BAYKO Product Details - 1937 to 1938

BAKELITE BAYKO parts were initially made using BAKELITE and scarab powders - urea formaldehyde - supplied initially by BAKELITE Limited, 68, Victoria Street, London, SW1.

By this time plastic technology had advanced sufficiently to enable cheap, reliable, mass production of accurate colours for the first time.

White bricks were now true white and red bricks and roofs were true red, though early sets of the period still had dark roofs [right].

Windows and Doors were now made in an attractive pale green colour often associated with Art Deco buildings.

Large brown Bases were still used.

No new parts were available in these sets.

The range of parts available during this period was still quite limited, until the Special Sets were introduced in 1938.

Standard BAYKO was available in sets #1 to #5 together with conversion sets #1A to #4A.

For example a #4A set converts a #4 set into a #5 set.

The larger #6 "De-Luxe" set ['Oak' bricks, white Windows, etc.] remained in production, though the roofs are noticeably brighter [right]. As the colour scheme still differed from the smaller sets, there was still no set #5A conversion set.

Oddly, in early 1938 Plimpton apparently added 1 Window to #6 Set contents but reverted to 89 when they converted the #6 set to the red and white format in mid 1938.

The #6 set was the largest BAYKO set ever produced, indeed it was larger than a post-war set #4 and a MECCANO era set #15 combined!

Binding Strips began to be replaced by Straight Tie-Bars, possibly very late in this period.

All sets could still be ordered specially in the "De-Luxe" 'Oak' and white colour scheme, an option that was available right up to the war.

This was the first style of manual to be 'purpose built' for sets #1 to #6.

There were 2 versions of this manual in existence...

...indeed the earlier version actually first saw the light of day during the previous period...

Later in this period Plimpton modified and reprinted the manual...

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...