Do you remember playing with Lincoln Logs when you were a kid? These children’s toys have existed for years and are still present in our day to day. One of my favorite activities after the cabin was built was taking one of the green roof shingles and placing it on one of the smaller logs using it as a catapult to launch small logs into the cabin as projectiles. Good memories were made with such a simple toy.

Lincoln Logs were invented by John Lloyd Wright in 1916. He was the son of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. By 1918 they were available for purchase. The logs have a notched end that will fit together to build the log structures. The original logs were made of 100% wood and were available in item-specific colors, i.e. the roof pieces were green. The design of the trunks was inspired by the basement of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The name was derived from the instructions that shipped with each set on how to build Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin.

There are some games that were built with plastic with the advent of plastic injection molding machines and the popularity of this new raw material. However, in the 1990s, toys were remade from old wood and continue to be made from wood today.

These little log sets have been found all over the world. There is a high probability that you had a set and if you didn’t, then someone among your friends did. Over 100 million sets have been sold. The fun thing about these little logs is that they will fit together easily and create as many structures as you can imagine. These toys are also a great way for young children to develop their fine motor skills. They were so popular that they were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999. As stated above, the game comes with instructions. This allows children to work together to achieve the goal of building the structures following simple visual instructions. This allows for experiences that will foster skills to be used later in life.

If you think about today’s toys, they are always changing. You often wonder “What is the most popular toy on the market?”. While this question is highly relevant to the marketing people of toy manufacturers, there will always be toys that are the “old standby” and will continue to provide hours of entertainment for children. Lincoln Logs fall into this category. They have been around for almost 100 years and are still one of the best sellers on the market. So I vote for these toys to go into the Hobby category.

A definition of hobby is a habitual activity that is carried out in free time. Since Lincoln Logs have been bought and played with over the years, they fall into this category.