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Child Guidance Guidancetown U.S.A./Constructive Thinking
In 1963 Child Guidance Toys of New York developed a simple plastic building construction toy in scale with their successful Child Guidance Railroad and their also new for '63 Child Guidance Highway systems.
Building with Guidancetown
Panels
Guidancetown buildings are constructed using a series of different molded plastic panels. There are designated "S" side panels that are all a brick pattern and have two thinner protrusions that fit into the slots on the other front and rear wall pieces. The front and rear walls come in 3, 4, and 6 inch lengths with different designs. Constructive Thinking sets contained the 3 and 6 inch sections while the 4 inch sections only came in some Guidancetown sets. These pieces all comes in all-white but can be painted once assembled if a desired building is planned to be kept assembled and used on a diorama or model.
There are ten types of long six-inch wall, lettered 6A to 6J. Type 6A seems to be the most common six-inch piece and has six open windows. Type 6B has four windows with a central pair of double doors. 6C has the four smaller windows and a larger central counter that can hold one of the cardboard sign insert. 6D has central double doors and two wider windows that can hold the signs. 6E has three wide open windows with blinds that can be covered with a cardboard insert and 6F has the same three wide windows with closed blinds. 6G is a nice house front with front door, garage door, and wide front window. 6H has two pairs of double doors and 6I has two wide windows with vertical bars that can accommodate the cardboard inserts. 6J is just a brick-pattern wall. Specialized church 6-inch pieces were produced with gold foil lining for some Guidancetown U.S.A. sets.
I do not presently have any of the styles of four-wide wall. There are two type of three-wide wall, 3A with three small windows and 3B with two small windows and a door. There are also small support beams that can clip into the bottom edge of a wall and elevate it.
Roofs
A variety of roof pieces in different colors as well as a church steeple were produced.
Although the style of each front and rear wall can be selected, the lengths must match and two solid brick S pieces must be used to connect them. This means all buildings will be built in units of 3" by 3", 3" by 4", or 3" by 6" as you stack up more rectangles. These concepts are explored in the assembly and technique guide included with the Guidancetown sets.
Larger and I suppose more architectural buildings could be built from the Constructive Thinking sets, which had many, many windowed panels for making massive skyscrapers. Because of the limitations of the piece selection and the way the buildings go together, I must say that some of them look a little odd. Unfortunately, I'm missing the second page of this instruction sheet which shows all of the varieties of panel including the four-inch outer walls I do not have any examples of.
Buildings of all sorts of designs can be made, especially if you make good use of the different types of panel and the cardboard sign inserts. Some of the connections can be a little rough and the plastic has sometimes warped or cracked over the years.
If you leave a large enough opening, other toys like the Child Guidance Railroad can run through it. If course, the system also works well with just about any other toys of similar scale.
Accessories
Guidancetown U.S.A. used some of the same accessories as Child Guidance Highway, in particular the soft plastic cars and trucks and road signs, but some accessories like the small green plastic trees as well as figures added to some Sears sets were new for this series.
Sets
Sets that included a "street plan" play board, cars, and other small accessories were marketed as Guidancetown U.S.A. while sets focused on just the building aspect were marketed as Constructive Thinking.
| Year | Set name | Description | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 853 Constructive Thinking 1 | ||
| 1963 | 855 Constructive Thinking 2 | ||
| 1963 | 503 Guidancetown U.S.A. 1 | Over 110 piece set with 30" by 40" playboard, buildings, and cars | |
| 1963 | 505 Guidancetown U.S.A. 2 | Over 220 piece set with larger playboard, more building components, and more accessories | |
| 1964 | 4624 Guidancetown U.S.A. 161 piece set | Sears exclusive set with 30" by 40" playboard and set of 48 scale figures. Also listed as no. 9503 |
1964 Sears Catalogue Can be seen here |
| 1964 | 4626 Guidancetown U.S.A. 273 piece set | Larger Sears exclusive set with 36" by 44" playboard and set of 48 scale figures | 1964 Sears Catalogue |