Customer Reviews

Lincoln Log Big L Ranch

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a child, Lincoln Logs were one of my favorite toys. You could build houses, forts, roads, fences, and just about anything else you could imagine for a piece of wood. Lincoln Logs have changed over the years, but they remain a wonderful toy to stimulate imagination.

This particular set is one of the larger sets available with 150 pieces. I think that if you are going to get Lincoln Logs, the more you have the better. I always wanted ever more Lincoln Logs to build even bigger forts, which was one of my favorite themes. The western and frontier themes seem to be somewhat old-fashioned for many children who would rather be punching video game buttons for hours than imagining what it would be like to create houses by hand, and then living in them.

This particular set includes pieces that are improvements over the original. Plastic windows, people, animals, a ladder and other miscellaneous people increase the imagination factor rather than detract from it. I initially was disappointed that the wood-slat roof pieces were missing from this set, but quickly realized that the plastic roofs remained in place as opposed to the wood slats that seemed to fall off the roof with little encouragement. On the other hand, you could use the roof slats in other arrangements, such as bridges and roads.

While I think it is interesting to build the models included in the original instructions, Lincoln Logs are sufficiently versatile and easy to use that even very young children begin stacking them with ease in their own configurations. This capability is a real imagination builder. I prefer Lincoln Logs for their greater reliance on imagination than most other building blocks and toys, which tend to emphasize a specific configuration.

John Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, first created Lincoln Logs in 1916. Strangely, he claimed that the construction of the foundation of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel was his inspiration for the toy rather than log cabins. The toys were an instant success because they developed good hand-eye coordination and for the other reasons noted above. The toys became an even bigger success after World War II and the baby boom era.

Lincoln Logs are one of the few toys that seemed to have survived for decades. There have been many challengers to Lincoln Logs, and they are probably much less popular with children today because of the many more sophisticated choices. However, Lincoln Logs remain a great toy, especially for younger children. Even older children, like those in there 40s and 50s, can find a lot of enjoyment in a toy that was much more popular in a previous era, and still retains most of the characteristics that were the reason for that popularity.

We bought this set hoping to get more of the longer logs (my son wanted to build larger buildings)...it had 94 of the little logs. A waste of the money to get a whole lot more of what we didn't need. He only got 4 large logs. He'll still play with it for hours, so I give it 3 stars, but wasn't what we wanted.

We purchased this toy for my 3 year old for Christmas. He has always liked puzzles and Legos and we thought this would be a great alternative. Not only does he spend hours with this building set he and his 5 year old brother take turns building and rebuilding the Ranch. This is a great toy and worth the selling price.

3 year old grandson REALLY enjoys building this, particularly with his dad. He can put his mechanical aptitude to work.

I got this and another Lincoln log set for my two grandson's of 7 and 5 and they were having hours of fun on Christmas morning. Also bought the Lincoln log book on how to make more building ideas

Great Product for our son, he is building with it all the time.