European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A Merklin construction set from the a nuts and bolts look at the proud past and shaky future of erector sets photo by Terry Baker Nicholas Horvath puts the finishing touches on a construction set Model for a store Kominicki staff writer i got my first erector set at age the logical culmination of an education that had begun with tinker toys and progressed through Lincoln logs and Kenners Little red it was an important graduation Wood and Plas tic were behind i was ready for the stuff of Ocean liners and erector and i were together almost constantly from the very we spent uncounted summer evenings and Winter afternoons sprawled on the bedroom a Jumble of Skinny Metal bolts and together we built Bridges and Tow trucks and manufactured our Way through the kits illustrated from there it was on to flights of pure constructing mighty impossible flying machines and everything mentioned in the Tom Swift Book considering those fond memories of it be Nice if the toy was an american it is erector Type toys construction As there known in the Trade were actually a Turnof Hecen Tury British later copied by the americas Gilbert which still markets the real erector was sort of third string at the the first construction kit was the idea of Frank Horn a Liverpool office who entertained his kids by designing Little Metal parts with which they could build he patented the idea in and began Selling the toys under the name mechanics made the kits Are better known As the name Hornby adopted in Hornby went on to design a wide variety of from trains to clockwork he also designed Dinky miniature cars and trucks that were the predecessors of the Matchbox toys still popular Hornby hobbies Sells a variety of playthings and Craft including a preschool construction toy train sets and both Metal and plastic the invention of Mecca no was a timely it came just As educators were beginning to espouse the idea that children Learned Best from also at that the British were being told that their engineering and scientific achievements were lamentably inferior to those of the that settled Tell any european country that it is inferior to any other european country and mountains Are Mecca no became an instant afraid of losing their technological no the germans quickly marketed their own construction manufactured by the Marklin company of popping the Marklin Story is an interesting in tinsmith Theodor Marklin began Selling laminated toy kitchenware and toy cars in addition to his Normal the business and in a few years Marklin had his own toy wife Karoline a disciple of economist Friedrich list seemed to be the driving Force behind the and acted As the company first travelling Southern Germany and Switzerland in search of the company broadened its product adding elec tric and steam driven Model train and other Metal theodofe died in 1866 and the business but sons Iungen and Karl Brothers or Geb Ruder Marklin got the firm moving again in the be Ballder Merklin Cie survives today As a manufacturer of Model trains that Are highly prize by kids and collectors the firm still makes construction kids just dont know How to fantasize any said Helmut chief of marlins customer service Center in they rather play a video game or fool around with a computer than build something with a construction to combat this Lack of the Marklin metall kits Are now designed to make a specific Sihler one set makes a another makes a dump for the old fashioned sets were better if you ask Sihler look at he brandishing the Booklet from a 1928 Marklin look at this Beautiful look at All the things you could make with a single All you needed was one kit and an imagine on a tour of his Sihler pointed to hundreds of bins containing the full Range of Marklin construction kit the parts have to be increasingly complicated and flashy to he before the War we had Basic Black and red in 1946 we added Blue and the kids have to have colors that correspond with the item the set if the kit makes a the parts have to be and weve had to add motors and complicated gear boxes to make the sets More attractive to kids in the Sihler the construction kits will come with working Hydraulic sales of the toy bottomed out in the 1960s and the firm considered dropping the toy from the production but the sets Are experiencing a sort of Renais Scales Are we dont advertise the so when sales Are its because people Are asking for construction toys account for Only about 5 per cent of the company and production remains demand is not that so the machines do not run we make the production run and then the workers move on to other Marklin worker Nicholas has made construction kits a Horvath is marlins resident a full time screw driving doodler whose sole occupation is designing and building toys with construction kit Horvath has spent the last 27 years dreaming up new ways to use the Metal pieces and building Dis plays for stores that sell Marklin As he he was putting the finishing touches on a steam locomotive made with More than bolts and when we design a new Model we photograph it step by step and then we add a parts list every part has a number so the Model can be he the company then selects some Horvath models to be released As kits or added to the instruction and if a store Sells the Horvath there entitled to a we ask them what they would and i build Ive worked Here since i was a its a Good a Job i its a Job i Hope he gets to with kids will see to it that construction kits Are around Long after video games have had their last As Sihler puts construction kits Are Page 14 the stars and stripes april the stars and stripes Page 15