Erector Set
It's from 1913, before you were born.
- Maker
- A.C. Gilbert Company
- Type
- Metal construction set
- Debuted
- 1913
- Note
- Inspired by watching steel girders go up
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About
As of 2026, it's 113 years old.
The Erector Set arrived in 1913 after inventor A.C. Gilbert watched workers riveting steel girders for power-line towers from a train window and thought kids would love to build the same way. He was right: metal beams, nuts, bolts, and little motors let children construct genuine working cranes, Ferris wheels, and bridges.
It was engineering disguised as play, and it launched countless careers in the trades and sciences. Gilbert was also the man who once talked Congress out of banning fireworks and toys during WWI — earning the nickname 'the man who saved Christmas.'
Sturdy, ambitious, and quietly educational, the Erector Set is the toy that handed kids a box of steel and trusted them to build something real.
