Tente not Lego
September 16th, 2008Someone left a post the other day asking me about Tente. If you don’t know what it is, you’re missing out. Tente was a Lego-like building system that was mainly available outside the US. I got mine while living in Colombia, SA.
Anyway, the system had very similar blocks to Legos and the kits were thematic, like space or transportation. And like Legos, you could build them into whatever you wanted. I didn’t have a lot of them, but they were ahead of Lego in many ways. While Lego still had pretty generic pieces in the 70s and early 80s, Tente had a lot of specialized wheels and parts in their kits. But they made a lot fewer sets…
Tente Building System
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Tente was my thing in junior high, I have been scouring eBay for ages looking for their space sets. Superior to Lego in every way, I thought! – mh
October 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Too bad. I just tossed a few hundred 30 year-old Tente bricks in the trash yesterday. Most of them haven’t held up as long as my 30 year-old Legos, although they were much more detailed than their Lego contemporaries at the time.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I still remember as a boy living in Chile, when my parents gave me the TENTE Estación Polar “Artic 2″ for christmas, I played with that for years and took very good care of it. TENTE was a great way for me to play using my imagination.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
I had a lot of them in my childhood also. They were/are great. Today about 7 .auctions from myself are running out on ebay. e.g. 260304942299, or contact me via ebay name “becomeadad” it might be that I have some more
December 21st, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I WILL BUY ALL THE TENTE PIECES YOU HAVE JUST CONTACT ME AND PUT THE PRICE THANK YOU………………………..
December 21st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
LEAVE ME A MAIL AT NIVE750914@HOTMAIL.COM WITH THE PIECES YOU HAVE AND HOW MUCH YOU ASK FOR THEM THANK YOU
December 25th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
WOW … I had some Tente, Loved them … but obviously Lego won.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
sell me you tente tekjock
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I would be interested in buying Tente that people have laying around particularly if they involve Tente ship models, particularly military.
Eric
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
You can contact me at eric_in_it@yahoo.com. Sorry for the extra post.
Eric
February 7th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Ilive in the UK and have bought my son over the years Tente model ships when we have visited spain on holiday. Recently we have found it is no longer stocked in shops and despite communication with Borras the curent owners we are unable to find out if the product is no longer produced. Do you know if it is still availbale?
February 9th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Hi, Helen unfortunately borras is not producing anymore tente models and the only way to find some tente is on e-bay at very highly prices. Have a nice day……..
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
see my auction on e-bay on tente crucero
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=320353026509
March 24th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
SOME OF MY TENTE CREATIONS TAKE A LOOK AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK
http://img19.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=dsc00083e.jpg
March 27th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Wow, it’s weird seeing Tente again.
I have to admit though… as a kid, I HATED them.
Even that young, I still kinda’ knew they were a Lego ripoff.
The quarter-dome pieces were neat, but some of those parts were terrible.
The plastic was so inferior that breakage was a COMMON problem.
Worse yet, here I am some small kid with like a TV antenna part, one the brittle branches coming off it break, next thing I know I’ve got a cut on my hand.
I recognized them for having some interesting detail that Lego (at the time) didn’t have… but all the sharp edges, sharp pegs broken off in the stud holes, and all the white fracture marks littering the bricks really ruined my fun.
AWESOME battleship by the way! I’d forgotten about those unusual dome pieces until I saw your pics.
Ever think of updating or recreating it using modern Lego?
April 1st, 2009 at 3:45 am
Ray:
I discovered Tente in Portugal in 1985 while living there. I have developed an involved play where I designed and mapped out an island for the ships; I’ve created my own new parts, including roofs for buildings, small steps, small truck bases and truck trailers, trees, etc.
It is sad that they are no longer manufactured. Tente is a GREAT toy. It requires more imagination that Lego, but never had the international popularity.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:44 am
check this site for mor tente models, customs and information about tente
April 10th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I have a space themed Tente set with instruction booklet on ebay currently:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=300306656421
This set was one of my own from about 30 years ago, and though it is missing a few pieces, it has held up well over the years. It might be a good value for someone who likes to collect this type of thing, or someone looking for a unique toy for a child.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Gosh I haven’t seen them in the past 20? years!! They were the definition of my childhood
TENTE ROCKS!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 am
When I was little, Tente was superior than Lego. It has more interesting sets (space vehicles/bases and ships then the Scorpio line). Spent countless hours playing with it in my childhood.
August 13th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Nice to see some rabid and kindred fans exist. A small group, well-aware of Tente’s superior qualities. My interests were in the commercial ships, less the military, but these days any kit would be great. About four years ago some came available where I live that included the Titanic and, of all things, the Cutty Sark. I was more interested in the ones I saw that were Commercial fishing village, some business storage depot, and sets like that which included ships and shore facilities. All for fun. (PS – Tente’s ship scale is roughly similar to model railroad Z-scale.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Wow ! feel very privledged, because I had one small Lego set, and thousands of Tente bricks. All of you that replied it was superior to Lego you are correct !! I built many things with my sets. I had 5-7 sets of this great brick-building toy. I also lived in the US and living in Maine as a little boy. My biggest accomplishment was when I built a fleet of star ships, and one much larger flag ship for the fleet. These designs came from my own imagination. This was a great toy, because it taught me how to be patient and not rush your projects. This was a great toy, and I am sure there are thousands of these bricks out there. Good Luck to all your collectors out there !! …Roguevr4
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I just came across this site after I posted a small Tente ship set on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320470399342&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Anyway, if you are interested, check it out.
June 5th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I have about 20 Tente military ships of various sizes ranging from three aircraft carriers, battle cruisers and missile cruisers. Many of the configurations are designed after modern warships. Designs are superb. If anyone wishes to purchase them, I would be willing to part with them.
June 5th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
If you wish to contact me about my collection.. mbourcet@prn.bc.ca
July 19th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Weren’t there little free sets included in Cereal like Frosted Flakes back in the early 1980s?
April 14th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
I have a bin of Tente probably twenty pounds of them. I found all mine at afreight-damaged store. I have some of everything.
July 11th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Hi, anyone has any Tente for sale here???
July 19th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I have a Tente Dragon helecopter ship that I found. Where can i find instructions so my son can reassemble it?
July 19th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Wow. Cool find! No idea where you’d find instructions. But if you do, lmk. Would be happy to post a copy on the site for archival purposes.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Instructions for virtually every Tente set can be found at this site:
http://www.latenteteca.net/
It’s entirely in Spanish, but if you view it with Google Translate it’s quite easy to navigate. I have almost the entire Scorpion set of military vehicles, my favorite childhood toy.
August 31st, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Hi
My parents have been having a clearout and found what I hope is a tente aircraft carrier I bought on holiday in Malta as a kid. I say hope because its partially broken down and until I can find instructions to rebuild it I won’t know if its complete. I’m also hoping as the clearout continues they may find more as I’m sure I bought more than 1 ship but we’ll see…
I may put it on ebay if its complete after reading some of these posts!
If anyone has any helpful hints (or offers!) feel free to drop me a line chrislanie@hotmail.co.uk
November 2nd, 2011 at 6:25 am
Tente was superior to lego in many ways. They sort of combined regular and technical lego in one.
I had some of the space sets and my bro got the mar sets when we were kids. I liked the fact that unlike lego, Tente peices could be put together in more than one way, they could even be assembled with peices back to back.
Any one remember the sort of transformer line they did, o remember having one of those, the Hermes I think it was called, way ahead of lego. Unfortunately, as mentioned else where, the peices where a little more fragile than lego, but I think that was also because they seemed to lock together better, so more force (teeth) was often required to separate the peices.
Although I remember it being a real kill joy if one of the studs snapped off in one of the holes……oh and that those tanker style domes that had studs/holes on both the top and bottom, wouldnt secure well when 2 fit together to make a ‘flattened ball’ %if you know what I mean) because they flexed too much.
Ahh……sweet memories. In fact, I found some of my old stuff at my parents the other day and my kids are happily playing with it now, though not enough of the right peices to male up the stuff on the box…..
November 10th, 2011 at 9:14 am
I have a about a gallon Zip Loc of Tente pieces, including Formula 1 Power Pack, plus assembly instructions for 330 Marina with Tug Boat and partial (pp 3-14) undetermined ship with helicopter pad, Hospital Ship, and Fire Boat. Doubt if there’s a complete set of anything. Anyone interested in purchasing?