BAYKO SETS

The world's first, and finest, plastic construction toy, BAYKO, was produced in Liverpool, by Plimpton Engineering, from 1934, then MECCANO, from 1959 to 1967, approximately.

Over those 33 years, plastic and plastic technology advanced considerably, not least because of the influence of the second world war, during which time production was suspended as Plimpton Engineering turned their attentions to the war effort.

In addition to the advances in plastics, BAYKO itself was also evolving from its comparatively limited range of parts in the early 1930s through to its peak in the 1950s, and beyond.

Along the way there are several, clearly identifiable, separate phases in BAYKO's production. These periods can easily be identified by differences in one or more of the following criteria : -

► The plastic colours.

► The range of BAYKO pieces.

► The type of plastic used.

► The structure of the actual sets.

BAYKO was taken over by MECCANO in 1959, resulting in further significant changes to the range of parts available, to the standard colour scheme and to the type of plastic used.

This section identifies the various time periods [I've separated out 11 periods] over the 33 year life of the product, set out in the order in which they emerged, during which identifiably distinct BAYKO was produced.

As well as changes to the range of parts, the range of sets, and their contents, packaging also changed significantly over BAYKO's lifetime, driven by marketing whim (?) and postwar austerity shortages.

The chart below shows the maximum likely dates for all the different BAYKO sets, from each production period and includes the both the early, literally “kitchen table” production, from 1933, and the long tail-off period, to 1967, as indicated in TRI-ANG controlled MECCANO Price Lists.

The question marks in general represent a degree of timing uncertainty, for the 20s series Conversion Sets # 20C, # 21C and # 22C, I have never been totally convinced that these actually saw the light of day, beyond the drawing board!

So, that's when you could buy the various BAYKO sets, but how much would they have cost you over the years?

Below is a table of links to more detailed discussions on the different BAYKO sets from the various different production periods.

Generally two separate pages are available for each period, the first [left hand column] describing the characteristics of the product and the second [right hand column] listing the parts found in all the sets from the period.