BAYKO Product Details Late - 1938 [to 1940]

During this brief particular period, BAYKO parts remained completely unchanged from the previous period, and continued to be made throughout from red, white and green BAKELITE, with large brown Bases…

In many ways this period is just an extension of the 1937 to 1938 period, but there is one key difference.

In the second half of 1938 a fundamental change occurred to the #6 Set in that the colour scheme was changed to the standard red roofs, red and white bricks and green windows but with, effectively, the same contents as their 'Oak' and white predecessors.

A #5A conversion set [left] now made sense and was also introduced.

The smaller sets #1 to #5 and the related conversion sets #1A to #4A weren't affected.

Despite this change, all BAYKO sets could still be ordered, in the “De-Luxe” 'Oak' and White colour scheme, right up to the war.

Recent evidence indicates that this isn't quite the end of the story…

…and I now know that all five BAYKO conversion sets from this period remained available right up to the war, this explains the slightly cryptic heading.

The BAYKO conversion set #3A [right] has several points of interest : -

► The austerity label on the lid, with no pretence of marketing artwork, suggesting this is a post 'New Series' item.

► The internal label showing that the set contains Tie Bars.

► The extra label saying that these Tie Bars had been replaced with Floors.

These latter labels only appeared in 'New Series' sets shortly before wartime restrictions stopped production around 1941.

This strongly suggests that the older-style conversion sets continued in production alongside the range of 'New Series' sets, allowing people with older-style BAYKO sets to continue to upgrade their much-loved sets.

There is further circumstantial evidence to support this in the form of a 'New Series' era Parts Price List which had BAYKO set details, including the older-style conversion sets, on the reverse…

There were two versions of the full manual for sets #1 to #6, but only the later version overlaps this comparatively limited period…

Strangely, both versions of the manual for sets #1 to #6 which were in circulation from late 1935 to 1938 contain errors in the contents lists shown for several of the conversion sets…

…initially I thought this may be due to the contents changes initiated in 1935, but that doesn't answer all the questions, particularly why they still weren't corrected in the later version…

You may want to know more about the full range of BAYKO manuals, if so…

At around this time, Binding Strips began to be replaced by Straight Tie-Bars. This was almost certainly driven by cost rather than a desired design change.

The image [left], which is shown courtesy of Chris Reeve] shows, at the bottom, the oversticker used in the manual, bearing the legend : -