christmas Toys

[tomwalz]

I just saw the banner for Rokenbok toys here. Those toys are great.

I have been giving them to my grandson for years and he and his friends love them.

It bothers me a little bit that my grandkids aren’t messing with home made go carts and coasters or building forts or repairing things. These toys have lot of Mechanical Engineering in them.

Tom


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[racookpe1978]

Good ad. Thanks.

 

[David]

http://xserve.engineering.com/xserve/

http://www/delivery/ck.php?oaparams....com/link/linker.asp?name=ENGcom3&src=ENGcom3

[/URL]

I think this is the location.

Dave

 

[KENAT]

Isn't that what the Fraggils had?

Where are the Dozers?

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[tomwalz]

Here's one dozer

http://www.rokenbok.com/RO_Products/RC/RC_04273.asp

They also have a new RC dozer.

Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[ginsoakedboy]

What's the deal with these toys? I am trying to understand the enthusiasm for them!!

 

[tomwalz]

Tom

My grandson’s dad works for Microsoft in the game division so he gets plenty of games. They live in a really nice neighborhood but the covenants won’t let him build his own tree house, fort, etc. He is getting a good education but no exposure to mechanical engineering such as I got screwing around with tree houses, building a “soap box derby racer” (we called it that but it wasn’t anywhere near as fancy), “repairing” old appliances, building a radio, etc.

A few years ago I was looking for toys that would expose him to ME and science in general. I found the Rokenbok in an independent toy store here in Tacoma. You build structures and then use them. The structures are sort of a really easy, really versatile version of the old Erector Sets. Once the structures are built you use remote controlled vehicles to play with them. The first set I bought was sort of a manufacturing, material handling version. It has conveyors, lifts, ramps, slides, etc. My grandson loves it and he is buildings structures that work and, maybe more importantly, structures that fall down.

I think they are maybe just a tad expensive but they are beautifully built, kids love them and it is teaching him lessons I think he should know.

When my kids were young they would come to work with me on weekends. My daughter liked the computers (early 90’s) and my son would go into the shop and build things with scrap wood. I am not sure anything is as good as unstructured screwing around but I do think the Rokenbok toys teach similar lessons and teach them well.

I am not too impressed with their videos. They really don’t do a good job. You have to see the toys. The engineering they teach is impressive but so is the engineering they use to build them.

I have no connection with them except as a consumer. I know there are a lot of folks who like engineering and many parents and grandparents who would at least like to see their kids exposed to engineering.

Certainly, they are not going to appeal to everyone. While I have no connection with them, except as a consumer, I did see their ad here and though it was worth endorsing them because they have been such a success for me.

Tom


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[chicopee]

Have you checked out Erector sets on-line? I don't know if they are still manufactured.

 

[williedawg]

Yes, they're still being made; in name only. I read somewheres that the kits are made in China.

A partial explanation from 'eBay guides'

"In the 1960's the Gilbert Company fell on hard times. Sales of it's two biggest selling toy lines, Erector and American Flyer Trains fell off. After the death of A.C. Gilbert Sr., his son took over for a short time. The company was eventually acquired by the Wrather Corporation, which drove it into ruin. In 1966 the Company was liquidated, Erector was purchased by Gabriel Toys, and later by CBS, and is now owned by Meccano."


Also, Wikipedia has a short article about Gilbert's Erector sets....just type it in.

I got the Conveyor Set for Christmas when I was about 12.
I talked my Dad into getting it, but I had to come up with half the cost. (IIRC...the set cost about $25) My oldest brother had a set when he was younger, but it didn't have near as many parts as the Conveyor Set.

I bought an Erector Set for our oldest son (maybe 25 years ago) and was disappointed that the then-current sets did not have the A/C motor; just some dinky 6v thing.

Kids nowadays won't have the unique experience of sharpening (grinding?) #2 pencils in the reduction gears, or attaching the "helicopter blades to the motor shaft to get it spinning fast enough to see if it will actually take off.

I still have the 110v blue motor from the Conveyor Set, but the "gear box" has long been gone. I was trying to make a model of something when I was in HS, and lacking machines or skills to make it, the parts eventually got scattered.

 

[redpicker]

Ahh, the Erector Set.

I had one as a kid, but I was the youngest of 4 boys, so the set I had was somewhat "used". I do remember the AC motor and gear-box, though. I was fascinated by that gear-box. Me and my brothers built lots of stuff, but, as I was the youngest, when the older ones were playing with it, I was "too young" and when I was old enough, there wasn't anyone to give me any instruction. So, I did my own "unstructured screwing around" as Tom called it. Funny thing, of the four of us, I was the only one who turned into an Engineer.

rp

 

[looslib]

There was also the Kenner Girder & Panel sets for buildings and raodways. They also had a checmical factory set.

http://www.girderpanel.com/

has some examples of the various sets made.

I remember having the chemicla facotry and a bridge turnpike set and buulding lots of elaborate things by combining pieces.
I also had the Erctor set with the blue AC motor and built a skycrane about 3 feet tall with it.
Down to a simpler construction method was Lincoln Logs and of course, Lego.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[racookpe1978]

Lincoln logs are good to.

Lego's for very young. But you can't beat erector sets.

Or a few 2x4's and a hammer. And a patient mom and dad.

 

[MadMango]

Kids won't get the bloody fingertips from hand-tightening those square nuts of the old Erector sets... whatta shame.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[MadMango]

Grrr, hit Enter too soon.


...and parents won't get to experience the joy of stepping on lost hardware hiding in the shag carpet.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[KENAT]

I don't know, lego can be painfull to step on.

Plus, with the 'technic' lego and the mindstorms robots you can do some fancy stuff if you have a mind to.

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[eadwine]

Great engineering toys? Steam Engines, Erector sets, Chemistry Sets, Model Railroads, Tool Kits, build your own electronics, Workalble Model Airplanes, etc.. Most taken off the shelf in the US for various and sundry safety and health and educational concerns by the "Do-gooders". No wonder Germany, China, and India are now ahead of us technologically.

 

[PeterCharles]

You could always dig deep and try to get the ultimate "No 10" Meccano set in wooden cabinet!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1967-HORNBY-M...UK_Construction_Toys_Kits?hash=item3ca883c22a

 

[rmw]

Best engineering toy I ever had was a Cub Scout box crystal radio kit that you built right in the box that it came in. It sat right beside my bed on a night stand with the earpiece run under my pillow where I listened whenever I was in bed.

It drove my poor dearly departed mother nuts. She would come in, pick up the ear phone, hear the radio playing, and just KNEW (and rodded me out plenty of times about it) that I was wasting electricity by leaving it on when I was away.

I never was able to convince her that it wasn't connected to electricity. She wouldn't be confused by the facts. It was playing the radio wasn't it; ergo it was using (read wasting) electricity.

rmw

 

[hahor]

Just check

http://www.eitech.de/produkte.html

maybe you would want to buy a German "Metallbaukasten". The only disadvantage from your perspective might be the metric system (10 mm grid) instead of the 1/2" grid.

Kind Regards,
hahor

 

[Kapitan]

Meccano set, 1950s — click the picture for the link to the history of Meccano

In the early 1950s I was given my first Meccano set — and I'd be pushed to think of a better present that fits the requirement for an "Engineering Christmas Toy" than Meccano. It was first sold (here) in England, over a century ago; it's still available — although not from the original manufacturers.

Until I read this thread I'd never heard of the Erector sets: they appear to be identical, or very similar, to Meccano; it may even be Meccano marketed under the Erector name in the United States; they both seem to be, more or less, the same thing.

With a supply of flat & angle sections, plates, brackets, spindles, gears, etc, you could build toys, models, structures and mechanisms: the only limit was the quantity and variety of components you had — and your imagination. All you had to start off with was a collection of parts: the rest was up to the user; you had to think to get anything out of it — and that's important, because Meccano is far more than a toy . . . I'm beginning to regret selling mine now, over 50 years ago! By that time it had grown considerably, a lot of was pre-war stuff bought second hand.

For most people there was one thing they didn't like about Meccano — and that was the nasty little square nuts for the (5/32" BSW thread) screws that were the standard Meccano fastener — they were sharp cornered, easy to lose — and hard on the fingers. The bent-rod screwdriver and the pressed steel spanner weren't much better.

Some of the mechanisms that have been built with Meccano are impressive: the Mathematical Gazette, October 1970, had an article called "Meccano in the Classroom" — it described the so-called Differential Analyser, an analog device giving numerical or graphical solutions to differential equations. In the article is a reference to the book, Mathematical Models (by H M Cundy & A R Rollett), and in that book is mentioned a machine called the Meccanograph, which is similar to the harmonograph. All built from Meccano — or Erector . . .

(That same book also briefly describes the Roberval Balance, which was mentioned in the "The Lever Paradox" thread.)


Click the image for the magazine index . . .

And here are some interesting examples of differentials, built with Meccano, from the South East London Meccano Club: Click here . . .

I wonder if the principle of the ubiquitous Dexion slotted angle section, used for shelving and racking systems, was originally inspired by Meccano, or of course, Erector.