КОНСТРУКТОР ЮНОСТЬ - 3; "Constructor Youth-3", [A Soviet pre-collapse constructor set for young people]

Moscow: Tushino Machine Building Plant, 1980's. Pasteboard box, 44cm x 23cm. Name printed in stark black and white onto a stereotypically minimalist Soviet box, all the more susrprising considering this is a toy for children. Light inoffensive wear to the extremities, a little rubbing and scuffing to the corners, clean and complete. The verso of the box lid contains a plan of the contents with item numbers and small illustrations. Inside, the box liner is moulded polystyrene with spaces for the individual components, ranging from pressed steel baseboards and (truncated) wall/hull sections, to a set of rubber tyres, woven string to simulate hawsers and cables, pulleys, connecting rods, all the necessary tools, a bag of nuts, bolts and other connector pieces; all mass produced in a fashion that would have even a cursory modern day child safety inspection shutting down the whole plant, and issuing a warning that if your children get this for Christmas you might need to count their fingers on Boxing Day. Miraculously complete, as far as can be ascertained and with very little sign of use, including the plans and construction book, which is complex enough to count as aggressively educational and has the original warranty sheet with inspection stamps (hand stamped and dated 1992, although the slip dates the set to the 1980's) laid in. The introduction to the set, in the 62 page instruction book, states: "The 'Yunost' contruction set is a game designed [in 1944] to introduce children aged 10-15 years to the principles of technical design and construction engineering. Each set of the 'Yunost' construction set contains the most intricate parts intnded for assembling models of various mechanisms, machines, and industrial structures..."

Clearly designed as a controlled Soviet alternative to Western toys like Erector Sets, Meccano and the like, the principles are identical whilst the delivery is rather more tailored to a deliberately educational USSR approach to entertaining children. "Nothing without purpose" seems to have been the guiding tenet of USSR toy production approaches, which became notorious for taking an existing Western temptation like Meccano, or Lego, or GI-Joe and adapting them to the requirements of collective adherence to the improvement of the USSR. To Western eyes a lot of this material looks like the physical representation of the "We have McDonalds at home..." meme, but whilst Western toy design was aimed as much at keeping kids quiet and out of the way, with a side of education, the Soviet philosophy seems to have been 'if a child is building a toy crane, then he should be learning the principles of load bearing members, understanding pulleys, and getting an idea of where crane operators fit into the process of industrial engineering', whilst this approach seems to take some of the joy out of play time, it also contributed to the Western paranoia that the USSR was basically a cradle to grave enemy factory. (Inventory #: 81760)