Launched by Ideal in 1969 as the toy that is “safe for little hands”, Power Mite gave kids the chance to create their own workshops with sets of miniature power tools. The die cast metal and plastic made tools were plugged into battery-operated ‘electrical’ terminals, and were powerful enough to work through soft materials like balsa wood and styrofoam blocks, which Ideal supplied as ‘building materials’ with the range.
The following Ideal catalogue pages from 1972 are clearly pitched at boys, with descriptions such as: “Bring a man-sized thrill to a kid-sized worker”, and “Boys can play ‘craftsman’ with tools that look exactly like Dad’s”.
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
It would be awesome if kids were still able to play with toys like these today, the United States would surely lead the world in 8-fingered engineers.
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Hi. Agree, it does make you wonder how inspiring it would be to kids to have toys as functional and realistic as this.
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Hah! I love when you find a toy that I once coveted but never received (though, in this case, it is just as well, as I’m sure I would have found a way to injure myself.)
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correction: the toys I once coveted, & then entirely forgot about, until …
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That´s quite cool… and useful toys too 😀 love & best wishes 🙂
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Right back too 🙂
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Those are pretty neat, but yea, don’t think those will pass any safety approval these days haha 🙂
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Those are pretty awesome. I guess, these days, they would be judged too dangerous (like lawn darts).
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