The Meccano Percy Set

The Meccano Percy Set

In 1965 the twentieth book of the Railway Series was released entitled Very Old Engines. In this same year the very first train set was too come for The Railway Series. Yes, in 1965 Meccano released a loop of track with an engine; the engine was of course Percy. It is interesting that they decided to choose Percy. The set was an O gauge loop of blue "click together" track all was made out of plastic except for the clockwork motor of Percy. It is surprising that Meccano, a company famed for it’s metal toys decided to release a set entirely of plastic! Also included in the set was a yellow truck and a red Box van. Percy looks very much the way he does in Dalby's illustrations and is quite highly detailed, this adds to the appeal of the set, having something so close to what you see in the books is definite positive!

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It has long been thought that this set was produced for one year only in 1967, but this is not true. After some
extensive research I have concluded that this set was actually released two years earlier in the year of 1965. You will now of course want some hard evidence, for that I have a few pictures that should put your mind at rest. First of all is an advert from the Meccano magazine advertising the set, the advert is from 1965, also there is the adverts that were put onto the dust jackets of many of the books released around that time. There were actually two different styles of dust jacket adverts released, one in 1965 and the other 1967. Now for my favourite. In 1965 "Very Old Engines" was released and the first edition copy of this book came with a two page fold up advertisement, showing the set in all it‘s glory! So the set was actually in the market for three years between 1965 and 1967 and it didn't do very well. Despite the wonderful box art by Peter Edwards the set just didn't sell. Perhaps it was the fact that all you can do is play with a circle of track, there was no option of extending the set. Or maybe it was the fact that there wasn't any other characters available for it, all you had was exactly what was in the box. Whatever the reason the set was a flop and the remaining stocks had their faces removed and replaced with red smoke boxes, domes and whistles and where sold in France. It was a sad end to the very first train set for The Railway Series. Little did they know at this time how successful The Railway Series and related train sets would go on to be! Although the set was short lived, it found fame in it’s first and last TV debut in the 1967 episode of the ITV TV series "The Avengers" entitled "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station", I am sure Percy enjoyed his six seconds of fame!

Even though the set didn't sell well I think it is a very good set, it is very big and a lot more fun to watch than many other train sets. The brightly coloured track, rolling stock and engine could keep any child entertained for a good while, the reason for this set’s failure shall remain lost in the depths of time, but the set however shall remain a great part of my collection for many years to come! I like the big size of the train set but you could argue that it is a little too big, imagine if you had a whole load of the track (should they have decided to expand the range) you would need a huge house to set it up! I also like the fact that it was the first ever train set, so it is a landmark in Thomas history. Another good part of this set is the detail, Percy is very well detailed, arguably higher detail than many product ranges of today. Overall a great set!

If you would like to see the pictures mentioned above, watch the Youtube video to find out more. A little history lesson!

Anyway I hope you have enjoyed the review, check out the pictures on my Youtube and Facebook page.

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This video includes an in depth look at Percy and his rolling stock and also looks at when this set was produced, proving that it was released before 1967. 

Guild Home Video

Guild Home Video

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In 1985 video cassette manufactures Guild Home Video, one of the biggest at the time, produced two "Thomas The Tank Engine" videos. These were entitled "Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends Cassette 1" and "Further Adventures Of Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends Cassette 2". These videos were released in the time when VHS and Betamax where in a heated battle, of which VHS reined the winner, but in order to reach both sectors of the market Guild Home Video decided to release it’s videos in both formats. As many readers may not have even seen a Betamax video never mind owned one, I thought a little introduction might be helpful! 

Anyway the video I was going to be reviewing was originally "Cassette 2", but I think I might as well review the both in one go. So let’s start in chronological order with "Cassette 1". There is a bit of question as to whether these two cassettes were released in 1984 or 1985, but I think they were both released in 1985. Both tapes have the date "MCMLXXXV" which is 1985, this would make sense, as otherwise the videos would have been released before some episodes were even aired! The episode list for "Cassette 1" is as follows:

1.Thomas and Gordon

2. Edward and Gordon

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3. The Sad Story of Henry

4. Edward, Gordon and Henry

5. Thomas' Train

6. Thomas and the Trucks

7. Thomas and the Breakdown Train

8. James and the Coaches

9. Troublesome Trucks

10. James and the Express

11. Thomas and the Guard

12. Thomas Goes Fishing

13. Thomas, Terence and the Snow 

There were 13 episodes per tape, which is a lot better value than many of the latter tapes, in which a series was usually spread over three separate tapes. Obviously this is a good episode listing as it is the order the stories were supposed to be seen. A good thing about having the original tapes is that you will get the name-board openings, which are really nice. A great way for children and parents alike to learn character names. Another thing about the first videos, well first series really, is that Ringo Starr narrates them, this alone will have attracted a large audience when the series first aired. I like the cover design as well, it is the same picture that was used on the 1985 annual and of course the later Kaleidoscope release. I also like the stickers that show which format they are in, a nice touch. The videos are not actually Pre-certification, they have the correct age certificate printed on the back and have stickers on the spine and back. "Cassette 2" also has the certificate printed on the spine.

Now onto "Cassette 2". I have never actually been able to watch "Cassette 2" as I only have a copy in Betamax for which I don’t have a player. I expect it makes good viewing though, with the original name-boards and Guild Home Video opening logo. Here is the episode list:

1. Thomas and Bertie

2. Tenders and Turntables

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3. Trouble in the Shed

4. Percy Runs Away

5. Coal

6. The Flying Kipper

7. Whistles and Sneezes

8. Toby and the Stout Gentleman

9. Thomas in Trouble

10. Dirty Objects

11. Off the Rails

12. Down the Mine

13. Thomas' Christmas Party 

Again I do like the case design for this one. I think the big picture of Thomas on the front is great and is of course a rare picture in itself. On the back is the classic opening sequence picture, you can’t go wrong with that!

Another thing I find interesting about the Guild Home Video releases are the impact they had on the videos to come. Guild Home only released two videos and were only working with Thomas The Tank Engine for one year, but they had quite a big impact. Firstly the most obvious has got to be that the picture on "Cassette 1" is re-used by VCI with their release of "Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends" later to become "Thomas and Gordon". Also the back cover of "Thomas and Gordon" is almost completely identical to "Cassette 1", same colour scheme, picture, and blurb. The three videos released at this time did actually carry a note that said "A Guild Home Video Product distributed through the Video Collection", I think this means that VCI would have been paying royalties to GHV for the use of their cover design. With the next release from VCI, there was a completely different case design with didn’t really look like the first release. The second release was of course "Troublesome Trucks and Other Stories", this did take quite a lot of influence from "Cassette 2", with the "Further Adventures of" and the font of the text, for example the writing of "Storyteller Ringo Starr", was identical except for the colour. Interestingly the three videos have an odd primitive certification logo, this was not present on the GHV releases.

Now I think I have definitely said too much! I hope you have enjoyed reading about these fantastic two videos and I hope I haven’t bored you, my passion for these videos is quite high to say the least!

Please check out the Youtube video below for pictures of the videos.

TTC 2012

Welcome To The Thomas Tank Collectables Blog

Hello everyone,

It is Patrick here I am currently working on a new blog, Youtube channel and Facebook page. I plan to write written reviews on a great number of items from my Thomas collection. I look forward to embarking on this new venture! I hope you all enjoy my reviews and I look forward to talking to you all and sharing Thomas anecdotes! The first of a series of reviews will be posted very soon, all being well, each review will be accompanied with a Youtube video showing pictures or videos of the items, if I think it beneficial!

 Anyway, as I said before I hope you enjoy my Thomas content,

 Patrick Foley

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