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 On page 511 of the Sears 1969 Christmas
Wish Book are a few Erector Sets. This was probably the year (±a couple) that
I got my first Erector Set. This was a step up from the
Tinkertoy sets I previously
owned. While not the largest set made, it had quite a lot of parts, including a
motor. Although I already had a natural interest in assembling and - to my parents'
dismay - disassembling stuff, it was gifts like this that really helped nurture
what would become a life-long pursuit of things mechanical and electrical, eventually
leading to my earning an electrical engineering degree. I remember getting a pretty
good finger pinch by one of the motorize contraptions I built. Show above is Erector
Set #3, similar to the one I received for Christmas in 1969. This one I bought on
eBay since, as with most things I owned, the original did not survive my handling.
  To the left is my son, Philip, with a helicopter
that we built from an Erector Set given to him for Christmas back around 1990.
Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics'
inflation calculator to see
what items cost in today's dollars, I found that this $16.99 Erector Set would
now cost $139.11 in
2032 money (718% inflation).
See the Gilbert Erector Set advertisement in the December 1935 issue of
Boys' Life magazine.
Erector Sets from the 1969 Sears Christmas Wish Book --->>>
 Having been a typical kid in the 1960s and
'70s, I had an Erector Set.
It was Set 3 per my memory, based on remembering the box lid picture. You might
recall a set or two of your own. Alfred Carlton Gilbert founded the A.C. Gilbert
company in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, and produced many varieties of Erector
Sets, as well as other educational hobby items like chemistry sets (I had one of
those, too). The A.C. Gilbert Engineering Society
website has a really nice history on the company and lots of photos - including
likely one of the Erector Set your parents gave you ...
Posted December 25, 2023
(updated from original
post on 11/20/2010)
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