Hobbies And Interests
Animals
Today's Tinkertoy sets come with pieces that allow a child to build designs with moving parts. This lends itself perfectly to building animals. By constructing a rectangular or round piece for the main body, other pieces can be attached with hinges to make arms and legs. This basic design can be adapted to create a dinosaur up on its hind legs, farm animals walking on all fours, or even hinged to create winged animals.
Buildings
Modern Tinkertoy sets are equipped to build structures that are more sturdy, and can therefore be taller than ever before. A child can connect the rods and spools to create the Sears Tower, The Empire State Building, or she could design a whole new building herself. Shorter rods can be used to make windows, and clips can be added to short rods to create hinged doors. She can even fly one of two included flags high above her building.
Robots
A robot made from Tinkertoys is more realistic than ever. The Classic Jumbo Builder Set now includes a face plate and two robot arms. With rods coming in four different sizes, a child can build robots of varying sizes. He can also use the clips and spools to build robots that can fold down to be smaller, and extend in size when it is time to attack and fight.
Vehicles
Since the invention of Tinkertoys, the spools have been used as wheels in toy construction. Tinkertoy vehicles have become more sophisticated though, now that sets include tubes that allow for curves to be included in building. Race cars, tanks, bicycles and trucks can be built, to name a few. A string is included in some sets, which can be used with a spool as pulley. This feature can be used to create a tow truck or lift doors that open and close.