January 04, 2007

Erect this...


So, while I was out shopping, I saw this little erector set that has a sidecar motorcycle and a ATV 4 wheeler in it. Ages 8-15. I hadn't put together anything like that in years and thought it would be fun to set on my desk. Purchase quantity 1 (one). Yesterday I started putting together the motorcycle and sidecar. The two kits together have 170 parts, so this thing isn't all that complex right? I mean, they wouldn't create something an 8 year old couldn't build would they? Well...

I ended up taking it apart three separate times because I built it wrong. And yes, I was consulting the directions. Seems the directions were designed to make you think and actually make decisions. In other words, they aren't brainless. It takes some thought. Also, my fingers are not 8-15 year old sized. This means that the tiny bolts are hard to grasp in my adult sized fingers. We won't even get into the tiny nuts that the bolts screw into.

Four hours pass.

I finally get the thing together properly (I think). Here is the thing, I was totally engrossed in putting it together. I wonder if I found a new kind of stress relief. I know I finally found something to collect in my office. I'm going to buy the other 5 kits in this set. Then once I've mastered those, I'm going to move onto the really complex ones that have 600-850 working parts and motors. Some even build remote control vehicles.

I can't seem to send links for specific sets, but look under the Metal, then Design, Multi-Models and Special Edition for a refresher course. :-)

2 Comments:

At 7:41 PM, Blogger Buffalo said...

I believe my first blog post said something to the effect that following directions was for people that lacked a sense of adventure. (And probably a woman leaning over their shoulder bitching at him.)

 
At 4:03 PM, Blogger Schuyler said...

I was a child of the 70's.

I had one of the generic erector sets.

I spent a weekend at my older sister's house and took my erector set with me.

My sister had shag carpetting (like I said, it was the 70's...)

Now imagine the look of horror on her face as I dismantled whatever it was that I'd built, put all those little nuts and bolts back in the case, stood up to walk away, AS THE CASE POPPED OPEN AND EVERYTHING FELL OUT ONTO THAT SHAG CARPET!!! Yeah, that took us a while to find most of them.

 

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