Ultimately, the couple settled on three main products: the Girder & Panel set; a Bridge & Turnpike set; and a Hydrodynamic product that includes tanks, pipes, valves, and other components aimed at modeling an industrial building.
In all of the pieces, the goal was realism. "Our toys look just like the bridges and buildings that are built in cities and malls," Flack said. "And our parts look just like the real thing. Realism was very important to us."
The desire for such realism is a holdover from Flack's days as a kid playing with the product. "I used to lay on the floor and look up at the bridges, as if I was looking at a real bridge. The only difference now is I say, 'That part is designed for tension; that one is compression; that one is torsion.' "
Flack tested the construction sets by assembling a soaring, 16.5-foot model of Chicago's Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) in his suburban-Boston home. Because the model was too big to fit in his dining room's display area, Flack and his two kids constructed it in the home's stairwell, which has a two-story-high ceiling. In all, the scale model used 22,000 parts. Construction of it was so complex that Flack had to build special tools to connect the building's interior beams and columns. A few years ago, Carol asked him to remove the massive model from the home's stairwell. Today, it resides in a Connecticut toy store.
Flack said that most of the requests for the toys come from people who remember the vintage-1960s construction sets. "I've heard from people who are absolutely thrilled that these products are back because they loved them so much as kids," he told us. "Now they want their grandkids to have them."
In a perfect world, Flack believes, those grandkids would grow up to be engineers themselves. The couple's daughter, who grew up as part of the family's business, is now studying chemical engineering. Flack believes that was in part caused by her choice of toys as a child.
"I believe it affects your career choice. Toys are a huge influence on what you become in life."
I probably had a version of every common "build it" toy that there was and then some (remember "Mr. Machine?"). Legos are like programming in assembly language and Capsela is like Visual Basic. Either way, it takes some thought to create something unique.
Toothpicks: I had a 7th grade assignment to build a toothpick structure. The rules were very strict to prevent gluing together solid masses of toothpicks. It had to be 12" tall. They were to be tested with bricks. I confidently predicted that mine would hold five bricks. Did they ever laugh at me! Well, the big day came. There were only four bricks and it held them all - plus four volumes of the "World Book". My closest competitor collapsed on the second brick.
We moved that year. My best friend took it home and reported that his two year old cousin used it as a stool.
Did I become an engineer because of the toys? I don't think so. The interest was already there. The toys just made it fun.
I with you on the importance of a library card, bellhop. I still remember going to the town library at about 8 and getting my first library card. It was a whole new world opening. My first stop was the dinosaur books. I remember checking out every single one over a period of a few weeks. Then it was every book on volcanoes, then every book on tornados.
I generally prefer the freeform building tool toys, like the freeform Legos, and even Tinker Toys and toothpicks, because you get to exercise more of your creativity and ingenuity. I agree, Rob, that the packaged toys aren't nearly as much fun. I think the reason the building sets in this story are appealing is their beauty. I guess they remind me of a kind of hardware version of dollhouses, that whole fascination with miniatures, which I also liked.
Agreed! I got a library card when I moved to Tampa at age 6. I used to walk the half mile there and back to trade in my book for another. I hit the science books pretty hard, but I liked fiction too. The libray card actually pre-dated the Hydrodynamics set.
You're not alone, bellhop. Paul Flack liked the Hydrodynamics set best, and that is said to have had a profound effect on his decision to become a chemical engineer.
Amid this interesting discussion of construction today, one forgets the importance of books in whetting future professional interest. I remember getting out of the library at a very young age a basic guide to electricity. It was either a trade school or military manual, copiously illustrated. I spend weeks with those tomes.
I loved my Hydrodynamics set! It was a surprise gift one Christmas. Did my parents ever know me?! I went on to build other things with it such as submarines powered by an aquarium pump.
Capsela is another great toy. Among other things, it can difinitively demonstrate the improved efficiency of "screw drive" over "paddle wheels" on a boat. The track drives are fun too!
You're right, Ann. Legos came much later. My experience with Legos came with my kids. I liked the freeform Legos. I wasn't as crazy about the packaged Lego toys where the box came with just the Legos you needed to make a specific robot or car. I changed my mind when I realized these packages had replaced my childhood model planes and boats. They are kind of like paint by the numbers -- not very creative, but good training in learning how to manipulate parts to achieve a whole.
Actually, I enjoyed the Tinker Toys and even the toothpick palaces. It was more of a challenge to figure out how to build things so they wouldn't fall down. What I really wanted was an Erector set, but in the 50s they were very pricey and not something parents usually gave to girls. Like Rob, I don't remember Legos. I think they came later.
A new book by Thomas Edison's great-grandniece takes on the notion that he was a lone-wolf inventor and replaces it with an image of a man who ascribed great value to the ideas of colleagues.
In response to rising interest in autonomous vehicles, the federal government has called upon states not to authorize operation of self-driving cars, except for the purpose of testing.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
Using almost 200 light-emitting diodes in the front and back of the new 2014 CTS, Cadillac designers are showing how LEDs can change the character of a vehicle.
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