C is for Christmas Exhibition - 5 of 5 - Low Display Table

The exhibition extended to a side table, where some of the earlier systems get a second outing with ephemera for a more nostalgia-related display than the ready-to-play stuff in the upright cabinet . . .

. . . which looks like this! The two items which aren't further looked at in the next four images are firstly; the late green/red Meccano set (bottom centre), I know it's late as it has a yellow plastic tray insert to hold the components, but the earlier colour scheme with grey wheels. My brother and I had yellow vac-forms but blue/yellow plates and silver-anodised beams, so ours must have come just after this set.

Note also the aircraft engine, propeller and wing-struts (along with non-standard wheels?), all job-specific parts, but the piece I like most is the bolt-on RAF roundel!

The other item of note here is a catalogue of exhibits for an exhibition of construction toys at the Science Museum, issued by the Ministry of Education no less! I can't make out the date but it looks to be either 1945 or '55, and would be a wonder to view now . . . are the items still in their archive?

Trix catalogue and parts, as I mused a couple of posts ago; I think this is a licensed product re-branded to Trix (or from Trix?) and that a US company is also known for these triple-pierced beams? The cog and disc are very similar to Meccano parts, but the spanner has the added value of being included* into a model . . . so long as you have a second to tighten the nuts!

*I tried 'assembleable' but it seems to be a new-word too far!

Minibrix; we didn't have this system as kids but many of our friends did, I found it a bit boring, as (like Bayko, missing from this year's exhibition at Fleet Library, but seen in past displays) it can only make endless variations of a few basic building types - no cranes, no spaceships, a crude crocodile maybe, if you tried hard enough and had both a good imagination and good visio-spatial planning skills, but not realistically set up to model anything other than another 'box' with or without pitched roof!

In its defence it was made out of a very stable vulcanised rubber, like vehicle tyre-rubber (unlike that Italian stuff which has melted vast tracts of Toy Soldier history to sticky, furry lumps of nothing!), and while you sometimes find it with a perished surface (a sort of flaking hardened 'varnish' as a top layer), most is as useable now as it as when it was made 50 or 60 years ago.

Note the door; along with the windows, small points top and bottom of the element locate into dimples along the surface-edges of bars or bricks. And - like truck-tyres - it was bloody heavy!

We saw the ballast/mineral wagon in an earlier post, here's most of a passenger coach! The image seems to be of an auction lot and shows a whole set which also builds a windmill, a rail crane and section of track looking to be about G-gauge or 'Big' in plastic parlance!

Masterbuilder handbook and parts; again very similar to Meccano, but actually the 'rims' are better modelled than those of Binns Road's system, in separate scales they wouldn't look out of place on a Morris Minor or a Massey Ferguson!

The whole collection is still on exhibition now and to be seen in Fleet Library (North Hampshire - Berkshire - Surry triangle), and should - if previous years are to be a guide - continue 'till the end of January 2020.

C is for Christmas Exhibition - 3 of 5 - Metal Construction Systems

The lower shelves of this year's display are on the metal building systems and again the upper of the two has non-Meccano, the lower all Meccano, this post addresses that first, upper, Meccano-free tier.

Two from the same manufacturer at 1 and 5, one being Tobar's contract manufactured Junior Engineer's Workshop Racing Car and five a Bulldozer credited to FIA Toys marque; Nuts and Bolts Engineering. You can see the plastic parts are identical despite the plethora of brand marks!

The scales (9) seem to be a direct copy of- and contemporaneous with- early Meccano, from Masterbuilder of Loughborough, Leicestershire. While at ten we have an army Land Rover (Series One I think, or is it a Mini Cooper! See previous post!) from the Gift Box Co., who sound like another importer.

In front of the Lanny we have a vintage crane on a rail wagon from AC Gilbert's Meccano-similar Erector sets (6), note the nice truss-girders used on the arm. In the foreground is a snowmobile form German brand Eitech.

Hidden by flash reflection the 3 on the roof of the blue truck announces a Breakdown Truck from the department store chain Marks & Spencer, who credit it to Germany, as it has the same Phillip's driver holes as the Eitech, that might be a clue, but to be honest; I think even Meccano (still going as a French-owned brand) have gone over to crossed, from slotted?

The footbridge (7) is another vintage rival to Meccano; Trix, although I think it's a licensed US product, I just can't remember who, the third line of holes in the beams is the giveaway.

At the back is a nice looking Harley-D (11) type from Remco in the US, but not vintage; it's another modern Chinese import (and thanks to Chris Smith Remco will be reappearing soon have now appeared here recently!), brand-marked Steel Tech.

The two new ones here (from the previous picture) are another import from China; the little plane (4) is branded Metal Mechanic and credited to Padgett Brothers (A-Z), another rack-toy importer we've seen here before, while behind it we see a very old rail wagon from Primus Engineering (presumably the same people who made the camping stoves for the old Empire's expeditions and military?) with pre-shaped, real wood parts.

This doesn't have the flexibility of the other systems (although the engine, wheels and struts are re-usable) and is probably aimed at adult collectors? Credited to Metalcraft Corp., of St Louis, and unmistakably the Spirit of St. Louis which that wotisname fellow crossed the pond in.

Yep! Definitely a Series One!

R is for Railway figures

Returning to the Trojan article that launched this group of 8 posts, we find that the figures I believe to be the civilians from the Trojan Catalogue that’s been doing the rounds for a while now, are based on the Britains Lilliput series, itself probably produced/certainly marketed by W.Horton and also supplied to Trix, who drilled the bases and fixed them to their wooden station accessories (probably also - actually - made by W.Horton).

Top Left shows the same picture already seen in the Trojan Article, to the right is a ticket-issuer or platform vendor (?), the chap on the right has clearly been painted as a vendor of something rather than a member of Railway Staff.

Below them is the full range as I know it, the man at the back right is showing the hole used to fix him to a Trix platform. I’m not 100% sure about all the cargo, most is Britains/Horton/Trix, but some of the barrels may well be Wardie/Mastermodels, as might the small box on top of the two bigger ones? The trolleys; both powered and trailing, are marked ‘Trix’ and may well have been exclusive to them, although the powered trolley is listed in the Lilliput range (LB/549). Of interest is that Airfix (most pirated of companies after Britains), did themselves pirate the large box (Britains; No.LB/546 Large Packing Case) for their HO/OO strongpoint/outpost Playset type kits!

The last image is possibly the most interesting; as it shows the figures I used to think were the Trojan ones, even though they were hard styrene plastic, until I found an early Merit box with the same mouldings, it then transpired that they were ex-Wardie ‘Mastermodels’ moulds, which we now know emigrated to Merit upon the demise of the former. However by the time that had all come to light, the soft-plastic one had turned up and he took the mantle of ‘possibly Tiny Trojan’!

Mastermodels by Wardie have also been looked at in this series of articles and should be the next but one down the page, although - like the Hornby family (see note in the ‘Initial Article’ 3 posts above) - there is a lot more to the Wardie/Mastermodels, Merit/Model Scene, Peco/Guagemaster, Slater’s/Wills story than I’m ready [can be arsed] to cover here.

The Britains/Horton/Trix passengers/civilians with colour variations, again the Trojan photograph is re-produced bottom left. Bottom right shows another Trix mounting hole, and it’s interesting to note that some out-workers painted the woman with handbag as sometimes looking to the side, sometimes; looking forwards. The Golfer however has a pigs snout and can only be painted looking sideways, this WAS the era of ‘Animal Farm’!

To prove the necessity of my stressing that the identification of the Trojan civilians is still very tentative or conjectural, here are some other figures that contend for the title. Top left are some soft plastic/polyethylene figures based upon, but not the same as; the Wardie/Mastermodels set of stevedores (57), while to the right is a hard styrene better quality copy of one of the plank-carriers from the same set. Hammond states that there was plastic production at some point from B.J.Ward/Wardie, but the Brookes (who have done most of the work on the subject) don’t mention it, so it could be that the figure on the right is a late Mastermodels issue, and the figures on the left are just piracies? But…either could be the true Trojan figure/s?

Below them are the early Merit figures again, now; usually the Merit figures from Wardie are taken from the same moulds (the Merit ‘Remote Control Driving Test’ game playing pieces for instance), but these are clearly more of a piracy thing, the cut of the waistcoat of the porter carrying luggage makes a good comparison. Merit did copy a lot, so it may be that these were copied before the ex-Wardie people carried the moulds over to Merit as they went bust, which is one version of the tale…

Bottom is the replacement Merit set with both Merit and the current/late (?) Model Scene packaging, note; Model Scene issue/issued theirs without bases.

The Salisbury Station unit from Trix, probably made by W.Horton who also supplied 54mm scenics to Britains who made the Lilliput range of OO gauge figures that Trix used on their TT gauge Railway sets…clear?!