Sunday, 25 January 2015

Meccano treasure trove

Meccano Magazine was started in 1916 by Frank Hornby, inventor of the Meccano hobby engineering sets (and later Hornby model railways and Dinky toys, some hat-trick) that did a brilliant job of keeping the minds of millions of teenage boys off their own nuts, for a while at least.

A bunch of insanely dedicate people have scanned and made available pretty much every copy of the magazine, which ran until 1981. There's even a searchable index. If you go in there, don't expect to emerge in less than an hour. The bikes, by the way, are from August and October 1929. Many thanks to Brownhills Bob for the tip-off. MP
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6 comments:

  1. Unknown25 January 2015 at 14:57

    Hornby also did Scalextric. I don't know what you call 4 things for a hat trick though. Imagine a dirt track version of Scalextric...

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  2. Hairy Larry25 January 2015 at 17:20

    Very cool MP...Meccano begat the later 'Erector Sets' here in the states. We had 'Popular Mechanics' and 'Mechanix Illustrated' magazines over here. Will have to check out that link some time. Been buying up old Erector sets the last several years to give as Christmas gifts to my friends with children...which are always met with much enthusiasm... get those kids away from the screen...so the parents can have a turn...

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  3. Mick P25 January 2015 at 21:50

    Blimey, I'd forgotten that they also did Scalextric. What a firm.

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  4. Hot Shoe26 January 2015 at 11:13

    Scalextric was first made by Minimodels then bought by Tri-ang before ending up more recently with with Hornby.

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  5. Mick P26 January 2015 at 11:20

    Ah, good update HS.

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  6. Nick27 January 2015 at 07:05

    Memories

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