BAYKO in Hamleys Catalogues

Hamleys were obviously very impressed with the product as they were offering the entire BAYKO range of the day.

The script is as follows : -

This image is shown courtesy of Mick Burgess.

You can see the cover of this particular Hamleys catalogue...

The artwork for this [perhaps] truncated image is identical to the one above, so may well have been printed from the same printing plate.

The script is as follows : -

This image is shown courtesy of Robin Throp.

I have to admit that I gave a little smile when I read the first line of the header script for this page [above] - though I'm less certain about the second line : -

There's a reason for the question mark in the heading - it's because I'm uncertain which year this Hamleys catalogue was produced. Unfortunately the catalogue itself gives no clues, but it was sold on eBay with a 1958 date quoted in the blurb.

The price of the #2 set shown [top left] - 31/6 [£1.57½] - applied from February, 1955 to the MECCANO takeover in 1959.

The full BAYKO script is as follows : -

There's a good reason for the question mark in the heading, because I'm not certain which year this Hamleys catalogue was produced. Unfortunately the catalogue itself gives no clues, but 1959 was the date quoted in the ebay blurb.

The potential problem lies with the price of the #2 set shown [top right] - 31/6 [£1.57½] - which only applied for the first half of 1959, having applied since February, 1955...

...not impossible, of course, but by no means certain.

The actual BAYKO script is as follows : -

Strange that the cost of carriage and packing is cheaper than the previous year.

Particularly when you take the technological gains in the intervening years into account, this catalogue seems, to me, to be a step down in print quality from the pre-war equivalent, though it is printed on glossy paper.

The actual BAYKO script is as follows : -

I find it interesting, and indicative of the effect of the complete packaging change initiated by MECCANO, that the cost of carriage and packaging for this set is cheaper than the previous year, yet it's a bigger set.

This is the 1960, MECCANO General Products Price List. As far as I can tell, this is the first to include BAYKO - here proudly displayed on the front cover.

There is an element of ambition in this document, because set #13 certainly wasn't available at the time this document went to press in July 1960 and set #14 only emerged a year or so later!

This 4 page, folded leaflet format became MECCANO's standard for both domestic and export markets, being used regularly, though not exclusively, for several years.

An obvious point of interest with this particular version [left] is the inclusion of the Hamleys logo and address, preprinted in the bottom section. Whereas a less favoured retailer, i.e. smaller local toy shops, would normally have to add their own rubber stamp.

This is the 1965, MECCANO general products price list as issued by Hamleys.

This, apart from the specific Hamleys branding, is one of a long line of such documents produced by MECCANO.

The BAYKO entry is at the top of page 2 of this 4 page, folded leaflet, which is dated September, 1965.

Given that normal BAYKO production stopped in 1964, this document seems to support the theory that MECCANO continued to 'milk' BAYKO by selling sets, unsupported in terms of marketing spend, through 'selected' (?) retailers - including Hamleys.