Christmas 2017 Newsletter
Christmas 2017 Newsletter
Issue 165
This was one of our informal quarterly meetings where our members showed off their latest Meccano creations.
At around 2:00pm we had a short committee meeting, followed by the Model Tour in which members were invited to give a short talk about their models — in particular their entries for the Secretary’s Challenge!
Report written by Tim Surtell
Our annual show on 28th October was another great success, with 237 adults and 127 children passing through the doors, a total of 364 visitors.
32 members were due to display their models, though sadly Thomas Greatrex and Chris Fry had to withdraw at the last minute for various reasons. We also had two guest exhibitors and a new member experiencing their first SELMEC show — Peter Goddard, Matt Goodman and Robin Schoolar — who I hope enjoyed themselves and will return next year.
Models in Sherard Hall
The day started with John the caretaker opening up the hall 20 minutes early, which was very welcome and made all the difference (to me, at least) in getting everything set up in time for opening.
In the foyer stood the results of our third Big Challenge, the London Underground map, which had been mounted on a giant board by Ralph Laughton.
The completed Tube Map, assembled on a board by Ralph Laughton
- Top row: Adrian Ashford, Viv Endecott, Les Chatfield, Brian Leach, John Cowdery
- Middle row: James Plicio, Chris Fry, Richard Marsden, Sue Laughton, John Gay
- Bottom row: Ralph Laughton, Tim Surtell, Chris Warrell, Peter Shaw, John Clifton
In the Penford room the two Cathy’s (Warrell and Claydon) were busy serving refreshments. Cathy Warrell’s cakes were very well received, judging by this e-mail I had from a visitor a few days after the show:
“I must say how we all enjoyed your exhibition as a family. It’s good to get the kids away from technology like iPads etc. My kids thoroughly enjoyed the day out and we will continue our support to keep this marvellous exhibition alive.
And I cannot stop thinking about the scrumptious cakes that day — especially the coconut and date tray bake. It’s so decadently yummy and I was wondering if you could pass me the recipe? I’ve looked all over the Internet and have tried baking similar but mine doesn’t come close.”
Cathy Warrell and her cakes
In the Dobell Room I again ran the Meccano Creative Challenge in the Make It With Meccano workshop, assisted by Brian Elvidge and Les Chatfield. This year entrants were placed into three different age-based categories to even out the number of entries per category.
The Make It With Meccano workshop
The winners, chosen by Chris Warrell and Adrian Ashford, were:
- Ages 4–7: Hayden Sanders, age 6 from Eltham, who built a lawnmower
- Ages 8–17: Luka Sominka, age 10 from Plumstead, who build a working derrick crane
- Ages 18+: Richard Biscoe, age 33 from Eltham, who built a helicopter
Hayden Sanders (right)
Luka Sominka
Richard Biscoe (left)
You can see all the Meccano Creative Challenge photos in our Facebook album.
Thanks are due to all our members for helping put on the show by setting up tables, working at the paydesk, and serving refreshments. Special thanks go to Ralph Laughton and Frank Paine who ran the raffle between them, Peter Clay who kept track of the money, Cathy Warrell and Cathy Claydon for organising refreshments, and to Ralph and Sue Laughton for transporting Chris, Peter and I — along with a ton of tables and gear — to and from the hall.
Eltham United Reformed Church has already been booked for our next Show which will take place on 27th October 2018.
Models on Display
Lobby
5’ 2½” x 3’ 1½” Meccano Tube map with 15 panels built by various members.
Sherard Hall
Adrian Ashford — Pontoon crane; Steam pumping engine; Cabin cruiser; Cement mixer.
Colin Ashford — Adrian’s dad was selling some transport postcards.
Peter Clay — Meccanograph using ‘hunting tooth’ gearing to generate designs; Spin Master Ferrari 488 Spider car; Dad’s Army butcher’s wagon; Delivery truck from outfit № 1; Army personnel carrier by Bernard Périer.
Alan Wenbourne — Pegasus rolling bridge; Heatherwick bridge; M4 tractor; Da Vinci cart; Vehicle driveline; Five gearboxes; Two gear-change mechanisms; Two differentials (spur gear from Tony Bolton and Meccano gears); Tug boat.
Matt Goodman — Calvin the Social Climber (climbing man sadly grounded due to the lack of a suitable beam to tie the string to).
Frank Paine — Tower Bridge; Motorcycle engine; Chairoplanes; Crane/hoist fitted to a Mamod engine; Small flatbed lorry; Two Meccano sets (1950s and 1916); Display of other Meccano Ltd. products (Aeroplane Constructor, Dinky Builder, Hornby Boat, Hornby Loco and Dinky Supertoys).
Ralph and Sue Laughton — New Spin Master sets.
Ian Sharp — Anti aircraft gun from pre-war Mechanised Army Set; Army Multikit field gun.
Brian Maunder — Sales of Meccano spare parts.
Brian Leach — Meccasaur; Random motion mechanism; Dice; Lullingstone Castle gatehouse; Mechagodzilla.
Eric Smith — 4x4 vehicle; Tractor.
Andrew Couzens — Low loader and tractor unit with tank; Robot; Car with opening bonnet and doors.
Ivor Ellard — Collection of tinplate and Meccano toys.
Viv Endecott and family — ‘Hands-on’ plastic Meccano Tower Bridge with six boats; Paddle steamer from 1928 set № 3.
Peter Goddard — Manchester Ship Canal 250 ton lock gate lifter, complete with lock gate.
Guy Loveridge — American freight train (locomotive, wagon and tanker).
Greg Clarke — Liebherr mobile harbour crane with freight train.
Robin Schoolar — Ping pong peripherator; Pairwise ping pong peripherators (winner of the Midlands Meccano Guild’s 50th anniversary 50 part competition); Enigmatic stabiliser (built by his late father Robin); Chinese chariots — Twin pointer design (based on a John Nuttal design), triple pointer design, unequal wheel design, and no-differential design.
Richard Marsden — Double-decker bus; Tank transporter and tank; Bedford QL army lorry; Connell Ferry bridge; Self portrait.
John Cowdery — Weight lifter; Over-type stationary engine; Light aircraft; Helicopter; Red Arrows aircraft; Harrier jump jet; Robot family; Bugatti car; Scooter; Small light aircraft.
George Foard — Collection of small models.
Santiago Plicio — ‘Galacticus’, a Ferris wheel with a diameter of 1.7m (5’ 7”).
Dave Taylor — Vast array of Meccano sets and spares for sale.
Penford Room
John Clifton — Derrick crane from the Spin Master tower crane set; Diamond T 4 ton breakdown truck in zinc and French yellow; Bomb disposal vehicle; Walking robot (Crazy Inventors set); Two-wheel plough; Four-wheel off road buggy from the latest Spin Master set.
John Gay — OO gauge model railway layout; sports car based on Haynes book with cutaway.
Cathy Claydon — Rolls Royce Silver Ghost armoured car carrying a 40mm Vickers Pom-Pom gun, all in army green.
Chris Warrell — Hunslet narrow gauge loco on O gauge track; Lunar lander; 3 Daleks; Spin Master Eiffel Tower; Humanoid robot; Christmas pudding stirrer; Mini block setting crane; Crash tender; BMX bicycle.
Bob Palmer — Krazy Klock (designed by Dr. Keith Cameron); Steam engine (Andreas Konkoly design); Ping pong peripherator (copy of a Robin Schoolar design); Mini ping pong peripherator (based on a Graham Jost design).
Dobell Room
Brian Elvidge — Konkoly factory steam engine; 1950s Set № 9 furnace charging machine; Spin Master lorry traction unit; Spin Master buggy.
Les Chatfield — Single deck tramcar; Seagull outboard engine; Ransomes MG2 crawler; Small battery-driven windmill; Petrol electric generator set.
Tim Surtell — The Lightening Leap; The Spanish Knight; Maraca; YouTube plaque; Make It With Meccano and Meccano Creative Challenge workshops.
Written by Brian Leach
The new Meccasaur not quite finding its way to your local store!
Interest
I first knew this was available in about September 2016. Not much of the new Spin Master range had interested me, but this one did because it was affordable and I have always quite liked dinosaurs. Who can’t like the very funny Rex the green dinosaur in the Toy Story movie? The first time I saw it was when Chris Instone took it to the December Hainault Hangout in 2016 and he remarked on the difficulty obtaining it.
America
It is not on sale in the UK. In March this year I changed job and had a week’s training in America. I thought ‘why not try Walmart?’, but all the local stores were out of stock. There was a deliver-to-store option but it was two days and I had left it slightly too late. Shame; it would have only cost $53 (about £40).
Birthday
On the Internet it was very expensive. Amazon was quoting £92 minimum. eBay was less. I decided it could be a joint birthday present from my mother and my brother. I got it on the 25th July seven days before my birthday as my brother was going on holiday. This gave me time to build it for the Eltham Park Festival.
Parts
It was Thursday 27th when I started on it and the festival was on the Sunday. In the 1970s Meccano was mostly metal with a few plastic parts. Meccasaur is almost all plastic with a few metal parts. This is a bit of a pity but it still has the ½” hole spacing and metal fixings. The part quality is very good — no tarnishing. The plastic is also good with no rough edges.
Watch Brian’s Meccasaur unboxing video
One of the Meccasaur’s feet
Construction
The manual is quite good with 126 diagrams. But here are some of the problems I had:
- Diagram 1: I did not notice the bolts had 1:1 scale pictures for you to match. Looking back, it is extremely obvious. This meant I used the wrong bolt in three places and had to backtrack because the control unit did not join properly with the body and one claw had too short a bolt. My mistake.
- Diagram 6: The wires from the motor unit need to go through a hole in an outer casing. It is very easily to snag the cable in the hole. This means that once constructed the wire does not get to the control unit. I nearly damaged the wire trying to force it, but fortunately realised my mistake in time.
- Diagram 18: Mystery part. This looks like a foot stop to give the foot grip, but it does not contact with the ground!
- Diagram 17–23: Angle bracket position inconsistent. You would think this would be a mistake of the past.
- Diagram 16–27: Foot shape. The foot is loose-bolted and then strips are joined on to give the foot its shape. It is not too clear that the loose-bolting is needed and even less clear that the bolts need tightening once it has its shape.
- Diagram 29: I got a pivot point wrong, so Meccasaur did not walk and tended to fall. My mistake, but a close-up diagram would have helped.
Diagram 1 in the manual showing the 1:1 scale bolt
It took six hours to construct and then another two hours to realise my mistakes. It was complete the night before the festival.
Operation
Operation is with three stepper motors (not totally sure about that). Two actuate the left and right legs. The third moves the mouth and also his claws. Movements are walk forward, walk left, walk right, charge attack, lunge attack, ask a yes/no question (he nods appropriately), and room guard mode (he has a microphone and light sensor). He can record sequences of movements and even your own voice.
He makes various noises. Petting will make him coo and giggle. Mainly he roars, growls, snorts, hums and occasionally farts!
Watch Brian’s Meccasaur in action
Future
I am a Meccano traditionalist, using mainly 1970s Meccano. I am however glad that Meccano survives and I fully appreciate that Spin Master need to provide interesting, inexpensive mass market products. 1970s Meccano is great but its time has passed. I hope Meccano continues for a long time in the modern market place.
Postscript
The ‘not coming to a store near you’ is no longer true — Meccasaur has been spotted at Toys R Us for a rather pricey £99.