Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Nov 30, 2021 13:49:05 GMT
I think that with any construction set it was all about building with imagination!!! Indeed Palmer - I saw the instructions as suggestions.
On "Toy Day" at school there was a kid who brought in a Meccano set - and he insisted that whatever we built had to come out of the manual and instructions, because that's what it was for.
I love the whole idea that you were given a box of metal, a ton of nuts and bolts and some wheels & pulleys. In effect you could knock up something you wanted - if it didn't work - make it work.
Our best contraption was a Medievel Catapult, utilising a couple of good strong plastic bands - it could fling blu tack and lego bricks at speed. The best ammunition was made from the dried out wax off Mini-Baby Bell cheese and Mums Edam in the fridge. Bloody painful it you got hit by it. We considered it just as good as Musket Balls...
My brother later adapted the device to launch pencils like cruise missles...
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Nov 30, 2021 15:36:22 GMT
I did a bit of both with mine, initially I made the model from the instruction book, then just made random stuff. Meccano was going when Dad was young, in the 20s and early 30s, and he told me that he made a model of Blackpool tower with his
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Nov 30, 2021 16:21:34 GMT
I've been to some Model Rail / Toy fairs with the kids and seen some total works of engineering. An entire functional minature fairground was one - complete with Carousel, Helter Skelter and side shows.
Another on the same display had a functional Mill and Factory; powered by a water wheel. Never looked at the water operation close enough, though I assume they must have used a pump to circulate the water to create a current to spin the water wheel. The factory had functional spinning jennys and lifts.
Remarkable stuff.
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