Super City
Encyclopedia
The Super City toy is a construction set
produced by Ideal Toys in 1967. It is similar to Lego
, small plastic pieces which are assembled to create complex structures. However Super City is more oriented to buildings and allows more sophisticated constructions. Children could build skyscrapers, research laboratories and pharmaceutical factories.
Super City is made of plastic frames which connect together at the edges with grooves and studs into which fit a variety of wall panels. Frames can be connected together at right angles by grooved and flanged columns. Frames are primarily square with some rectangles (half squares) and triangles (diagonally halved rectangles). The inserts are mostly wall finishes in either thin textured and coloured opaque plastic or windows in coloured (and sometimes textured) transparent plastic. There are a few card inserts, generally with printed signs. In addition there are a variety of special inserts and frames including shop windows, bow window, house door with pillars, clock, flag pole, garage door and revolving doors. There are also balconies and canopies. Other cardboard parts include helicopter pads and "building extenders". Roofs are generally intended to be flat (some of the plastic inserts are domed or pyramidal roof lights and panels) but card roofs are supplied for more domestic buildings.
However Super City proved too complicated for young children, and it was almost impossible for small fingers to work with. It was progressively removed from market from 1968.
Douglas Coupland
said about Super City: "anything made from Super City looked like a Craig Ellwood
, or a Neutra
or a Wallace K. Harrison". He also stated that Super City was "the best building kit ever made, possibly even better than Lego".
Construction set
A construction set is a set of standardized pieces that allow for the construction of a variety of different models. The pieces avoid the lead time of manufacturing custom pieces, and of requiring special training or design time to construct complex systems...
produced by Ideal Toys in 1967. It is similar to Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
, small plastic pieces which are assembled to create complex structures. However Super City is more oriented to buildings and allows more sophisticated constructions. Children could build skyscrapers, research laboratories and pharmaceutical factories.
Super City is made of plastic frames which connect together at the edges with grooves and studs into which fit a variety of wall panels. Frames can be connected together at right angles by grooved and flanged columns. Frames are primarily square with some rectangles (half squares) and triangles (diagonally halved rectangles). The inserts are mostly wall finishes in either thin textured and coloured opaque plastic or windows in coloured (and sometimes textured) transparent plastic. There are a few card inserts, generally with printed signs. In addition there are a variety of special inserts and frames including shop windows, bow window, house door with pillars, clock, flag pole, garage door and revolving doors. There are also balconies and canopies. Other cardboard parts include helicopter pads and "building extenders". Roofs are generally intended to be flat (some of the plastic inserts are domed or pyramidal roof lights and panels) but card roofs are supplied for more domestic buildings.
However Super City proved too complicated for young children, and it was almost impossible for small fingers to work with. It was progressively removed from market from 1968.
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
said about Super City: "anything made from Super City looked like a Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career through equal parts of a talent for good design, self-promotion and ambition...
, or a Neutra
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...
or a Wallace K. Harrison". He also stated that Super City was "the best building kit ever made, possibly even better than Lego".