Girder and Panel building sets
Brightly coloured plastic panels containing translucent "windows" could then be snapped onto the outer girders to create a curtain wall.
Square navy-blue roof panels—some with translucent skylight domes molded into them—were laid on the topmost beams to complete the structure.
The concept for Girder and Panel originated when Kenner president Albert Steiner witnessed the construction of a new office building in Cincinnati in 1956.
But due to negative customer feedback concerning breakage of dovetail ends and the notches in the beams, Kenner quickly switched to using the newly developed polyethylene plastic for the girders and beams, which provided a small amount of flexibility needed to withstand repeated assembly and disassembly of the pieces.
Colors of the curtain wall panels were typically bright yellow and reddish-orange, with a variety of white or translucent "windows."
Kenner typically created two or three sets of different sizes for each theme of the Girder and Panel toy line, offering the buyer a choice of "basic, better (and best)."
These sets, #4,#5, and #6, employed frameworks of girders too, but with diagonal truss bracing and other techniques to construct models of various types of bridges, turnpikes, and interchanges.
With the initial success of the building and interstate road themes, Kuhn and Oppenheim looked for new ideas to expand the product line.
Three new trends in society provided the themes for the next line of sets: the widespread use of chemicals, suburban growth by subdivisions, and futurist transportation concepts.
The sets contained many new clear plastic polystyrene parts consisting of spray heads, dippers, turbines, funnels, small and large liquid chambers, and storage tanks.
A small amount of classic Girder and Panel and Bridge and Turnpike pieces were included, to allow an office to be built as part of the chemical plant, with roadways leading to it.
As new subdivisions started to spring up around cities beginning in the 1950s and after, Kenner Toys reflected the trend in their Build-A-Home Building sets.
The Build-A-Home sets enabled children to construct modern suburban homes, with simulated brickwork or white clapboard siding.
Patios, swimming pools, TV antennas, steeples, chimneys, barbecues, and doghouses were all added as accessories to decorate the home.
Molded green polystyrene foam trees along with vacuformed shrubs and vines also provided some crude landscaping.
When one twisted the directional control atop the battery box, the "stool" inside turned and made the contacts touch.
His statement that the curves were nearly impossible to create so the cars wouldn't hang up on them, demonstrates that this was mostly a single man's endeavor.
[citation needed] Later, Kenner upgraded their Girder and Panel, Bridge and Turnpike sets by changing the design to the Modern-As-Tomorrow and Freeway USA sets, which introduced grey colored girders and beams, new panels, newly designed and colored roofs, roadway pieces, realistic road signs and other items such as toll booths, sign and lamp posts.
These sets introduced many new parts that are unique to Girdermatic sets, including a new green colored motor and battery controller, round platforms, cog belts, truss assemblies, giant beams, and Ferris wheel rings, with which one could build moving cranes, observation towers, several different types of bridges, industrial plants and mills with conveyors, and amusement rides such as a Ferris Wheel, Incline ride and Whirling swing.
In 2005, Bridge Street Toys created a special set for investors and family members as a Christmas gift: Note: www.girderandpanel.net no longer exists
