With what old toys do you play?

[klassiekerrally]

Dusted off my old Wilesco D16 steam engine yesterday and fired it up with some military grade Esbit.
Hardly healthy stuff, but I had fun with it. My son liked it too...

[ultimasimon]

The Steam stuff always appealed to me although I never had one

I think the brand was Mamod, and the traction engines were amazing.

On the subject of 'old toys' I always look on ebay at this time of year and see what gets turned up in Classic Cars.

So far heres 4 time warped relics:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DOLOMITE-1850-1980-TRIUMPH-DOL

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-Vauxhall-Cavalier-1-9-GLS

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1988-E-AUSTIN-METRO-VANDEN-PLA

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/mk2-escort-1-6_W0QQitemZ460022

[Matthew-TMM]

I have a Mamod traction engine - I think it's a TE1. It was originally fired by solid fuel tablets, a bit like firelighters, but they didn't heat very well, so me and my uncle made a meths burner like they used to be. I later discovered that the 'sight glass' was in fact a sight plastic which melted and shot a jet of hot steam out of the back. I later discovered it was caused by a slight breeze blowing the flame out of the bach of the boiler, so I now need to make some kind of deflector.

[fourwheelsteer]

I inherited some original meccano earlier this year. It is wonderful stuff - making anything takes hours but is really satisfying when you do.

So far I have resisted the temptation to splash out on a Mamod steam engine but I'd LOVE one.

[Zod]

Matthew-TMM said:

I have a Mamod traction engine - I think it's a TE1. It was originally fired by solid fuel tablets, a bit like firelighters, but they didn't heat very well, so me and my uncle made a meths burner like they used to be. I later discovered that the 'sight glass' was in fact a sight plastic which melted and shot a jet of hot steam out of the back. I later discovered it was caused by a slight breeze blowing the flame out of the bach of the boiler, so I now need to make some kind of deflector.

We had an original meths one when I was a kid. It must still be at my parents' place somewhere.

[Hilts]

I had a Mamod TE1a, still got her as well, here she is, in need of a little restoration I guess. Still in full working order though and I put a lot of miles on her !. You should see the speed these things get up to. These are just pics from my mobile.

Don't know if you can see it but the price on it was £ 11.50 and I would have been about 12, great xmas that.

'I've always had a great fascination for steam engines like you know, steam n owt mechanical really' /FredDibnah

[klassiekerrally]

Mamod builds some nice steam cars.
Wilesco has a couple of steam engines for ships! A steam-powered radio controlled ship would be nice...
Though it will not be fast, so I'm afraid I get bored too soon and will only like building the ship.

[Cotty]

fourwheelsteer said:

I inherited some original meccano earlier this year. It is wonderful stuff - making anything takes hours but is really satisfying when you do.

Watching that program the other day about toys from your youth you can let us know if what they said was true, that they used to purposly make mistakes with the instructions to make kids think how to overcome the problem

[WildCat]

Cotty said:

fourwheelsteer said: I inherited some original meccano earlier this year. It is wonderful stuff - making anything takes hours but is really satisfying when you do. Watching that program the other day about toys from your youth you can let us know if what they said was true, that they used to purposly make mistakes with the instructions to make kids think how to overcome the problem

Pretty sure story has some truth. Mad Doc und self still have our old Scalextic, road sets und train sets, meccano, Lego....(was never a dolly girly und the dollies I had tended to be disected, married to trolls und trogs und we did some "interesting" things modifying to prove theses dollies were "married" und did not live happily ever after Papa was most worried about what we did to Barbie und Sindy und Tressie.... We'll leave Ken und Paul und Action Man out of this! You are all too young! )

Also have these old steam toys und clockwork train sets as well. Plus original Cluedo und Monopoly und Snakes und Ladders und Ludo ...

But we let our own kids play with them und we even combine "new with old" - ist lot of fun. Geo-Mag und Magnetix - new toys - but very, very absorbing.

They are much better than the computer games as they do indeed "get kittens to think und resolve a problem practically" und you can take cars apart - modify und it provide basis for physics of "speeding" as neing able to undertand speed und car does matter

[Cotty]

WildCat said:

Mad Doc und self still have our old meccano, But we let our own kids play with them und we even combine "new with old" - ist lot of fun. Geo-Mag und Magnetix - new toys - but very, very absorbing.

I gave a couple of new meccano packs away for Christmas and not sure if its the same as the old stuff. Mine used to have a spanner and screwdriver but this new set comes with spanner and Allen key thus different bolts

[NiceCupOfTea]

One of the great things about getting older is that suddenly you can afford to buy all the toys you wanted as a kid (even if you don't have the time to play with them!!)

As a kid my favourite toys were:

Matchbox (etc.) cars - leave me alone with these for hours
TCR (poor man's Scalextric)
Radio Controlled Cars (never could afford a decent one though, keeping an eye out on ebay atm)
Lego Technic - had more fun building and designing than playing with toys once built.

Never really got into Meccano, didn't find it as versatile as Lego. However, my wife bought me a Meccano Spitfire from M&S for Christmas that kept me nice and quiet on Christmas Day! Did bring back some of the frustration of childhood at some of the diagrams not being very clear and having to dismantle/rebuild some bits due to dodgy instructions.

Then there were the things I could only use under supervision - funnily enough, the ones my dad played with as a kid without killing himself, and you probably can't even buy these days, and that was a steam engine like the ones above, and those tiny aero engines that ran on paraffin - bruised finger if you didn't get it out of the way of the prop fast enough! What a noise.....

cotty> Yes, my Meccano came with the spanner as per usual but the allen key too. Must admit I found it easier to use. My brother reckoned it was due to the "putting weight on screwdriver, slip, screwdriver through palm of hand" syndrome - typical health and safety! The Meccano I remember from my youth was more lego-y - ie, build something, dismantle, build something else. This stuff is very obviously "assemble and forget" - some of the metal bits had to be bent into shape (not that it mentioned in the instructions - I thought I was getting it wrong! ).

Ah well. Can't wait until I have kids, then I have an excuse to play with all this again!

>> Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Wednesday 28th December 12:14

[Cotty]

NiceCupOfTea said:

wife bought me a Meccano Spitfire from M&S for Christmas that kept me nice and quiet on Christmas Day!

Nice, M&S is where I got the kits I gave

Quite fancy having a go of this

www.meccano.com/products/special/product.php?ref=830508

[klassiekerrally]

Meccano never did it for me. (isn't Meccano french? )
Strange, because I really like to use spanners and stuff
Still play with Lego too. One of the advantages of having kids...
I bought a small rev counter from Lego which can be built in car models so you can see how far the car went, what the topspeed was, etcetera. And it cost just € 0,89!

[dilbert]

I got some Meccano for Christmas. I was dead chuffed. It wasn't a big job or anything, but it kept me amused for most of Christmas afternoon. I'm sure everyone was looking on in a mixed kind of way.

Externally everone was "You're just too old for that". Internally they were "I wish I'd had Meccano and not socks".



I was expecting meccano to have gone downhill, like everything seems to these days, but it was just as good. The only thing that has changed is that they use socket screws rather than cheesehead ones. It actually makes it better because you can balance the screw on the end of the allen key.

Best christmas present in ages!


>> Edited by dilbert on Wednesday 28th December 19:28

[sparkythecat]

klassiekerrally said:

Meccano never did it for me. (isn't Meccano french? )

Q. What's that whirring noise.....?

A. That'll be Frank Hornby spinning in his grave.

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/liverpoollife/life/displaylife.asp?id=1

[klassiekerrally]

Oops... Sorry...
I meant isn't Meccano french nowadays?
But I guess I was wrong. Thank god.
A lot has changed since the beginning...

>> Edited by klassiekerrally on Wednesday 28th December 22:14

[cotty]

dilbert said:

Externally everone was "You're just too old for that". Internally they were "I wish I'd had Meccano and not socks".

Got 2 sets from M&S as presents when I got to the counter they said its was a 3 for 2 deal, you cant beleive how hard it was not to keep the 3rd set for myself

[towman]

Mrs Towman is 45 next year - does she count?

[alc]

NiceCupOfTea said:

One of the great things about getting older is that suddenly you can afford to buy all the toys you wanted as a kid (even if you don't have the time to play with them!!) As a kid my favourite toys were: Matchbox (etc.) cars - leave me alone with these for hours TCR (poor man's Scalextric) Radio Controlled Cars (never could afford a decent one though, keeping an eye out on ebay atm) Lego Technic - had more fun building and designing than playing with toys once built. Never really got into Meccano, didn't find it as versatile as Lego. However, my wife bought me a Meccano Spitfire from M&S for Christmas that kept me nice and quiet on Christmas Day! Did bring back some of the frustration of childhood at some of the diagrams not being very clear and having to dismantle/rebuild some bits due to dodgy instructions. Then there were the things I could only use under supervision - funnily enough, the ones my dad played with as a kid without killing himself, and you probably can't even buy these days, and that was a steam engine like the ones above, and those tiny aero engines that ran on paraffin - bruised finger if you didn't get it out of the way of the prop fast enough! What a noise..... cotty> Yes, my Meccano came with the spanner as per usual but the allen key too. Must admit I found it easier to use. My brother reckoned it was due to the "putting weight on screwdriver, slip, screwdriver through palm of hand" syndrome - typical health and safety! The Meccano I remember from my youth was more lego-y - ie, build something, dismantle, build something else. This stuff is very obviously "assemble and forget" - some of the metal bits had to be bent into shape (not that it mentioned in the instructions - I thought I was getting it wrong! ). Ah well. Can't wait until I have kids, then I have an excuse to play with all this again! >> Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Wednesday 28th December 12:14

Hubby and his TVR spring to mind.......

[andy mac]

I used to love technic lego. Worm gears, pulleys, shafts, etc.. great fun, making stair climbers, mechanical catapults, and all sorts of mad and zany machines that only worked some of the time! They were even better when you had 3 or more motors to play with!