KEITH'S MECCANO PAGE

The Meccano product is owned by a Japanese company active in RC car models. As far as I know their BRIO toy subsidiary handles distribution of "Erector" in the USA, and Borgfeldt handles distribution of Meccano in Canada. (But that distribution was slow and in 2008 Borgfeldt still could not produce a web site with basic quality attributes like consistent spelling of the Spykee product name and working links to other pages).
Distribution remains spotty, marketing erratic and stumbling - see later in this page for recent sightings. What Meccano needs is an owner with ample pockets who is an enthusiast with good sense of business and both traditional markets and new ones like robotics. If anyone has such money and good values I am open to offers to manage the enterprise. ;-o

A 2004 brochure showed these sets:
> Meccano Heroes, fire rescue and castle sets with people figures, age 4+
> Yoocans, magnetic pieces that make cartoon figures and transportation vehicles, age 3-5
> plastic Meccano, in Construction, Creation and City themes, many sets, ages 4-8 (the Meccano concept but in larger pieces)
> real Meccano in a number of attractive sets, labelled Design or Multi Model, ages 8-14
> Special Edition sets, including well-known buildings & monuments, ferris wheel (evoking Erector), steam locomotive, and Crazy Inventors (goofy transportation apparatus, from old car to space ship)

You may get a feel for later variants at http://www.amazon.com (ensure your young child narrows the search to the Toys section as searching the entire site for "erector" will produce some "interesting" products whose educational impact you may want to defer to a more discerning age - you might also look in Books) or http://www.thesourcecc.com (and muck about to find comprehensive information).
Meccano sells a number of radio control automotive sets, one of which has a connection for an MP3 audio file player that it may have a carrying place for.
Meccano has been producing a large number of different sets, of varying colours, typically each is themed to a particular model though can build others. Some sets are quite small, selling for under $20.

In the U.S. the product is branded Erector, but the parts and even the included brochure say Meccano and are Meccano. Some interchange with traditional Erector is possible, due to half-inch hole spacing, but other parts such as screw threads are different. There may be some new parts that resemble traditional Erector, such as the long flanged plate shown in the ferris wheel illustration in the brochure. (As well, someone - perhaps Meccano and others - are selling sets referred to as classic Erector or such. I have not seen the parts so do not know if they are fully compatible with old Erector or just look-alike in colors and themes as some of the really-Meccano sets like Ferris Wheel are.)

I expect that traditional large sets and spare parts remain available, though Meccano's dedication to those has long fluctuated. (Enthusiasts know where to get those, and of third-party sources including special parts not produced by Meccano who also have added many parts over the years. See the web site links above for leads.)

Spykee Robot update 2010
Heavy on audio/communications & lights, computer interface to setup, Internet access capability to check on your place, humanoid/insect appearance, about 32 cm tall. Check Spykee World for some details (click on different areas of the page for different versions, at least four). I cannot judge how great it is for robotics - many neat features, the home security robot application does seem very capable. Regardless, it shows some action by Meccano to embrace modern technology, especially programming by personal computer, and may raise awareness of the Erector/Meccano product line. Unfortunately it is not the equal of Lego Mindstorm, which is getting the buzz that Meccano had generations ago, with contests and use for the original purpose of Frank Hornby's efforts" - education (the "Mechanics Made Easy" start). [Beware that the name is spelled two ways on web sites covering it, Spyke and Spykee.]
There are smaller Spykee sets, appearing limited to audio functions, selling for well under $100.
Spykee appears to have little in common with other Meccano sets, it is probably a renamed version of a device from the new owners of Meccano, Nikko.

Comment:
Contrary to what some people suggest, the finish and quality of recent Meccano production in recent years has been comparable to the Meccano of your youth - though the Speed Play robot, a product of the new owners Nikko, is poor quality in design and packaging. (If you had Meccano in the late 30s or late 60s and early 70s you may find that today's finish is more durable, equal to the 1950s; if you had Meccano in the late 60s you may find that today's packaging is much more attractive as a gift. (And look for the molded plastic cases that can be used to store the parts after opening the package - years ago only the top end sets had cases (and very few people could afford those huge sets).) Plastics have been used well (gears run quieter, flex plates don't kink from bending - and besides plastic there is a new metal type that does not kink easily) and remote controls have been introduced. Motors are now DC for battery power, safer but perhaps not as powerful as the old AC motors with exposed workings.

The introduction of flexible plates, including triangular ones, especially the thin plastic plates, helped reproduce the more curved surfaces of airplanes and modern automobiles. (The Meccano braced girders and the braced configuration of traditional Erector strips reflect the beam and column configurations standard in bridges, buildings, and cranes at the time of introduction - separate flange and web (still seen today in roof beams of warehouse-style buildings, but not in cranes and bridges). And some strips are now made of a metal that is easier to straighten after bending.

A wide range of parts have been produuced in the last few decades, some more broadly useable than others (the neat oriental dragon parts, for example, are rather specialized). But hey!, your grandfather may remember the ships funnel, loom parts, digger bucket, and railway parts from the 1920s, as well as the automobile and airplane sets.)
And one area that Meccano has advanced in, though not enough to suit market demand, is electrics and remote control. Perhaps the new owners will increase development in those areas, as they are in the remote control toy business, but they seem very slow (sadly, not competitive with other toys including a metal construction set sold by Radio Shack in the US and Lego Mindstorm).
Mind, Meccano had electrical sets years ago, including:
- a radio receiver set
- a lighting set, in part for the autombile sets
- the Elektron set, 20s/30s vintage IIRC
- the Elektrikit set in the late 60s, with solenoids, relays, and photocells.
- the Electrical Control set in the 70s, with a few parts similar to some in the Elektrikit, as well as a 4EL set that included electrical parts.

BCMC:
The B.C. Meccano Club was quite active again with meetings are a few times a year in the Greater Vancouver BC area, but is dwindling with negligible pre-planning of meeting dates for no good reason, and contradictory policies. Thanks especially to Linda Chow and Sam Chow for their initiative and ongoing work which resurrected the club and kept it up for a few years. It can be an enthusiastic bunch with much knowledge and leads to more, but suffers from having some troubled members so will be gone within ten years. I no longer associate with it, because it is not properly set up.

The BCMC newsletter is long defunct, the effort to produce a 20th anniversary edition floundered - material was given to an individual who has disappeared, hopefully some day the articles written for it will be published (some of us kept a copy of what we wrote).
(Good newsletters are produced by several groups around the world, including one in Ontario (Canadian Meccanotes?) and the Southern California Meccano and Erector Club - check the Internet (some links above).)

In the last decade the 100th anniversary of Meccano and the 20th anniversary of MCBC occurred.

RELATIVES
Other toy products were produced by Meccano company. Dinky Toy cast vehicle models are the best known, but there were others like Bayko building blocks., Hornby trains, speedboats, and even chemistry sets.