The first of these is from 1952 and features Standard Brickplayer. The second, from 1959, features the newly-launched Contemporary Brickplayer. The third example is for American Brickplayer.
In the 1952 advert, you can see that Spears held a competition for which people could enter their own Brickplayer models. This competition ran for many years and cleverly allowed Spears to show off the power of Brickplayer to create impressive buildings. The feature below (appearing like the first two above in the very popular Meccano Magazine) shows the winner in the 1954 competition. You can also see that in the intervening year or two the prize values had doubled. Mr Springett's "Omnibus Station" won him enough to buy several more kits! Or he could buy some of the many accessory packs.
.jpg)
Spears advertised routinely in the Meccano Magazine, and Timothy Edwards has prepared a full list of MM adverts, providing along the way an interesting chronology of the development of Brickplayer.
Gamages was a huge and successful department store in Holborn, London, for almost a hundred years until 1972. For many of those years it produced catalogues in the months before Christmas, which sold for 1/- (one shilling, or 5p in modern currency). I have two toy catalogues, both missing covers and a good many pages, but still substantial. Both feature Brickplayer. A major part of the catalogue in each case concerns model railways, and the Brickplayer kits were placed in the section dealing with lineside landscaping and buildings. Click on the title below each pair of images to view in full screen.
Hamleys was a rival toyshop in Regent Street, London, that is still a big attraction for kids and parents alike today. I have an interesting 6-page brochure that was apparently produced to be given out at the Schoolboys' Own Exhibition in 1950. (I remember going to that exhibition on at least one year!). The image below is of the front page - click on the title below it to download the full brochure.
More links: This Brickplayer website sits within my personal website tonyohagan.co.uk. The links below provide access to the other parts of my website.
|
|
|
|
|
|