Childhood memories of LEGO and (Toys).

[Myztyk]

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You can always go back!

The thing with Meccano was the sheer range of various girders, plates, wheels, axles, gears, that came with it. You could literally build just about anything at all with the stuff.

Back then that's what people did for hobbies - they built things with their hands. Meccano, Lego, Kenner, craft and bead kits, modelling clay, soapstone, etc were great for kids on up through adults. Model cars, planes, ships whether built from plastic or metal kits or from scratch using raw blocks, ticks and boards of balsa wood, room-sized model train layouts complete with landscaped mountains and towns, flyable control-line airplane models, remote control miniature power boats, etc. People built them with their own hands for fun, then they played with what they built, and then they built some more.

These days, kids' fingers tend to work joysticks and keypads. If the power were to go out tomorrow, those kids would be screwed! Come to think of it, so would many of their parents too.

The old Meccano Magazine used to be a great source of ideas for not just Meccano addicts but for any kind of modelling hobbyist. Page below is from http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/html/1967/6705/67050034.htm , and there are hundreds more spanning seven decades at http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/

You couldn't even give this to kids nowawadays. This would easily be a 12-14 and up toy. Today's little Billy might swallow a screw~!!!!

Guess what...we all swallowed SOMETHING like this at one point. And you know what? We're all alive and learned how much it hurt...and we didn't do it ever again. lol

 

[promac]

I played with Meccanno for hours as a kid. It drove my mom nuts when she'd send me to my room for punishment, then come to let me out and find me working happily on a project. I didn't have Lego as a kid, but my son has a lot. It drives my wife bonkers when she's trying to listen to the TV and I'm rummaging through a bin of Lego to find the right piece for my project - LOL!

 

[nfq]

Guess what...we all swallowed SOMETHING like this at one point. And you know what? We're all alive and learned how much it hurt...and we didn't do it ever again. lol

hahhahhaha

That's what she said.

 

[Red_Liner740]

you guys gotta watch the Documentary on the LEGO plant in sweden....its crazy! the standards they hold themselves to is ridiculous. They have a "sample" of every block they have ever manufactured ranging back to 1970's (forget exact date) and all new Legos must be able to click to the first legos perfectly.

In fact they have a test where a lego cannot be too hard or too soft to disconnect one from the other, and they hold that standard all the way back to 1970's legos

 

[nfq]

[video=youtube;wnRRDIFNxoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnRRDIFNxoM[/video]

 

[Pete5000]

Although I had plenty of Lego, my first choice was always Hot Wheels. Had tons of track, dual-level "Supercharger" (motorized accelerator that sped a car down the track) and moved on to Sizzlers, the rechargable Hot Wheels. I even had the little motorcycles that would only work when you attached them to a wheeled outrigger.

Prized possession - the mail-order only chrome plated Boss Hoss Mustang - which I still own!

 

[zeekat]

In fact they have a test where a lego cannot be too hard or too soft to disconnect one from the other, and they hold that standard all the way back to 1970's legos

And why pretenders like Mega-Bloks can never match up. Someone gave a mega-bloks kit to my son a few years ago a gift ... without me knowing first ... last time that has ever happened ... after killing our fingers on assembly and disassembly, it's now down in the basement waiting for its final judgement (sell or give away).

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