Hello boys! Girls? Sorry, come back in 60 years and we'll let you design and build Mars rovers. But it's 1929 right now. No engineering toys for you.
Exclusion aside, thinking-toys for kids are good stuff. Erector sets were first sold in 1913. The company went into decline after the death of the founder in the 1960's, and was bought by another company in 1990.
That $25 kit in 1929 dollars is close to $500 today!
Another ad, 1922,
I got to play with my dad’s old Ferris wheel set. I never built the Ferris wheel but made all sort of cursed contraptions with the motor, gears and pulleys.
I don’t know what specific set I played with as a kid, but I distinctly remember making a cool windmill, and then getting my finger caught in the electric motor’s gearbox.
When you've built your 5-foot model of a real trans-atlantic (sic?) Zeppelin, your pals will flock from miles around to look it over
Lonely autistic boys thinking their special interest will get them friends, existing as an exploitable market since 1922.
Three generations later, I used K'Nex and construction paper to build an enormous Zeppelin, like in Indiana Jones.
There was quite an argument with my parents when I got the insignias right.
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