'Daily Mail', February 27th, 2008
The Daily Mail operates a feature whereby readers submit questions and the paper, or other readers, provide appropriate answers. |
My mother, an avid Daily Mail Reader, spotted the question, and I, not a reader, was elected to submit a response, which was duly printed on page 65 of the February 27th, 2008. |
The article reads as follows : - |
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AS SAFE AS HOUSES?
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QUESTION . . What became of Bayko Building Sets? Were they killed of by health and safety? |
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BAYKO Building sets were invented by Charles Bird Plimpton [C.B.] who established the Plimpton Engineering Company, in Liverpool, to manufacture them.
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BAYKO, the world’s first plastic construction toy, was initially marketed as “BAYKO Light Constructional Sets”, clearly acknowledging the BAKELITE from which they were made.
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The first BAYKO sets were packed around the kitchen table in the Plimpton family home on the Wirral, ready for Christmas, 1933, with full commercial operations getting under way 12 months later. |
The BAYKO system is easy to understand and even easier to play with. Bases have a matrix of holes, ⅜ inch apart, into which metal rods are inserted, forming the model’s framework.
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Panels representing bricks, windows and doors are then slid between the rods to build the model which is typically topped off by a large, one-piece roof.
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From these simple beginnings, with just 15 different moulds, grew a product which was much loved across the U.K. for 30 years, not forgetting a substantial export market.
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The first BAYKO bricks were brown or cream, with dark green windows and it was not until 1937 that plastic technology had evolved sufficiently to enable the more familiar red, white and green parts to be made cost effectively. |
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Some of the best loved BAYKO sets, the pre-war “De-Luxe” number 6 sets, included mottled bricks, known as ‘oak’, made with the addition of sawdust to achieve the mottling. This is an excellent example of the innovation stream driven by C.B. for which he gained two patents, in 1935 and 1948. |
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By the time post-war BAYKO production got back into full swing, the range of parts had increased to 43, though the architectural style was still rooted in the Thirties.
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C.B. died late in 1948 and BAYKO’s innovation stream died with him. In the Fifties, the newly introduced LEGO was adding new parts almost every week, BAYKO produced just three new parts in 8 years.
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After peaking at sales of over 150,000 sets a year in the mid Fifties's, BAYKO was taken over by MECCANO in 1959.
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MECCANO replaced the one-piece roofs with modern-looking four-piece units, allowing sets to be packed in much smaller boxes. It also dropped most ornamental parts, and redesigned the others, creating an up to date architectural style.
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But MECCANO never really seemed fully behind BAYKO and stopped producing it in 1964 (though BAYKO still appeared in MECCANO’s 1967 price list).
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BAYKO, however, is still much loved and there is a thriving community of enthusiasts today, which finds a focus in the BAYKO Collectors Club www.baykoman.com. Five people actually produce new and reproduction BAYKO parts today.
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It is a myth that health and safety killed off BAYKO. Attitudes to health and safety in the mid-Sixties differed from today, and I’ve been unable to find any recorded serious accidents.
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Had the issue been raised, I am certain that alternative plastic rods could have been introduced and been perfectly safe.
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Below here are links to related info : - |
Click on any of the links below for related information. |
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Latest update -
May 17, 2013
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