I can't be sure if it is the same one, but the one I had was a carbon copy of a commercial kit made by my dad. The circuits of which there were many possible were drawn on card and for each one there was also a card component layout that fitted on a piece of holey hardboard.
Battery and loud speaker on the RHS. On/off switch, variable resistor and tuning capacitor on the top. Clips went through the board holes and springs with washers on clamped the component leads. Care was necessary not to short out things as you built it the springs stood about 1" high.
The transistors were an AF116 x1 (PNP) and AC127 x2 (NPN). The most complex thing it could make was a one octave electronic organ.
The SW radio was quite sensitive once you attached a long wire antenna and an earth to it. The amplifier was less impressive and relied on a high impedance loudspeaker to work at all. The transistors were puny.
The modular fixing technique on the x40 looks to be more sophisticated than on the kit that I had.
I also had Brickplayer, kits of clay tiles you stuck together with flour-and-water paste. There were plastic doors and windows and roofs of card you stuck together. You could disassemble the bricks by soaking the building in water to make something else.
I used to dream of having enough Meccano to actually build more than a basic "car". We couldn't afford it. Nor any of electronics construction kits, had to make do with stripping old boards of bits that me Dad skip dived for. Still have alot of those pasrts...
I was delighted to get Meccano. I always thought it was a new Meccano set, and was occasionally puzzled when discussing projects with others that mine never matched theirs - I had parts none of their kits had, and the colours & styles never matched either. Moons later I found out the kit was patched together from all generations of Meccano, including some of the earliest unpainted parts, but there were also parts that I've no clue where they came from, AFAIK they simply never existed in Meccano. Some 3rd party equivalent I guess.
A great teaching aid imho. But I doubt it interests any 1st world kids now, they're all chasing video games.
I(*) used to have a good sized chest of the stuff, some of which was new, some of which was Dad's (and I think some of that was second hand), but as it all fitted together, who cared. Unfortunately, during a house move it was stored in my grandmother's garage, and had vanished when we went to reclaim it.
(*) I say mine, it lived in my bedroom, but Dad still used to use it to make useful things..
Getting back to the original topic, I had a very basic constructor kit, which I suspect was not new. A piece of peg board, which you laid a circuit diagram over. The various components were on plastic mounts with wire clips on each end, the mounts clipped into the peg board, and you connected the components together with bits of wire. I think we managed to get a crystal radio set to work once, but in the main, it wasn't a success.
Ah Meccano! Every year my mother bought me an upgrade to convert the set into the next one up. I got to No.9, but the 10 set was a no-no, being twice as expensive as No.9.
I also had (and still have) Minibrix, like Lego but made of brick-coloured rubber bricks which were snapped together or apart with no messy cement like Brickplayer.
I got a No. 4 set for Christmas one year. A local shop did 'spares', and I gradually built up to a No. 5, a No. 6, all the way up to a No. 10. My best friend did the same, and then we built massive models with the resulting 'No. 20' kit!
I also had Bayko, which was interesting but I was never inspired to buy more (I had quite a decent set).
And the Philips kit, the advanced one. That started me on electronics.
Bayko sounds familiar. Is that the original 1930s constructor set that started off looking like a hedgehog? Even as a youngun I could see that being a total hazard.
ditto. Spent no end of time trying to figure out where the voltages changed :)
I'm not quite old enough for the 1930s, but probably.
Rectangular green base (these could be joined to make a bigger base) with small blind holes at a regular spacing. Thin rods of different lengths to fit those (yes, a bit dangerous). Then 'bricks', which were thin slips of plastic with outlines of actual bricks on them, concave half round edges, so they slid between the rods and could be stacked. Wimdows, doors, etc. likewise. Various roof shapes to fit on top.
I bought and built one of those, I took a special trip down to London to collect the kit direct from Heathkit. It was still working around 15 years ago, when I decided to bin it - I wish I'd kept it now.
I remember those - I was offered the choice of that, or a very realistic model lorry. The lorry had cast parts, all held together with nuts and bolts, working steering and I think suspension, I think spring motor, plus the tools to dissemble them. I eventually lost the bolts and was unable to reassemble it. I came across them on Ebay last year, they are quite a collectors item.
I got the big town plan Lego set for Xmas that year. Only found out this year that Dad was a hero and ate a lot of cornflakes as it was a Kellogg's cornflakes coupon offer.
Sometime in mid/late 60's I got a walkie-talkie kit that I think was Phillips. 3 transistors if I recall.
Also had a kit that had sort of springs that wires connected to make circuits between the components. Had a LDR, torch bulb, buzzer/speaker and I think 1 transistor.
Mine was a No 5 set plus remnants of a larger one donated to me by an uncle. I had a hell of a lot of gears and a motor for it eventually. Some of it did not survive my attempt to make a mirror grinding machine.
That was the newer version after the one I described with the manually assembled spring loaded clips and raw components. I suspect the base board was the same on both kits. That sort of industrial hole board that tools get hung up on. OK the transistors had longer flexible leads on them and some araldite reinforcement around the body.
I went though a phase of getting various Lego packs for Xmyth as it was an easy one for people to get for me. I'm not sure there were that many 'specialised' bits in the early days, maybe the odd clear window or door but apart from that it was mostly just 'bricks'?
The good thing about Lego is that I think what was my 'set' (it grew into an old suitcase) was played with by our daughter and is now being played with by a niece and nephew. ;-)
Aww. ;-)
When asked what I wanted for one Xmyth by Dad (he didn't normally ask) I replied 'a Radio controlled boat' and that turned up to be a
*complete* kit of parts, not just the plywood boat (Sea Commander) but the transmitter and receiver. ;-)
I can remember getting a medium sized tin, making some face like holes in it and fitting some batteries and loads of wires and a buzzer inside and a switch that would turn on the buzzer and a light when you press a particular place on the back. I took it to school and could make this robot 'talk' (one buzz for yes, two for no) in a way that no-one ever worked out. ;-)
I don't feel I was in one respect, I rarely got to ask for anything but at the same time was given some very nice things (or kind gestures).
I would never dream (and never got) a new bike for example but I think I was bought a nice (it was quite robust and had a wooden deck) Triang (?) scooter.
One particular instance of Dad being particularly thoughtful (rather than Mum, who always was ...) was when he came in from work and handed me a couple of tropical fish to put in the tiny tank I'd set up myself that had a few of my mates surplus guppies in. I was slightly thrown and wasn't sure if it was a 'good thing' (they were too big for my tank) but he then asked me to go and empty the car boot like he often did.
So, I put the bag with these two new fish in (and really wanted to deal with them there and then, the boot could wait) but you didn't keep dad waiting so off I trotted down the garden and out the back alley to the car (I think that was the 2000e at the time), I opened the boot and there was a 2' x 18" x 12" tank, pump, gravel, water treatment chemicals and some plants in bags and all you would need to set up a proper system. ;-)
I wouldn't keep fish now of course but it was a lovely surprise then. ;-)
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