Pete S wrote:
Seems that fewer and fewer kids are learning about building things
with toys that use real nuts and bolts these days. I think that's too
bad.
I just gathered up my own small collection of Gilbert Erector set
stuff and put up a webpage about it.

It's at:

http://www.spaco.org/MachineShop/Ere...ErectorSet.htm

The period I'm interested in is the 1940's and 1950's. Shortly after
that era they started taking all the fun out of it with plastic parts
and low power battery motors.

Pete Stanaitis
----------------
What was the earlier Erector like in terms of quality? I had Mecanno
from the UK as a child, I'm British, and remember the Erector from the
1970s as being a poor copy with very thin plates with slightly folded
edges for extra strength which were buggered if they got bent.

How comprehensive was the Erector? A mate that is very knowledgeable
about Mecanno has mentioned that there is a lot of subtle design and
choice of gear teeth numbers as would suit horological applications.
Maybe Hornby or one of the designers liked clocks.