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Next story>>> Back to news index>>> Go home ! >>> 11th August 2008
This week we are away from home. The news on Spanner II was that there was a new set available from Argos. Ralph went off, located the nearest Argos and relieved them of one Meccano Beetle. “It’s Pink!” he said. “I don’t do PINK” he continued. I do, so we decided that I should build it. The first thing I noticed on the box was that it had headlights. There’s a thought, working headlights… Imagine my disappointment when the headlights turned out to be stickers. I was not happy and on closer inspection of the box found a sticker that said something like “the contents may vary slightly from the illustration.” Yeah right, they missed out MY headlights!
On tipping the contents out I noticed that we were presented with a new design of spanner. The new tool looked like a cross between the old box spanner (P/N 34b) and the standard spanner (P/N 34). The centre ‘square’ and the cranked end are the same as a standard spanner but the other end resembles an open box spanner. On closer inspection the ‘jaws’ are slightly tapered enabling it to grip a nut for difficult placement. The fact that it is open means that it can be withdrawn after the nut has been tightened. Looks too useful to lose, I think Ralph has his eye on it… Well he’ll have to buy his own Pink Beetle!
It goes together reasonably easily although it is left-hand-drive if you follow the instructions to the letter. I ‘converted’ mine to RHD. The wheels are a novel combination I have not seen before. It uses those silver conical discs (P/N 187q) sandwiched between a 1 inch plastic pulley and the tyre. It seems to work quite well. The really strange thing is the lack of floor reminiscent of Fred Flintstones car! It’s a funny model, the shape is sort of beetle like but It does have some 2CV-like features. Not the best set I have ever had the pleasure to put together but it filled a gap while we were away from home. I will give it to Ralph to take to the SELMEC meeting on September 6th. Sue |
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