Plimpton Era
- See Charles Plimpton for early Bayko history.
The Bayko system was invented and patented by Charles Plimpton in 1933. Plimpton set up Plimpton Engineering in Liverpool, England, to manufacture the components, the majority of which were made from Bakelite, a new synthetic plastic developed in the early 1900s. The sets were called "Bayko Light Construction Sets" (the term "Bayko Light" coming from the name "Bakelite") and went on sale at the end of 1934. The Bakelite material was sourced from Bakelite Limited, a Birmingham supplier, and for the first few years of its life, Bayko was marketed by both Plimpton Engineering and Bakelite Limited.
Initially five sets were produced, "Set 1" (the smallest) through to "Set 5" (the largest). The bricks were red and white, the bases brown, the windows dark green, and the roofs dark maroon. Plimpton began advertising Bayko in Meccano Ltd's Meccano Magazine in September 1935, unaware that 25 years later, Meccano itself would own and manufacture Bayko. Regular advertisements appeared in the magazine over those next 25 years.
In 1935 three Ornamental Sets A, B and C were introduced that contained decorative parts to supplement the existing sets, including pillars, arches and curved bricks and windows. In 1936 a "Set 6" was introduced, a much larger set than "Set 5" that included all the new ornamental parts. By 1938, the Bayko sets were described as "Bayko Building Sets", and in 1939 all the existing sets were relaunched and replaced by a new series of six sets that incorporated new parts and a red, white and green colour scheme.
Production was interrupted in 1942 by World War II when the company switched to manufacturing for the war effort. When production resumed in 1946, the set range was reduced to three, "Set 0" to "Set 2". A "Set 3" was introduced in 1947.
Charles Plimpton died of tuberculosis in December 1948 and his wife, Audrey Plimpton took over the running of Plimpton Engineering. Further new parts were added to the sets in 1949 to increase the realism and flexibility of the system, and in 1951 a "Set 4" was introduced. However, by the late 1950s Bayko came under pressure from other construction toys that appeared on the market, like Lego and Airfix, and Audrey Plimpton retired in 1959. She sold the company to Meccano Ltd in 1960.
Famous quotes containing the word era:
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