Rasti

This article is about the plastic construction toy. For the Rapid STI, see Speech Transmission Index. For the village in Iran, see Rasti, Iran.

Rasti is a construction toy made from plastic, similar to Lego, Tente and Mis Ladrillos, that was produced by the Knittax company in Argentina between the 1960s and the 1970s. In 2007 manufacturing began again.[1]

Various sizes of basic Rasti blocks
Rasti Junior blocks, compared against basic Rasti blocks

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.

Construction with parts of the system

Quality

The quality of the Rasti bricks produced in Argentina was so high (the shafts were made in chromed steel with plastic points for joining the special holes in the wheels), and its popularity was so large during the 1960s, that the word "Rasti" became of regular use and is still used as a generic noun 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 where its license was granted to the company Hering, and remained in production for several years.

In Europe, nevertheless, with new colors but with the same basic pieces, the Rasti still continued selling in Europe after the new millennium (“Rasti-2000”).

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 larger set, "Starbox 1000".

Model of Rasti Mobil 204

External links

Rasti in Argentina

German Rasti fanpage

References

  1. ↑ "Tras 32 años de ausencia, vuelven a fabricar los "Rasti"" (in Spanish). negocios.iprofesional.com. 22 June 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2012.