Meccano is a construction toy (miniature engineering set) with metal parts using ½ inch spacing between holes. Meccano sets consist of strips, girders, rods, wheels, gears, connectors, nuts and bolts, plus special parts. Sets can have up to thousands of parts (counting nuts and bolts). It can takes from an hour to days to weeks to make a model. Meccano has had a huge history, and was extremely popular from 1912 to 1960s.

It is said : “Any machine can be modelled in Meccano”……still pretty true!

Meccano was invented in 1901 in England by Frank Hornby

Manufatured in Liverpool England until 1980 it has subsequently had many owners and manufacturers.
Currently it is owned by the Canadian company SpinMaster.

In additon to “official Meccano” there have been a number of “clone” version made around the world at various times.

Even today, several small companies and individuals still manufacture and sell compatible parts for the hobbyist.