Meccano Magazines

Meccano was the name of a magazine published in England that discussed several hobbies. It is frequently referred to as a “boys’ magazine”. Meccano magazines have become sought-after trade items commanding a great deal of cult interest, especially among those who grew up during the time when Meccano was popular.
The magazine was founded by Frank Hornby, the man who invented Meccano, a model construction set that was popular throughout much of the early twentieth century. It consisted of gears, axles, wheels, and other components needed to build real working models of several items, including trains, construction tools, and motorcycles. The magazine was originally meant to discuss the history of the Meccano company but it was expanded to include a variety of hobby interests, including toy trains, model airplanes, and stamp collecting. It also featured several articles on various interests related to those hobbies, including engineering and photography. Its period of circulation was from the early 1900s up until the early 1980s. The magazine began as a bi-monthly publication but it became a monthly magazine in the 1920s and continued this way until the early 1970s, when it was reduced to a quarterly publication until its last issue in 1981. The magazines now are important for people who take an interest in the history of twentieth-century toys.
There are a variety of ways that people can go about collecting Meccano magazines. Some collect magazines based on the period or decade. Others can collect them based on the subject matter covered. Still others simply want the whole set.
There are all sorts of avenues that collectors can choose for collecting Meccano magazines. The avenue you decide on depends on how much time and energy you want to spend searching. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys chasing after collectibles, one of the ways you can get your hands on these editions is to attend trade shows and hobby fairs and exhibitions. In addition to finding collectors’ items and Meccano sets, these events are bound to have lots of old magazines for collectors to page through and purchase.
Another way for interested parties to get their hands on old Meccano magazines is to search eBay. The auction site has several Meccano collectibles available for bid, including many magazines. Whether you are searching for Depression-era 1930s publications or post-war magazines, or more recent editions from the 1970s, you are sure to find them here.
Last, you can always order the magazines on CD or DVD. This might be the easiest route for people who don’t feel like hunting down individual issues. The DVDs have scanned pages of every Meccano magazine issue, complete with indexes to make your individual search throughout your entire set faster and less tedious. These DVDs work on both PCs and Macintosh computers. The CD set has sixteen volumes, each divided up by ten-year period starting with the magazine’s first issue in 1916.