Meccano's Exceptional Cars - Part II

Wednesday, April 30, 2014
    (Great weather if you're a duck!)

Meccano's Exceptional Cars

Part II

This is the second part of a two part story about Meccano's great Motor Car Constructor Outfits (Kits). These were manufactured in the 1930's and came in parts, tools for assembling the toy, and of course instructions. Meccano also built ( I didn't know that!) a series of cars that came pre-assembled.

Please click here to visit the great website of Bertoia Auctions

As I was searching for photographs, I came to realize that Meccano had different-sized boxes for their cars. I assumed wrongly,that perhaps there was a change in design as time went on. However, the reason for the different sizes was due to the fact that Meccano had in fact made a "non-constructor (pre-assembled) model, and of course their constructor models called "outfits".

This kit came with additional parts that would allow the child to create different cars. What I also found in researching this post was that there was also a special additional kit that could be purchased. This would allow the child to add lights with wiring and I assume a battery in order to give light to the headlights.

I'm assuming that that huge handle to the side of the driver is a brake.

Also notice that the toy was build with right-sided driving. I know in canada, when I was a kid, we had Meccano sets. I wonder if they made left-handing steering for us Canadians?

Wow!

A 1930's complete set in its original box.

 You can see an extra rear part that came with this car.

removing the hard top, and chaining the back, would make the car more of a sports car than roadster.

The car also came with a clear celluloid windshield (windscreen) that 

was inside the metallic windshield frame.

I assume that this is 1 combination of parts that would result in this nice car.

Changing the roofs, the back, and adding a roof, would result in some of the cars that were presented above.

It's interesting how the celluloid yellowed over time on this car, yet in a previous car, 

the celluloid remained clear and neutral in colour. These cars also came with mechanical wind-up mechanisms. what's interesting is that when I went to ebay.co.uk (Great Britain),

 I saw some motors that were available for sale.

 Even toy cars have "scrapyards" to find replacement parts!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com