Loyal Gear Technology reader and Interstate Castings vice president Greg Bierck came across “High Gear” at a vintage toy store in Indianapolis, IN. “High Gear” was introduced by Mattel in 1962. In the game, players compete to work their four pegs through the ten meshed gears. (The box says there are 35,568 possible gear combinations.)

An excerpt from Bierck’s letter…

I am a collector of toys and really don’t remember ever seeing this game when it came out. My first thought was that it might not have been a big seller. My second thought was what a good way to show and teach a child how mechanical things work with such a game. I wondered how many people now in the gear industry may have played with this game as a child? I admit to being 53 years old and would have been 9 years old at the time, but would have really enjoyed it, as I like mechanical things. I also got to thinking what a child of 9 years old would think about this game today. I would think that since it’s not high-tech enough, there would be little to no interest from today’s typical 9 year old.

My point being that gears make the world we know work. I’m in the foundry business, and castings also make the world function as we know it today. Yet, how many people really know anything about our industries, the challenges we face, or that we need to continue to find young people who may be interested in what we do to carry on? Hands-on, fun learning tools like this game just are not out there anymore to challenge our youth at an early age to use their imaginations and actually experience how things may work.

Who will actually be dreaming, designing and manufacturing anything in this country in 15 years? Will it all be done by other countries? I’m afraid so. And when it happens, we will no longer be a leading industrial world country. It’s happening now. Would toys and games that stimulated hands-on learning at an early age, much like the Mattel game, keep us a world leader? Maybe.

Bierck’s musings lead us to wonder if any of our other friends in the gear industry remember playing “High Gear” in the 1960s. Gear Technology would love to hear from any of the game’s original enthusiasts.