As your miniature engineering skills improve, you find yourself tackling more ambitious projects and you will find that you are constructing models of some very complex mechanisms. This is a wonderful way in which to learn how mechanisms work - mechanisms that we take for granted in our everyday lives. Gearboxes, bearings, differentials, winding mechanisms, clocks - these and many more can all be reproduced in Meccano.
But some would argue that getting started with Meccano is very costly and that Meccano is just a very expensive toy. Absolutely wrong! It is neither expensive nor is it merely a toy.
To determine if something is expensive, you have to equate cost against value. In my Meccano collection, I have many parts which were purchased for my father in the early 1920’s. I still use these same parts in models which I construct today, some seventy years later. At the time these parts were bought, were they expensive based on the value that they have provided since then? Certainly not! The same argument applies to the bulk of my collection which I purchased during the 1980’s. After only ten years of use, there is no doubt that I have received excellent value and my family and I will continue to receive this value for many decades and possibly even centuries into the future.
Frank Hornby, the inventor of Meccano nearly a century ago, described Meccano as "Real Engineering in Miniature". The precision-made metal gears and other components means that you can construct accurately scaled mechanisms of the real thing - and they will operate just like the real thing. Meccano clocks have been constructed that have operated without stopping for decades. Display models, originally constructed during the 1940s and 1950s are still operational today and are frequently exhibited at public shows. So, although originally designed as a simple constructional toy for children, Meccano has developed into a construction system which goes far beyond the needs of young children. It is a real educational tool. It has been used for nearly 100 years by inventors and design engineers to perfect mechanisms before going into factory production.
So, when you buy your first Meccano set, you are investing in knowledge, education, dexterity, engineering ability and many years of practical fun for yourself and your family.