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The Make-It Toy monument is a 16-foot sculpture in It's Electric Neon Sign Park, Granite City, Illinois, honouring a wooden construction toy that a marker says was made in the city. The marker records it as erected in 2025.
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Make It Toy giant Tinker Toy tribute
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Site-level location · 38.7007° N, 90.1513° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
A 16-foot sculpture in Granite City, Illinois, honours a wooden construction toy that the city's marker says was manufactured there. The Make-It Toy monument stands in It's Electric Neon Sign Park at 19th Street and Delmar Avenue, where it shares the lawn with a giant graniteware coffee pot, three restored neon signs from the city's past and murals.
According to the marker, Make-It Toys were wooden construction toys "often said to be the prototype for the world's famous Tinker Toys", and the monument is a tribute to a lesser-known piece of local history. The marker gives the year of erection as 2025; the Illinois Office of Tourism had listed a Make It Toy tribute among the attractions Granite City planned to open in summer 2025 for the Route 66 centennial.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
A roadside sculpture in a park, next to a giant graniteware coffee pot, three restored neon signs and murals. The Great Rivers & Routes tourism bureau lists the park as open daily, with the signs lit from dusk to dawn.
ACCESS
In It's Electric Neon Sign Park at 19th Street and Delmar Avenue, Granite City, Illinois; an outdoor public park that the tourism bureau lists as open daily.
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