10 Forgotten Toys That Taught Boys to Build Things

In 1962, about two dollars bought a rocket kit and three engines. These are 10 forgotten toys that didn't come built. They came as parts and a plan, and the plan was how grown-ups really built things: engines, wiring, skyscraper frames, made small enough for a table at home. We went back to the original sources (instruction sheets, catalogs, ads, patents and a 1960 congressional hearing) to show what each box actually asked a kid to do. Along the way: an Erector set motor inside an early heart-bypass pump, plastic bricks sold more than a decade before LEGO reached America, a Tinkertoy machine that played tic-tac-toe, and a $2.98 model submarine that came up at a closed hearing aboard a nuclear submarine. CHAPTERS 0:00 Two dollars for a rocket 2:02 1. The Erector Set 4:00 2. American Plastic Bricks 5:56 3. The Cox .049 engine 7:56 4. Lionel train layouts 9:53 5. Tinkertoy 11:47 6. Estes model rockets 13:37 7. Kenner Girder and Panel 15:39 8. Guillow's balsa planes 17:36 9. Heathkit Junior 19:23 10. The Polaris submarine kit Which of these did you build, or which one did we miss? Tell us in the comments. SOURCES 1. Erector Set Erector ad, Popular Mechanics, Nov 1951 (A.C. Gilbert Heritage Society): https://www.acghs.org/wp-content/uplo... Sewell Heart Pump, Smithsonian National Museum of American History: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collec... Sewell & Glenn, Surgery, Sept 1950 (PubMed): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14776... 2. American Plastic Bricks The Henry Ford, American Plastic Bricks No. 715: https://www.thehenryford.org/collecti... Historic New England, How to Build with American Plastic Bricks (1953): https://www.historicnewengland.org/ex... ACT Museum, Elgo American Plastic Bricks: https://actmuseum.org/explore/interlo... LEGO, production of LEGO bricks in North America: https://www.lego.com/en-us/history/ar... 3. Cox .049 Mechanix Illustrated, "Model Man", Nov 1958: https://mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/docu... AMA History Project, Leroy M. Cox: https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/d... 4. Lionel layouts 1957 Lionel catalog, wiring page (p. 50): https://www.conradantiquario.de/img/k... The Strong, "Lionel for Ladies?": https://www.museumofplay.org/?p=8000 5. Tinkertoy US Patent 1,113,371 (1914): https://patents.google.com/patent/US1... A. K. Dewdney, "A Tinkertoy Computer That Plays Tic-Tac-Toe", Scientific American, Oct 1989: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academi... 6. Estes rockets American Modeler, June 1962: https://airplanesandrockets.com/rocke... 1960 Estes catalog: https://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/cat... 7. Kenner Girder and Panel Canadian Centre for Architecture, Set No. 1: https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search/detai... Meccano Index, Kenner sets: https://meccanoindex.co.uk/Other/Kenn... 8. Guillow's Guillow's 1957 instructions (DC-30): https://flyinghlsat.com/data/media/88... Air & Space, "The Fifty-Cent Classic": https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-sp... AOPA Pilot, "Rubberband Man": https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/a... 9. Heathkit Junior Heathkit 1969 summer catalog: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Arc... Smithsonian NASM, Heath Aircraft archive: https://www.airandspace.si.edu/collec... 10. Polaris submarine kit JCAE hearing, April 9, 1960 (GPO, 1961): https://books.google.com/books?id=qf9... Naval History and Heritage Command, Hyman G. Rickover: https://www.history.navy.mil/research... The Submarine Review, July 2010: https://s36124.pcdn.co/wp-content/upl... Illustrations are original artwork. Brand names are used for identification only; this channel isn't affiliated with any toy maker. If you enjoyed this, like and subscribe. #VintageToys #1950s #1960s