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[Kunal]

When I was around 8 years old or so, my dad got me this construction toy. It consisted of hollow orange rods, and blue connector pieces. The connector pieces had these rounded spokes pointing in 6 directions (up, down, left, right, forward, backward), and the rods would slot into the connector pieces. This basically allowed you to build 3D structures. The rods also had ridges along their length, which allowed you to place colored panels.

I might be wrong, but I don't think it was made by an American company. Mostly it would have been European. It might have been called "Tral" but I'm not very sure.

Does anyone remember the name ? If so, do you know if they are still being sold anywhere ? If not could you suggest something similar ?

[Tanner]

K'NEX?

[Kunal]

I just looked at K'nex and it does look pretty similar. One difference - The K'nex connectors are female while the connectors in the toy-whose-name-i-can't-remember were male.

[Guert]

I had these building blocks too. Can't remember the name to be honest and I can't find pictures. Sorry I couldn't help.

[SirNiko]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construx

You want construx.

[Guert]

Here we are! Thanks! 

[Kunal]

Yeah Construx looks a lot like what I had. Thanks  ! I'm guessing that I must have gotten some knockoff since it didn't have a bunch of those other pieces.

For those interested, these toys look pretty decent - http://www.bridgestreettoys.com/products/buildingsets.html . As far as I can tell, Construx isn't made anymore.

[Alevice]

I remember fondly Meccano. I only had the kinda meh-ish plastic versions, tho.

[Iamthejuggler]

Haha i was about to mention meccano. My parents got a whole load of the quality metal bits from a car boot sale. I made an awesome buggy that had this flexible roof that if you rode it off a ramp and it landed on it's back, it self righted. Meccano was like the super nerdy version of lego.

This and the cartoon thread is sending my down memory road quite badly! I need to get some old school toys to play with

[SirNiko]

Construx isn't around anymore. Sadly, it wasn't nearly as sturdy as legos or K'nex, so you could and would break those bars and plates with a little roughousing. Buyer beware if you get a used set. The upside is that it was really easy to make huge structures with small numbers of pieces, compared to how compact Legos were. I once built a suit of body armor out of Construx. Now tell me that's not awesome.

[Adamski]

OH! wtf I have a bucket of construx next door. Had a little space rocket complete with astronaut too 

The way you described it really did sound like K'Nex though 

[toprngr]

I am glad that you finally found the answer to the question. But if you are still interested in exploring other types of constructing, here is a list of them; I am surprised that Wikipedia actually has the list - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Construction_toys. Anyways talking about constructing toys, I remember the good old days where I and my brother used to play legos together. Those were the best times. Comparing computer entertainment and legos, I think I will choose legos without a second thought.

[Landshark RAWR]

I had Construx, Kne'x AND lego, I think I played mostly with the Kne'x and least with the Legos. Damn I wish I still had them...   

[Inanimate]

I never liked K'nex much.

Legos were neat, but I wasn't in the mood for building houses or anything as a kid; I was an action figure person, and I always made up huge stories and stuff for my characters. It was really fun! That's what drew me to Bionicle, Transformers, and Power Ranger stuff; I could make them do things.

And then, there were...

ZOOBS _{oh my god they still make these}

Those things were AWESOME man. I had a BLAST with them. Definitely one of the most endearing of the toys of my childhood, they have a fond place in my heart that they can snap to perfectly. Too bad those stupid hinges always broke... grr.

[Tanner]

OH DANG I HAD ZOOBS

[William Broom]

Personally I hated K'nex. Maybe I was just too young for them, but I found it incredibly painful to snap the parts together.

Meccano was the best - since it was made of metal and involved real screws and nuts, it had a more 'serious' feel to it.

[phubans]

OH MAN, I had completely forgotten about these! I was born in '81 and these must have been popular around '85 or so, because I remember playing with these before I got carried away with Legos. Thanks for the nostalgia! Here's some more cool toys from the 80s that I've recently remembered:

Rocks and Bugs and Things
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/rocksbugsandthings/rocksbugsandthings.html

Madballs (still in production?!)
http://www.madballs.com/home.action

STARRIORS!
http://misterhook.net/zoids/starriors.htm

Wheeled Warriors
http://www.wheelies.net/wwuniverse/toys/

And my personal favorite: BATTLE BEASTS!!
http://www.toyarchive.com/BattleBeasts/Figures/Figures.html

[Adamski]

I used to love knex  But I agree, it could get painful/fiddley. Loved Lego Mindstorms too 

[SirNiko]

If you need to be schooled on crazy toys, you can't beat my personal favorites, the ROCK LORDS which hold a place of honor on my shelf to this very day.

http://www.ikp.uni-koeln.de/~scholl/rock/rl.html

I'm really not sure what the marketing department was thinking when they came up with this one. They're like transformers, which are awesome and popular! But instead of turning into cars, planes, guns, or dinosaurs, they turn into rocks. Large, nondescript boulders.

[M]

I had Tinkertoys when I was younger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinkertoy