Lincoln Logs moving back to the USA from China

I made some downright dangerous things with my Erector set.  Still have all my fingers.

What fun!

Rusty

http://www.businessweek.com/ap...anufactured-in-maine

I'll pay any price to make AMERICA Great Again.

I got the chemistry set of my dreams one Christmas.  Distilled chlorine gas from CLOROX™.  Did you know chlorine gas is toxic?  Good times.

Boy, I can remember the 50's like it was yesterday,what a great time to be a kid. Rock&Roll just starting, what Music. And something that we would find out later in our lives which was, that we were the children of the Greatest Generation this country has ever had. The men who gave us all those wonderful toy's and Lionel Trains. Who gave everything they had for AMERICA. Can we ever get that back for our Grandchildren or Great Grandchildren?We must never forget them.  

Stephen, I'm in your ballpark! 

     Hoppy

I believe part of the reasoning could be customs and the importing of wood products. It is getting very difficult to import manufactured and raw wood, lots of restrictions and duties.

Oh man!  That REALLY hurt.  Dang motors had a lot of torque behind them - they could really pinch!

Interesting that I saw a set of Lincoln Logs in the original cylindrical box at an estate sale last week.  I don't know if it was complete, but they were asking $75.00.

 American Plastic Bricks was made at one point by a company called Halsem, which coincidentally made a product called American Logs, which were square (much like real hand hewn timbers).. Pictured are my American Plastic Bricks sets.. 

 I had the chemistry set too. Learned a lot by catching bugs and looking at their wings and stuff. Lots of good memories.. And of course toy trains too.

I have all my original American Plastic Bricks as well as a few sets I bought at yard and auction sales.  They are great for nostalgia as well as buildings for ) gauge. 

As far as made in America, we have to get back our manufacturing.  I no longer buy  any trains made overseas.  It's a sacrifice but I have to do it.  I am now getting into postwar Lionel. At least the guys selling them are from here.   We have to stop the corporate greed and pay out American workers a decent wage and benefits. If It costs more....so be it.

I had American Plastic Bricks as well as American Logs. I spent a lot of time with the bricks. Sometimes I built the houses shown in the book and sometimes I designed my own. That's the great thing about building toys - Erector, logs, bricks, whatever - they encourage kids to figure out something of their own to build. I also had a toy called Stanlo that was my father's when he was a kid in the 30's. It consisted of metal plates with loops on them like hinges, and hinge pins to hold them together. Stanlo was made by the Stanley tool company, which is still around and still makes hinges. I think I still have the Stanlo set somewhere.

This older set was acquired on E-bay.   One restricted weekend when my Grandson was not allowed any of his electronic devices, he played with this set.  The set is somewhat dated by the inclusion of a stationary steam boiler. 

Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Erector Sets, and Lionel Trains............... What more could a kid ask for...................

I had the misfortune a few days ago to take a grandson to Toys-R-Us for him to pick out a birthday present.  Most of the stuff there was c--p, and I'm sure other "toy" stores are no better.  None of the beneficial stuff that exercised the mind.  A 4' statue of a ninja turtle for $80!!!!!!!

We had the square American Logs, and A.C. Gilbert's Erectorbriks, which were used

and used and are my favorite (made of a heavy mineral material much like real bricks).

However, the American Log cabins were built outside on a ditch where we were having

city water put into the house, and we blew the cabins up with firecrackers.  Did not

seem to hurt the logs or their green painted wooden slate roofs.  I think we cracked

a few Erectorbriks blowing up buildings made from them.

Just noticed in ENP1976's post one of my favorites from yesteryear: what ever became of American Skyline?  Aside from terrible soft plastic floors, those sets made some truly wonderful structures.

I agree with the sentiment to make things in America again and make America great, but corporate greed is our own greed. We own stocks in corporations or we have retirement accounts that own the stocks. They are producing income for our benefit. It pays to look inward rather than blame someone else for the greediness and moving jobs overseas. That said, I'll have to find a set of the American Plastic bricks and custom make a structure for my future layout. 

You all may have seen this, but I thought this was both very interesting and very encouraging for US manufacturing and worth posting here.

From this thread posted by Mr Muffin's Trains from the recent York meeting: OGR Forum Grandstand Meeting – Fall 2014 – The Bruce Springsteen Edition 

And the quote from the thread:

David Schneider – SMR – aka Mr. “Do it in the past”

• Due to price increases and the supply of brass, SMR’s O scale brass models will now be built in the USA (Lots of applause)
• Their first USA made model will be announced and shown by the spring York. It will be an early steam model; fully functional; and up to David’s standards; plus it will be several hundred dollars cheaper

They are moving their manufacturing back to the US and 'lowering the price several hundred dollars' on top of that. And hopefully they will be paying a living wage to their workers. I realize this is a small and specialized market, but if one small manufacturer can do it I see no reason the others can't also do the same thing. Once the others figure out there is more profit to be made here and they can also lower prices and sell more trains...well just hoping it is really like this and more things like this are or will be starting to happen soon.