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Meccano Dark blue / Dark yellow Outfits

Here's a collection of pictures of dark blue / dark yellow outfits, from the end of the Binns Road period in 1978/79.  These outfits are not particularly easy to date, as there are few obvious differences marking the changes.  You also have to be very careful with outfits that are not still shrink-wrapped.

In addition to the new outfits 1 to 5, the previous 1970's outfits 9 and 10 were still available during this period, in the dark blue / dark yellow colour scheme.  The parts in these outfits also changed from dark blue to iridescent along the lines of the changes shown below, between 1978 and 1979.  Outfit 10's from 1978 are extremely rare, however, presumably because of their potential sales only to adult collectors who would probably have preferred to stick with the existing blue/yellow/zinc colour scheme and bought up the old stock.  There are many more 1979 dark blue outfit 10's in existence, because they were all sold off when the factory closed.

Chronological summary

The following table shows the changes to the parts finishes during this period.  The entries in bold show a couple of elements from each period that can be used to identify outfits quickly.

Period	1) v. early 78	2) early 78	3) mid 78	4) Late 78-79
Dark Blue Parts	Matt finish	Gloss finish	Gloss finish	Gloss finish
Brackets/nuts/bolts/washers	Matt brass	Matt brass	Matt brass	Iridescent
Grub Screws	Black	Zinc	Zinc	Iridescent
21 – 1½'' pulley	Matt brass	Dark blue	Dark blue, Dark yellow	Iridescent
22 – 1'' pulley	Matt brass	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic, Iridescent
23 – ½'' pulley	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic	Yellow, red plastic
24, 24b, 518 – Bush Wheels	Matt brass	Matt brass	Matt brass	Iridescent
26, 27a, 28 – Gears	Brass	Brass, yellow plastic	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic
27c – 2½'' gear wheel	Dark yellow	Dark yellow	Yellow plastic	Yellow plastic
27f – Multipurpose gear	Pale yellow	White	White, Yellow	Yellow
48, 48a, 215 – strips	Dark blue	Dark blue	Matt brass	Iridescent
190a – Yellow flex plate	Metal	Metal, Plastic	Plastic	Plastic
235a – 3'' narrow strip	Round ends	Round ends	Round ends	Truncated
452 – tyre for ½'' pulley	Black, Grey	Black, Grey	Grey	Grey
Miniature Plug	Part 612	Part 611	Part 611	Part 611
Connecting Wire	Yellow	White	White	Transparent
57c – Hook included	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Parts Container Box	Red	Red, Orange-Red	Orange-Red	Orange-Red, Blue

There are in fact two different editions of the Outfit 1 manual (included in every outfit), which can also be used to date outfits.  The earliest manual has no hook, and shows the ½'' tyre as part number 452.  The later manual has the hook and shows the tyre as part number 13452.  Beware that these can be swapped from one outfit to another.

The box lids are of two varieties, English-only and bilingual (English and French). 

Pictures wanted!

If you have any pictures of missing outfits below, or another picture of an outfit that is better or not quite the same as one that's already here, please help us by sending a copy of it! It would be very much appreciated.  You can email it straight to us, or upload it to the Rust Bucket forum...

Meccano Main Outfits

Pocket Meccano

A great success since its introduction in 1971 as something of a promotional gimmick, the Pocket Meccano continued into this period with the new colours.  Note that this outfit contains a matt brass spanner, as well as the zinc-plated combined spanner/screwdriver from the original 1930's pattern.

Starter Set A

For export only, and not part of the original release, this is the smallest "Starter Set A".  Apparently, the original outfit 1 was supposed to contain these parts, but was upgraded at the last minute.  Read more about the history of the mysterious Starter Set A in this article on the ISM website by William Irwin here.  

To the right, an unusual variation on the Starter Set A.  This outfit has two matt brass double angle strips, where the other outfits have a channel bearing.  The parts list of this set doesn't include a channel bearing, but all other examples found have one included! The screwdriver is iridescent, and there is no small parts box at all, just a bag of parts.  The parts date this as a "type 3" outfit, the latest one of the Starter Set A so far known.

Construction Set 1

Period 4 outfit from 1979, English box, iridescent double angle strips.  Note the thin plastic light blue small parts tray that is thought to be an economy measure during 1979, normally solid red plastic.  A small number of outfit 1's are also found with red cardboard trays.

Construction Set 2

Period 4 outfit from 1979, English box, iridescent 1½'' pulley and double angle strips.

To the right is a period 1 outfit, note the matt brass 1½'' pulleys and blue double angle strips.  There is no hook supplied in this outfit.

Construction Set 3

Period 2 outfit from early 1978.  1½'' pulley and double angle strips are dark blue, small parts are matt brass.  Tyres are black and one of the multipurpose gears (27f) is pale yellow, possibly dating this outfit very early in period 2, crossing over into period 1 slightly.

Construction Set 4

Period 4 outfit from 1979.  English box, iridescent double angle strips and pulleys.

Construction Set 5

A later, period 4 outfit from 1979.  Bilingual box lid, iridescent double angle strips (except for the 48b), plastic 2½'' gear part 27c.

Outfit 9

A 1979 outfit 9 in light oak box.  The 2½'' double angle strips are not blue, showing this to be a later outfit.  The 1½'' pulley is iridescent, and the 2'' pulleys are dark yellow.  The steering wheel is dark blue. 

The outfit 9 of this period is laid out exactly as the previous 1970's blue/yellow/zinc outfits.  Opening the box reveals a card of the wheels in the lid (often, the parts can get dislodged from this top tray as they're stored upside-down).  The tray in the bottom lifts out to reveal a third tray below, containing cardboard boxes with axles and some parts, and plastic trays containing nuts and bolts and other small parts. Close-ups of each tray are shown below:

DBDY outfit 9, top tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Richard Payn Click on this image to see a larger version.

DBDY outfit 9, middle tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Richard Payn Click on this image to see a larger version.

DBDY outfit 9, lower tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Richard Payn Click on this image to see a larger version.

Outfit 10

A 1979 outfit 10 in 3-drawer chest.  The 2½'' double angle strips are not blue, showing this to be a later outfit.  Some gears are brass, some plastic, and the 1½'' pulley is iridescent.  The steering wheel remains in the odd 60's light blue finish.  The 10-outfit also contains six of the new three-part road wheels, needed in order to make all the models from the new outfit 5.  The parts were placed in the plastic trays, not strung to cards as they were in the past.  Close-ups of each tray are shown below:

DBDY outfit 10, top tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, William Irwin Click on this image to see a larger version.

DBDY outfit 10, middle tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, William Irwin Click on this image to see a larger version.

DBDY outfit 10, lower tray This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, William Irwin Click on this image to see a larger version.

Below is shown another near-mint outfit from Greg Rahn, in original outer cardboard box.  The parts are all placed in the plastic trays and are mostly wrapped, but the strips and angle girders are held together with rubber bands, as the outfit above is.  Is this the way they left the factory?

1979 10-set in cardboard box This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Greg Rahn Click on this image to see a larger version.

1979 10-set top drawer This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Greg Rahn Click on this image to see a larger version.

1979 10-set middle drawer This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Greg Rahn Click on this image to see a larger version.

1979 10-set bottom drawer This image does not belong to the webmasters and is copyright. Please do not download or copy it for any purpose. It has been kindly provided for use on this site by the image owner, Greg Rahn Click on this image to see a larger version.

Meccano Accessory Outfits

Outfit S (small)

This converts an outfit 1 or 2 into an outfit 3.  However, if you had an outfit 1, you also needed a motor (shown below) to make an outfit 3.

Outfit L (large)

This converts an outfit 3 or 4 into an outfit 5.

Motor outfit

This box contains the motor and battery pack that is not supplied in the outfit 1.  To convert an outfit 1 to an outfit 3 requires both this and the outfit S above.

Gearbox and Junior Powerdrive

The 6-speed gearbox and the Junior Powerdrive motor from the 70's continued into this period in new boxes but otherwise unchanged. 
The Magic Motor was still available, in a new box, although it was not referenced in any of the manuals of this period.  This box states "Made in Japan to Meccano specifications".
The Powerdrive motor, by far the best Meccano motor, was still available but also unreferenced in any outfits.  As before, these were German made motors by the Richard company.  Although the box shows black grub screws, in fact contemporary zinc ones were supplied.
The Meccano Steam Engine, still made by Mamod, continued to be available too.  The differences you can see from this photograph include the silver painted base plate, and the then current dark yellow sprocket and yellow plastic pinion.

This later steam engine also has a whistle on top of the boiler, clearly shown in this photograph.

Themed outfits

Army Construction Set

The mid-70's "multikits" were repackaged in 1978, and all renamed "construction sets".  This Army Construction Set is almost identical to the previous Army Multikit, but the olive green is a slightly darker shade.  There are minor differences, but the main one is the packaging into expanded polystyrene trays.  This outfit dates from early to mid 1978, with zinc spanners visible.

Combat Construction Set

The 1978 Combat Construction Set is in a new expanded polystyrene tray, rather than the previous moulded thin plastic version of 1975.  Half-inch pulleys p/n 23 is in the new 'phase 2' version.  This outfit has matt brass spanners, dating it from late 1978, and the one to the right is later, probably 1979, with iridescent spanners.

Highway Construction Set

Again, a very similar outfit to the previous Highway Multikit, although the yellow is now the dark yellow as used in the flexible plates and other parts of the main numbered outfits.  This is an early version, with zinc spanners indicating an early 1978 outfit.

Crane Construction Set

This Crane Construction Set has dark yellow (as with all 1978/79 theme sets), but has the iridescent spanners and other small parts, dating it probably from 1979.  Compare it with the example to the right from 1978, with dark yellow double angle strips and 1½'' pulley, matt brass spanners and nuts and bolts.

Space 2501 outfit

New to this period is the Space 2501 outfit.  Two versions from 1979 are shown here.  To the left, with the original white half-inch pulleys (part 23), and to the right with the red pulleys, which were also used in some main outfits of this period.

Meccanoids outfit

The ill-fated (and ill-conceived) Meccanoids outfit.  Although the badly designed models did work, with 60 and 15-tooth gears, the proposed 15-tooth plastic gears never made it into production.  At the last minute, the outfits were shipped with the plastic 19 and 57-tooth gears instead.  The resulting 3:1 instead of 4:1 reduction meant that many of the models didn't actually work when built. 

Manuals for these outfits

Clicking on the following images will display a copy of the relevant manual for this era of Meccano outfit.  Warning – These files are very large (the size is given next to each one).  The time it will take to download each one depends mainly on your connection speed.  As a rough guide, 10MB takes about 35 minutes to download on a dial-up modem, around 1-2 minutes on 'ordinary' broadband, or as little as 5-10 seconds on a very fast connection.  You have been warned!

The best option is almost certainly to click on the manual images with your right mouse button, then select either "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" and save the manual to your computer for viewing later.

Further information

Total number of messages on this page: 22.  This is page 4 of 4.   

duncan scrase      (at 1:40pm, Sat 14th Feb, 09)

hi you can get a hook from the meccano superstore this is on the meccano ring web site or even ebay. i had sets 3 and the combat set from the 78/79 period when i was a lad now i have collect all the sets and motors from that period. good luck Reply: If you're concerned about it, always make sure you ask whether you're buying a genuine Meccano hook (or any part) or a reproduction, wherever you buy from. Don't assume that you'll be sold Meccano.

john lauder      (at 12:07pm, Thu 18th Dec, 08)

just got crane and army sets mid 70,s i think as they are different packing from the sets i had in 78 79 no trays and different color boxes i also had set 5 which i would love to get again. any body no where i can get a hook 4 my crane set

William      (at 2:58pm, Tue 18th Nov, 08)

Both the set 1 and the Starter set manuals contain all the Pocket Meccano models on pages 11 to 13, so at least these two sets were intended to incorporate the Pocket Meccano set, which was dropped from the range in 1979. Reply: Thanks William, looks like the idea is a good one then.

Jason      (at 9:02am, Fri 12th Sep, 08)

Is it the case that the new range of sets 1 to 5 was devised using the pocket meccano set as a first, introductory set and contained all the parts in the pocket set? Reply: I've never heard that before, but it does make some sense as even Starter Set A does contain all the Pocket Meccano parts. However, the PM manual wasn't included in the main outfits and there was no 'connecting' outfit so this was a bit pointless really.

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