Rasti

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A pile of Rasti pieces

Rasti is a Construction set|construction toy made from plastic, similar to Lego and Mis Ladrillos, that was produced by the Knittax company in Argentina between the 1960s and the 1970s.

[edit] Construction

The construction method allows joining pieces with some pressure, locking the blocks for deformation of the semi-rigid plastic pins which, in a different way from the other brands, avoids the friction and wear between the pins and the internal surfaces of the blocks. This system avoids the fragility and instability in the models, giving a solidity not got by another construction toy or block system until that moment.

[edit] Quality

The quality the Rasti toy was produced with in Argentina (the axes were made in chromed steel with plastic points for joining the special holes in the wheels) was so excellent, and its popularity was so large during the sixties, that the word "Rasti" was of regular use and it is still used like a noun and generic word to describe the objects that can be built and unbuilt in pieces saying: "it was broken like a Rasti" or "you can build it like a Rasti".

Having obtained a considerable popularity in the toy market in Argentina, the "Rasti" was exported to countries such as Canada and Germany (from where the original design came) until its production moved to Brazil when its license was granted to the company Hering, and was continued making by some years although its quality was not as obtained as in his first Argentine time (the axes at last were made in a single piece of plastic and low coefficient of rigidity).

In Europe, nevertheless, with new colors but with the same basic pieces that dazzled the children of Argentina in the sixties, the Rasti still continued hitting Europe after the new millennium (“Rasti-2000”), demonstrating to have survived the passing of the years and to have maintained in the affective memory of those who are more than 40 today, and that, like before, today buy Rasti but for their children.

Between the more popular sets sold in the Rasti decades, there are the Minibox 600, the Multibox 800, the technical kits 501 and 502, the three variants of Rasti Mobil (202, 203 and 204), the Motobox 45 and its more complete version the Motobox 90, and the more large set, the famous and always desired "Starbox 1000".

Rasti was the preferred toy of children that today are between 40 and 50 years old for whom it was nearly an excluding toy, main entertainment and source of ideas, of great creativity, an adaptable game-toy, with the right pieces -and not very sophisticated- that allowed to carry out almost anything that the child's fantasy could imagine.

Rasti is a symbol of intelligent construction, of a constructive durable resistant system, ("Rasti-Resist" was the slogan in the sets) but, over all, Rasti was a trademark for the nostalgia and good moments for the childhood in the industrial Argentina of the sixties, a name that is destined to remain.