At-a-glance information:

Tog'l is a fantastic building toy made in the late 70s to compete directly with Lego. However, it was only moderately successful. Nothing before or since could really break the hold that Lego has on the worldwide market.

I do not dislike Lego, I think any building toy is great for young and old kids, and adults for that matter! However, Lego's main shortcoming is the fact that you cannot connect the blocks sideways. They only stack.

Tog'l blocks have two fantastic advantages. For one, they have one or two pins on each block, and every block has a built-in little door...this allows for movement of various constructions built from this block. The block's hinge is very heavy duty. Blocks were mostly red or yellow, with occasional blue, orange and green blocks. Angle blocks were always purple.

Add to this a selection of panels, girders, tubes, wheels and axles, and you have the components to make cars, planes, houses, equipment, models.

9 hole and 4 hole girders, tubes of 2 different sizes, bellows systems, 3x6 and 6x6 panels, 2 different sized wheels and 2 different lengths of axles, clear window pieces and small connector parts....all packaged at different amounts and combinations in various sets. There was even slip on rubber treads for both the small and large wheels!

In the first few years, sets came in a numbered series, 100-500.

Original catalogs, which ran through the entire series, only showed sets 100-500. However, there were also several other numbered sets within this range. So far, the following have been identified.

Set 150--Rollabouts

Set 350--Boxed set, never shown in any catalogs (I had this one as a kid!)

Set 380--Large style case, filled with various items, including a motor

A note on catalogs: Most catalogs seen have drawn illustrations for building toys, and photographs of sample projects. However, I have one catalog which has photos of the toys to be built, and although they are the same models shown as drawings in the other catalog, the building sequences are slightly different.

A third type of catalog shipped with SOME of the cube sets. For example, the Busy Builder Set and the Circus Builder Set came with the regular 100-500 catalog, drawn version. The Giant Builder Set came with an instruction book, mainly in black and white, and talked about Tog'lman on the inside cover, as well as about the Tog'l Truck, etc.

Here is the inside cover of this third type of catalog.

Tog'lman

One of the many great things Mattel introduced for Tog'l was the Tog'lman. These were available in sets as well as individually in blister packs.

The Tog'lman was jointed with an inside wire for bending and posing. He had holes in his hands and feet that conveniently fit on the pins of blocks. Therefore, Tog'lman can snap into any toy.

Typically, the blue man was a construction worker, complete with stand, yellow hard had, and yellow wrench. The red man was a race car driver, complete with steering wheel and white race helmet. The green guy was a fireman, complete with axe and firehat. The red and green guys had stands too, in yellow. Of course, all accessories could mix and match.

Rarely, you may find small red connectors that will connect Tog'lmen together as acrobats. In fact, there is an Acrobat Set with all three Tog'lmen and their accessories. The cubed Circus Builder Set came with all three men.

Not Quite Tog'lman--Tog'l People

I always found these disturbing. Available in many sets, and at least in one small accessory set, were the Tog'l People. There were goofy heads, feet and hands. You made the bodies from either tubes, girders, blocks, etc. One clever illustration shows one with an arm made out of the bellows, with a hand on the end of it, and it was called "Politician"...when you squeezed the bellows, the hand of course moved forward to press your palm!!!

Also thrown into the mix were pig heads. You were on your own to build hooves, bodies, tails!

The Trucks

In about 1969, Mattel introduced the Tog'l truck. This great truck came in blue and green, more common in blue. You can completely assemble and disassemble it, use a cab, etc. It came with a little tow hook that you break off from the seat. These hooks are often missing. Of course, Tog'lman fits right into it. You can make a camper, tow truck, shovel, plow, etc from this great truck.

Another feature of this truck is its on-board elastimotor. A rubber band is utilized to allow for a backwinding, forward motion result.

Here is the truck, disassembled.

A single truck, and a host of add on parts, with a Tog'lman, were all included in this Truck Set. The Tog'lman was green in these sets. An extra red man is shown in the picture.

Also, there is the more rare Twin Truck set. In these sets, you get a red and a green Tog'lman, but the green guy comes with construction helmet and wrench typically associated with a blue Tog'lman.

A single truck also came with the Giant Builder Set.

The Motors

Originally, the Tog'l set 500 came with a wind-up motor. This motor is great, as you can change speeds using the small and large wheels, and the green 'pinion' gear, as gears, allowing a change in ratio. You could also use a special winch assembly that could wind a piece of string, allowing for usage as a crane! All these motors came with a key that had a special slot to keep the key in. Often this key is lost in sets.

The motor has holes all over it, allowing things to be build onto it. However, it was rather slow and had a limited run.

In 1968, the "elasti motor" was brought out. This was rubber band powered. You could put short axles and wheels on it, and plug it onto a car chassis, and by winding the wheel backwards, the vehicle would take off forward! Also, rubber tires could be put onto the wheels for additional traction.

For alot of the run of the Set 500, stickers were put onto the outside of the box stating "Elastimotor Included", so these sets came with both the wind up and the elastimotor.

The Elastimotor was also available in a seperate pack.

Here is a picture of a brand new never opened motor. Notice that it came with the winch pieces, and key, but no wheels. This was the add on motor pack.

Mystery of the Cases Solved!

Mattel brought out 3 cases. The first was a large case for the set 380. (Bottom) The confusion comes in when people look at the model of the Playcase that has the same image on it as the set 380.

However, the Playcases are smaller, and have a thin plastic handle. The 380 case is larger, and has a sturdier handle on it. The Playcases came in two styles, both shown. They could also have models built onto their lids. Inside, the small and large divisions were reversed on the two different styles.

Here is the original tag from the 'yellow' Play case.

Boxed/Cubed Sets

In 1969, the traditional boxed sets gave way to these cube type sets. Tog'l men were in most of these sets, and some had the new truck in them. Some also had the rubber-band powered elasti-motor.

Busy Builder--First set I had as a child. Came with one blue Tog'lman and accessories.	Circus Builder--Second set I had as a child. This came with all three Tog'lmen, depicted as acrobats in addition to their typical 'duties'.

Giant Builder--Largest of the cubed sets, included 2 Tog'lmen, plus a truck.

Tog'l was sometimes sold in bags and as starter sets.

Here are two starter sets, for Wheeled Toys and Frame Form Toys. Other bagged accessories included the Elastimotor, Girders and Panels, and extra blocks.

Kellogg's Fun

We believe that Kelloggs made at least two different send-away sets. Here is a picture of the smaller one. There is a larger one also that included some tubes. Shown is the original mailing box.

Oddities and the Bizarre

These are some of the known oddities. They really don't fit into any classification.

Here is the Tog'lman/motorbike pack. These have so far only been seen in Canada and in the Netherlands! Could these be export only items? Below is the same item in both its Dutch and Canadian flavors!

Here is a fun item, a Tog'lman, truck and race car/trailer combination. Very rare!

Here is an image of the kind of slick that was taped to the bottom of all 100-500 sets. But this one is for "Wog'l Tog'l". We have never seen another one, or a box for this. I think it may be the same as the mysterious set 350. The components of the set do seem to peg it beween the sets 300 and 400.

Here is the slick/parts list for the 500 set, still sealed.

A Related Link

If you enjoyed this page, you owe it to yourself a visit to Kevin Anetsberger's Tog'l site. His is the only Tog'l only site I know of, and is one of two experts in the world on Tog'l. I, of course, am the other one.

Kevin has a great site, and is also selling some accessories and add-ons that you will really enjoy. His web site is www.togls.com

Tog'l Mona Lisa courtesy of Kevin Anetsberger.

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