Meccano anyone?

[barry21]

When I was younger my grandad gave me a meccano set and I was wondering if anyone else owned one.
I remember I had a steam engine that you filled with water you then put a tray of spirits of some kind underneath the engine to make the steam drive a belt which in turn used to drive certain things like a wheel to operate a conveyer belt or something. I used to have hours of fun with this.
I came across some meccano not long ago and was disappointed to find that it was made of plastic!!!
mine was metal but I guess health and safety and production costs mean it was too expensive.

[sixtyten]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I had a set of Army Meccano

[barry21]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I had a few different colours in my kit. Mainly light greens and reds.

[sf1378]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I saw modern Meccano sets in a local toyshop-made of metal.

[Austin 1100]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I'm pretty sure I had some plastic Meccano back in the 70s which was yellow with blue plastic nuts and bolts.

[barry21]

Re: Meccano anyone?

all our local toy shops have closed down so I Just assumed that they didn't make sets any more but I know you can still get the plastic variety.
I was even more shocked to find they did a plastic kit in the 70's.
I guess you learn something every day.

[escorteclipse1990]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I found a full kit of Plastic Meccano in its box, in a Books For Free shop the other day, so i picked it up. Has on the box 1972 and is made in England, even came with a price list showing other kits you could buy dated 1/1/1970. Is plastic Maccano from the 1970s worth anything?

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Meccano anyone?

Now they've got some electronic robot kits.

[Powdered toast man]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I had some army Meccano that came from a car boot sale. I had one of the late 80s-early 90s kits that had blue and yellow pieces and the electric motor and battery case was red plastic. Lego Technic is and was far superior to Meccano.

[battyrat]

Re: Meccano anyone?

Had an army truck kit, but you could build almost anything from it. Excellent toy. My only problem was that every time I got the meccano set out I was told off, just in case I lost any of the small parts. In the end it was far too much hassle and trouble to play with the stuff so it stayed at the back of the cupboard until parents sold it off as I so called did not play with it much. The truth was that I was too scared to play with this stuff in case I got into trouble for loosing a part or two. I have no doubt that if the parents left me alone to just play with it I would of done so happily.

[Richard1978]

Re: Meccano anyone?

I found metal Meccano fun if a little fiddly to build, but it was hard when playing with a model to stop the screws coming loose.

The plasic Maccano seemed to stay together better, though many of the plastic parts were slightly too fragile.

[shilton dipper]

Re: Meccano anyone?

i was a lego kid, had buckets of the stuff.............i was lucky to have that i guess as back then we lived in a very stereotypical world

[PC66]

Re: Meccano anyone?

It's a long time since I've seen any, but if I recall correctly, the plastic variety was marketed as Junior Meccano, intended for very young kids, and not really in the same "real engineering" category as regular Meccano.

I acquired various Meccano sets through the 1970's, building up to what was probably eventually the equivalent of a No. 7 set, plus many of the coils and other components of the 4EL electrical set and a few other extras from the "special" sets which came out later in the decade, such as the crane-building set.

Being mostly of 1970's vintage, the majority of my Meccano was the blue & yellow, with plain silver strips, although I had a few pieces of the slightly older black & yellow. Red & green were the older sets from the early 1960's or before.

[Roxxy]

Re: Meccano anyone?

Yes, I had the full Meccano set no.4 and still have it somewhere, although it is missing a wheel part. You can build a model horizontal steam engine with it, amongst other things. I believe the full sets went from no.s 1 to 12- no.12 could build a battleship! I also have a couple of the smaller sets issued in the '70s that made one specific model, I think one of them is of a moon buggy.
Loved Meccano, very rewarding to make a working mechnical model all by yourself!!

[xmark1234]

Re: Meccano anyone?

i saw some of this at a carboot sale it was in good condition for its age it brought back memories of when i use to have it i never asked how much it was but i guess they would of wanted a bit but ill never know aint seen any for ages now