How to assemble an airplane from a metal construction set. Easy childhood, iron toys

This is how I remember my childhood. Light, also due to the abundance interesting technology and iron around. My parents, especially my dad, surrounded me very much from the time I was little. interesting things- then the engine is from a Cossack kitchen table, either a color tube TV disassembled for repair, or a portable Mriya radio, which could play gramophone records while suspended. But most importantly, my parents sometimes bought me various interesting construction sets. And the most memorable thing for me was the “Electrical engineering in 200 experiments” set.

Photo from the Virtual Museum and Directory - Domestic Radio Engineering of the 20th Century

Now, unfortunately, they don’t make such things, including abroad. I constantly look at the shelves of stores with toys both in our country and when I travel around Europe. There is nothing like it. What was good about this designer was that it combined a lot of the most various parts and components from which it was possible to assemble both toys and conduct entertaining physical and electrical experiments. For example, it was possible to assemble a telegraph.

Photo from the Made in Leningrad community

Or an electric motor-fan, or a homemade galvanic battery, in general, the designer lived up to the name - you could assemble two hundred unique crafts, not counting your own invented ones.

And now, when my son is growing up, I also want to surround him with interesting technical things. And one of them is such a constructor. I don’t want to buy incomplete used ones from 30 years ago, because incompleteness is a tragedy :) And it’s almost impossible to find it at flea markets. But to assemble something similar from available parts It is quite possible, and without much effort.

First, the base, ordinary inexpensive metal construction sets that can still be bought in toy stores.

And secondly, what will bring this constructor to life will add movement. These are motors, wires and batteries. Where can I get them? Ha, I'm sure if you have children, you know what Chinese toys are. They are certainly bought as gifts for children by both parents and grandmothers, acquaintances, and guests of parents. All these flying dogs, jumping cars, barking airplanes - all this breaks down in an hour (day, week) and goes into the trash. But for me they go into the trash only after the main treasure has been extracted from them :)

Engines direct current. Considering that I have four children, I have accumulated a lot of this wealth. How can these motors help? Here's what. One day a couple of years ago, my son and I were tinkering with my tools and I suddenly suggested to him, let’s build a car out of a stick. Who wouldn't agree to this? We took a piece of some kind of block, a motor, nails, an AAA battery and put it together in 30 minutes.

From nails and sticks, literally, it turned out to be an unsightly self-propelled toy. The child did not let go of it all evening, and then showed it to all the guests - “Look what a limousine dad and I made!” That's when I decided it was time to do these things on a more serious level. First we assembled a windmill, a memorable object from our last trip to Europe.

It turned out so cool that there was only one thing left to do, stock up on parts for such crafts in sufficient industrial quantities :) I bought all sorts of switches, battery holders, and rubber bands at the market. Grandmothers and friends were told that now our best gift- metal constructor. And after a while, my son and I became the owners of the coolest set possible. It was possible to start creating.

Our next craft is an airplane. Twin-engine fighter.

Where there is a plane, there is a helicopter. The son added two additional floors to the main rotor, which seemed better to him.

The child played with this helicopter toy for the longest time, because the main rotor was easily used as Circular Saw grinders - a lot of things in the house were cut down by helicopter - to the delight of my mother :)

Now she walks reluctantly, the mechanism needs to be adjusted.

But immediately after production, the walking machine, as its son nicknamed it, made everyone very happy with its vigorous gait :)

And the very last of our crafts. To make it, I bought on Aliexpress a radio control kit, a remote control with a receiver, a motor with a gearbox and wheels, a steering servo and a motor control board. All these things are available on Ali in abundance different sizes, capacities, opportunities. We made a radio-controlled tricycle with full control - gas, brakes, steering.

There is so much dope in this crazy tricycle that it’s difficult to get going without slipping. But it’s easy to make a police U-turn.

Below is a video of the unequal battle between a mad car and a caterpillar. My son and I collected the caterpillar for an exhibition in kindergarten, there was a need for a craft from natural material, well, we’ve built a realooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, well, we built a real oooooooooooooo slow caterpillar from coconuts, chestnuts and construction elements. Due to the slowness of the caterpillar, the video is a little long :)

Such wonderful things can be made from ordinary things. metal constructor, fragments of old toys and some purchased parts. The only necessary skill for parents is to be able to solder a little, without this it will be difficult with all these wires, switches and batteries. And, of course, imagination, but usually children have even more of it than adults, so involve your child, he will tell you what to do.

There is, of course, another way. For example ready-made kits Lego. Lego has a windmill.

There are all kinds racing cars and trucks.

In general, Lego has everything, including robots and kits for customizing and programming them.

But personally, I don’t have a passion for Lego. And my son has problems with Lego, once he dropped the toy, and it was shattered into small cubes, it’s very disappointing to put everything back together. And Lego costs a lot, especially interactive robotic kits with motors or limited editions of all sorts of starships from Star Wars. Our metal will be more affordable, even taking into account the purchase of remote controls on Ali.

There is also an original metal construction set, Meccano. But again, it is very expensive and it is not easy to get it in our area. Therefore, here is the final photo of our wealth.

IN Soviet times Children's metal construction sets were very popular - sets of strips and plates of different sizes, with holes and fastening screws. Although the expression “iron toys” was at one time pronounced with ridicule, but as life has shown, plastic toys much worse. Especially if it is cheap toxic material from China. It is not surprising that many parents prefer environmentally friendly wooden or iron ones. Therefore, silumin car models cost 2-3 times more than plastic ones. But let's return to the designer from this review. In the photo below, half of the elements are already missing (let's go to work), but the essence is clear.

It was purchased by friends through an online store, for only 600 rubles, as a gift for his son. The set is called “Super Universal”, and believe me, it fully justifies its “super” prefix! Moreover, such a thing is, as it were, preparatory stage mastering electronics for kids, showing how complex structures are made from individual simple parts.

In a convenient plastic box there are a lot of all sorts of parts, not just simple cadmium-plated ones, and painted in various colors durable powder paint. The developers even provided such useful little things, like a crane hook, nylon rope, rollers and several types of wheels.

Constructor kit

• 1. Plank - 36 pcs.
• 2. Corner - 10 pcs.
• 3. Plate - 25 pcs.
• 4. Hood - 1 pc.
• 5. Plate - 3 pcs.
• 6. Fork - 5 pcs.
• 7. Bracket - 11 pcs.
• 8. Disc - 2 pcs.
• 9. Roller - 7 pcs.
• 10. Large wheel - 4 pcs.
• 11. Small wheel - 2 pcs.
• 12. Wheel - 4 pcs.
• 13. Tire - 4 pcs.
• 14. Hairpin - 5 pcs.
• 15. Axle - 4 pcs.
• 16. Cord - 2m.
• 17. Handle - 2 pcs.
• 18. Screw - 74 pcs.
• 19. Nut - 96 pcs.
• 20. Key - 3 pcs.
• 21. Screwdriver - 1 pc.
• 21. Instructions

The instructions contain a dozen samples of what can be assembled from such a set, but it is clear that with a little imagination, the number of possible designs is unlimited. Here is just a small part of what I managed to photograph during the process:

Photos of crafts made from an iron constructor

Machine

Helicopter

Airplane

Self-propelled gun

Tank

Lantern with lamps

Motorbike

Tractor

Sofa

Crane

In general, at such a ridiculous price, we get not just one car or tank, but a whole bunch of all kinds of toys. Got tired of one - they took it apart and put a new one, and so on at least every day. And the main thing is that they cannot be broken, unlike delicate plastic ones. You can only bend it, but this can be fixed :)

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