The way things were?

[Nearholmer]

You'd better open an "early-modern history thread".

 

I'm rubbish on the period you're educating me about, but get quite useful when it comes to the 1640s.

 

K

[HeeleyBridge]

My kids (the boys) could build any number of things, usually bicycles using very rudimentary tools (usually a lump hammer and a cold chisel). Screwdrivers used as levers or chisels, chisels used as screwdrivers ...

 

Thankfully they are both now grown up with sons of their own, who are now learning from Grandad how to use their respective Dad's tools carefully, safely and ...

 

 

 

 

for everything they're not supposed to be used for.

 

Karma

[CKPR]

I was born in 1963 and as a child I found myself aware that I'd missed the 'golden age' of Meccano, Dinky Toys, Hornby Dublo and British aviation !  Of course, these days I regret the passing of the  1970s 'golden age' of two or three model shops in every town, Woolies  selling 2/6, sorry 15p, Airfix and FROG kits, Tri-ang Hornby, Corgi Toys (when they were toys not collectors items) and later on  the fantastic Tamiya military kits etc - that's the trouble with nostalgia, it's not what it used to be !

[Colin_McLeod]

Go back 50 years and most kids didn't build massive Meccano cranes, they simply couldn't afford the sets.

Some of those kids having now reached a certain age have been known to buy meccano on e bay to build that crane now.

[Reorte]

Some of those kids having now reached a certain age have been known to buy meccano on e bay to build that crane now.

Ah, the second childhood, once you've reached a point where you can afford to have the one you wanted. I do seem to have rather a heap of Lego and Scalextric... No Mecanno alas (I don't remember it being particularly popular when I was young). And is the (still hardly got anywhere) layout really an extension of the childhood trainset - which was really my dad's?

[sagaguy]

Some of those kids having now reached a certain age have been known to buy meccano on e bay to build that crane now.

You can buy new Meccano parts very easily now,the internet has opened up a whole new way of buying parts.for instance.

 

                http://www.meccanoshop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Meccano_Spare_Parts_16.html

 

               http://www.meccanohobby.co.uk/

 

 

 These could & do open up a whole new era of model building.

 

 

                                 Ray.

[BlackRat]

Some of those kids having now reached a certain age have been known to buy meccano on e bay to build that crane now.

And many other wonderful things as well, or as Mrs BR calls it.........more junk and clutter!

[jonny777]

My kids (the boys) could build any number of things, usually bicycles using very rudimentary tools (usually a lump hammer and a cold chisel). Screwdrivers used as levers or chisels, chisels used as screwdrivers ...

 

 

Did you find, like I did, that although they found the tools they misused neatly stowed away in a large toolbox, they never thought to put anything back when they had finished? Many screwdrivers or hammers, that I knew I had 20 years ago, have never been seen since.

[Nearholmer]

Reading these "tool misuse" tales, I'm getting serious pangs of guilt.

 

One of the very few things that used to get my, normally very calm, father seriously irate was myself and my brothers purloining his tools, misusing them, and then leaving them lying about all over the house/garden/adjacent wood.

 

Oh, and laying bike parts on the garden path that he had created with great care and effort, then painting them, and leaving "shadows" of forks, chain-guards etc in irremovable Woolworths enamel on the concrete (traces of it are still there to this day!). Then leaving his best brushes to turn into solid lamps of hard-set paint. Oh, yes, and deciding to mix some concrete for ourselves, and leaving the bags of cement (brown paper sacks) uncovered during a thunderstorm. And, mixing Araldite on the dining table - literally, on the table.

 

Our dad was understanding enough to give each of us a pretty comprehensive tool kit for our 16th birthday (thinking about it now, he must have had to scrimp to buy us what he did), and two out of three of us turned into engineers.

 

K

 

PS: am I right that Woolworths cheap gloss paint was the most tenacious paint ever made?

[5050]

Talking of the misuse of screwdrivers, I had a period when I KNEW that if I picked one up it would end up impaled in some area of my hand.

 

Mind you, it was most likely NOT being used for its intended purpose!

 

(BTW, the period in question was not all that long ago............... )

[stewartingram]

Why is it that paint will dry to a solid mass in a paintbrush, but when you apply it properly to a surface it remains tacky?

 

Stewart

[Reorte]

Why is it that paint will dry to a sold mass in a paintbrush, but when you apply it properly to a surface it remains tacky?

Probably for the same reason that superglue will stick anything together apart from the two things that I want stuck together.

[HeeleyBridge]

Did you find, like I did, that although they found the tools they misused neatly stowed away in a large toolbox, they never thought to put anything back when they had finished? Many screwdrivers or hammers, that I knew I had 20 years ago, have never been seen since.

 

My findings exactly, though I think I did catch a fleeting glimpse of my Stanley jack plane a few weeks back, but after 15 years I couldn't be sure.

 

My own childhood was odd. I would have been soundly thrashed if I used Dad's tools or anything else for that matter.

 

I acquired a train set when I was about three months old. Dad bought huge boxes of secondhand Tri-ang 00. As this was in June 1959 there will be no surprise that it consisted of Princess Elizabeth, Tri-ang and Rovex banana coaches and a couple of working TPOs. Also a US diesel and observatory coaches various steam locos. This was set up in my bedroom where it remained until I was old enough to see over the edge unaided. At this point the baseboard (hardboard on 1"x1" framing) went into the coal cellar, where it remains to this day and everything else back into boxes in the attic until he died almost 20 years ago.

 

At about this point (1963)  I got a Scalextric CM 33 set. It had Jaguar and Porsche cars and lived under Dad's bed (unless it was on the pub snooker table). I was allowed to play with it twice I think.

 

I also had a huge box of meccano. Also secondhand it had motor, gearing. I actually got to build a tower crane one day. I left it for my Dad to see when he came home from work. I got up the next morning and the whole lot had gone .. he'd sold it to somebody at work the next day.

 

My sister didn't fair much better, he gave her dolls house away while she was at a birthday party.

 

I bought and built my own model railway layout in my teens and all was well until I came home from work one night to find he had given it all away to a kid down the road that we didn't know from Adam. I moved out that same night.

 

So all in all we had the toys and models, but not for long. So yeah  don't really long for the way things were, though I can't help but find it funny now, as Dad was a really nice guy unless you had to live with him.

 

 

edit: Butter fingers and small tablet are not entirely compatible 

[kevinlms]

I was born in 1963 and as a child I found myself aware that I'd missed the 'golden age' of Meccano, Dinky Toys, Hornby Dublo and British aviation !  Of course, these day I regret the passing of the  1970s 'golden age' of two or three model shops in every town, Woolies  selling 2/6, sorry 15p, Airfix and FROG kits, Tri-ang Hornby, Corgi Toys (when they were toys not collectors items), etc - that's the trouble with nostalgia, it's not what it used to be !

2/6, surely that's 12 1/2 p?

[BernardTPM]

Not with inflation!

[Nearholmer]

My young son was recently given his first Airfix "series 1" kit, so, out of curiosity, I checked out on relative cost from when I was the same age.

 

2/3 or 2/6 then, inflates to c£3 now, but they actually cost c£7 now, so Airfix kits have actually increased in price waaaay more than the average rate of inflation. Which surprised me.

 

Probably a completely useless piece of information!

 

K

[Metropolitan H]

My young son was recently given his first Airfix "series 1" kit, so, out of curiosity, I checked out on relative cost from when I was the same age.

 

2/3 or 2/6 then, inflates to c£3 now, but they actually cost c£7 now, so Airfix kits have actually increased in price waaaay more than the average rate of inflation. Which surprised me.

 

Probably a completely useless piece of information!

 

K

Has he made the kit yet - and did he enjoy it? - If yes, the it was worth the money.

 

By the way, I think you might be wrong on the relative costs. The old kits were not as fine as the modern offerings and didn't include glue / paints / brush etc. If you buy a direct equivalent the difference in relative price is less marked.

 

Regards

Chris H

[BernardTPM]

The ex-Airfix signal box kit is the same kit as it was way back and the R.R.P. is £7.60, so that certainly is relatively expensive.

[Gilwell Park]

Hi.  I wanted to buy some basic Airfix kits for my cubs to make as part of their DIY badge. In the sixties the basic kits were 2 bob and came in a plastic bag. In Hobbycraft the cheapest I can find are £6.00. Some increase.

 

Roger

[melmerby]

Probably for the same reason that superglue will stick anything together apart from the two things that I want stuck together.

I thought superglue was designed to permanently stick the top back onto it's own tube so that after 1 use it has to be dumped!

 

Keith

[sagaguy]

I thought superglue was designed to permanently stick the top back onto it's own tube so that after 1 use it has to be dumped!

 

Keith

 

Because of this reason,i bought three small tubes of Uhu superglue on a card from Lidl,don`t think it was much more than a pound,i`m still using the first tube.So long as you store it upright.the top comes off every time & it`s really good glue

 

 

                Ray.

[CKPR]

2/6, surely that's 12 1/2 p?

Indeed it is, but Airfix went from 2/6 to 15p IRRC - my mum has long maintained that the hyper-inflation of the 1970s was in part due to to decimalisation when prices were converted in favour of the manufacturers rather than the consumers.

[HeeleyBridge]

Our local shop sold Airfix kits at 1/11. On the day that we "went decimal" they went up to 23p. No amount of arguing could convince the old chap that after converting the shilling to 12d and adding the 11d that he had to then divide by 2.4 and round down to arrive at 9½p,

 

Is it only me that still looks at the price and converts back to "proper money" before swearing at how much the 2/- kits cost now?

 

Polystyrene cement in tubes, cellulose paints from Woolworths that melted Airfix plastics even faster than they dried out when you dared to take the lid off the tin. The smell of peardrops and turps throughout the house ..

[PatB]

The ex-Airfix signal box kit is the same kit as it was way back and the R.R.P. is £7.60, so that certainly is relatively expensive.

 

I suspect the tooling is now quite worn. A few years ago I built the Dapol station building and loco shed kits for a small Thomas layout. I found the quality of the mouldings and, particularly, the standard of fit of the parts to be considerably below that which I remember from Airfix kits in the 70s. I hadn't previously built any of their lineside kits though, so it's not a like-for-like comparison. I may also have been less discerning when I was 12 .

[melmerby]

Because of this reason,i bought three small tubes of Uhu superglue on a card from Lidl,don`t think it was much more than a pound,i`m still using the first tube.So long as you store it upright.the top comes off every time & it`s really good glue

 

 

                Ray.

I buy mine from Poundland - 8 or 10 tubes for a pound so it doesn't matter so much if it gums (sic) up after one or two uses.

Much better than £2.35 for one tube which some places sell it at!

 

Keith