Charles Angelich wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

RJT> I thought that they had both at one time? I remember that plug-in 
RJT> motor, and grinding gears to the point where I actually stripped 
RJT> one in the "transmission" that was attached to it. 
 Expensive? 
RJT> Maybe, I think the last one I got to it.   was something like 
RJT> $20 or so, perhaps the bigger sets are more money. 

CA> I think I'm a bit older than you are (a decade or two) 

Somewhere around there.

CA> and I remember the original motor half the size of train 
CA> transformer (the train transformers were bigger too, about 1/3 the 
CA> size of a shoebox).

I'm remembering a motor that was maybe a 3-4" cube,  roughly.  With
the attached gear assembly being around the same size.

RJT> Speaking of that toy store, I had the misfortune to work a 
RJT> "season" at one of those, a few years back. Third shift, which I 
RJT> *hate*. And what kept going through my head, over and over, during 
RJT> a lot of my time in that store was how _MUCH_ of what they were 
RJT> selling was just differently shaped and colored bits of plastic. 
RJT> Probably 90%+ of what was in that store consisted of that and 
RJT> packaging... 

CA> Yes, from an adult perspective it is just trash. In the hands of a 
CA> child who can supply all the imagination and fantasy they are 
CA> valuable things to be treasured. All in life is this way. At my age
CA> much of what I valued some years back is now just trash.

Still,  looking back at a lot of the stuff I used to have,  much of it was
things where you could *do* stuff with it,  learn from it,  build things, 
etc.  I don't even know if they make such stuff any more,  haven't even
heard of a "chemistry set" in ages.  Much of what's being sold
now relates to commercially-produced "entertainment" that more
often than not I don't see as just being entertaining,  not like what stuff
used to be.  Too often it's also pushing a particular agenda as well,  but
that's a whole other thread.

CA> --8<--cut 

CA>> Seems more like just hooking up the proper in/out pins and not 
CA>> much else now. Not like it used to be winding coils by hand etc. 
CA>> It's a different but similar hobby now. 

RJT> Oh, it sure is. People deal with entirely different levels of 
RJT> stuff these days. I do too, for the most part, which is why it's 
RJT> kinda funny that I have all this knowledge that I don't use about 
RJT> the technology, and all these parts that I'll probably never go 
RJT> through, and spend more time than anything else sitting here 
RJT> interacting with _software_ instead. 

CA> I put in the years of work and 6 1/2 years of schooling to become a 
CA> master metal mechanic in the foundry trade of patternmaking just in 
CA> time to find myself in a world of CAD/CAM where you sit and push 
CA> buttons and don't ask questions or volunteer opinions. Life s*cks 
CA> at times. Timing is everything. Born 50 years earlier I would've 
CA> been treated like a celebrity. 

I don't quite understand what "patternmaking" is compared to some
of the other related things I've seen mentioned in here by you and others. 
Care to elaborate on that a bit?

---