If you’re a baby Boomer, this word will immediately fill you with memories:
Tinkertoys!
We all grew up with the venerable collection of wooden disks and sticks, strategically drilled and split to provide imaginative future engineers with the basic tools to create structural masterpieces. Or, for dummies like me to make some cool stuff nonetheless.
Today’s FamilyFirst site is Tonkertoy’s official Hasbro (remember Boy oh boy, it’s a Hasbro toy?) website.
What can you find here? Why, just about everything there is to know about Tinkertoys, that’s what!
For instance, did you know that they originated the same year that World War I began? That’s right, the wooden delights were first marketed in 1914. My dad might have played with them! Check this out:
The inspiration for the TINKERTOY construction set came to Pajeau while he was watching children play with pencils and empty spools of thread. He noticed that children would play for long periods of time by mixing simple household items with lots of creativity. Charles also observed that children had a natural curiosity about the world around them and enjoyed taking things apart to see how they work. Most importantly, he noticed that they enjoyed disassembling and re-assembling the same parts and creating whatever their imagination could dream up. With these fundamental principals in mind, Charles and Robert set out to create a toy construction set made out of sticks and spools that would inspire the imagination of children everywhere.
That’s right. The genius of Tinkertoys (and the reason your little ones should have a set) is that they promote creativity that will come in handy later in life. It has certainly paid off for me.
So have fun at today’s FamilyFirst site. And if your little kid don’t have Tinkertoys, go buy them a set!
http://www.hasbro.com/tinkertoy
