Meccano Compatible Systems
Some call it blasphemy or even heresy.
Before the Great War of 1914-18, Meccano was made in Germany by Gebrüder Märklin of Göppingen, Württemberg. The outfits were virtually identical to the corresponding Meccano sets. After the war some changes were made - but as you can see from these circa 1929 outfits, there still was much influence left from the Meccano days! Outfits were numbered from 0 to 6, and illustrated are a pre-1929 (black) No 1 and a post-1929 (coloured) No 1 A.
After World War II, the outfits were redesigned and numbered 99 to 105 (later still: 1009-1015) And here are two shots of the magnificent Outfit No 105, which was then the largest box. Comparing the post-war 105 to the pre-war 6 in its wooden box is something like comparing a post-war Meccano Ten set to a pre-war Number Seven.
As you can see, the outfits sport many well-known but long since obsolete Meccano parts such as the Windmill Sails and the Grooved Flanged Wheels. On the other hand, there also are some typical Märklin parts such as the flanged circular plates (Tellerräder). And boy, was the price competitive! That is, getting 30 lb. of pure German quality for less than half price of a Meccano Ten set ;-)
Now for something completely different - a Swedish Teknik set. The outfits were numbered from 0 to 7, and about a million sets were made between 1937 and 1970. This is Outfit N:o 6. All Teknik sets contain a wide range of flat and angled plates (while e.g. Meccano N:o 10 only had two 161's) but no flexible plates.
In these pictures of a reconstructed N:o 5 set, the standard colour scheme of Teknik will be obvious. There were some colour variations, though, such as red and blue trunnions instead of green, and red angled plates instead of silver. In addition, you can easily distinguish an early set (such as the N:o 6 above) by the multitude of bush wheels, and a later set by the presence of the large rubber tyres (as in the N:o 5).
The Soviet Konstruktor set was produced, I believe, during the sixties, and was a faithful Meccano clone down to the models in the instruction book and ... yes, those plastic road wheels. "Detskaya tekhnicheskaya igra" means "a technical toy for children" and the text on the lower part of the box obviously means that you can build 88 (different) models with this box, which has the number 6.
Now, were there actually six Konstruktor sets, numbered 1-6, or perhaps twelve, numbered 00-10? Maybe we'll never know - but in the case of Yunost, there is, at the very least, some evidence that there were not ...
The Russian (former Soviet) Konstruktor Yunost was made in four sizes, numbered 2 to 5 (!) up to at least 1992. The lesser outfits are virtually identical to their British relatives (as are the models in the instruction books) but the largest set is totally different. For instance, there are no angle girders. On the other hand, some electrical parts are included such as a miniature elektrodvigatel (motor) and a reduktor (gear box) which are to be fastened with an Omega-shaped skoba (bracket) and interconnected with a special perekhodnik (flexible coupling).
Some Russian idiosyncrasies ...
Russian rubber rings, fresh from the factory.
In outfit N:o 3, and only there, the klemma N:o 212 has a tailored-to-measure compartment.
We recognize the sixties' plastic Road Wheels, don't we?
Note the electric motor with seems to be cast from recycled multi-coloured plastic.
Close-up of the marvellous gearbox, the reduktor.