Building Toys by Brian Salter

Author:Brian Salter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Building Toys: Bayko And Other Systems
ISBN: 9780747811817
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd
Published: 2011-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

BRICKPLAYER

‘Model No. 2 Siding Office’ was almost the smallest in the Brickplayer instruction book – this is the earliest incarnation. At left is a waiting room and shelter of 1950s materials. The truck carries Hornby wooden bricks supplied purely as a load, but doubtless some were used for their (real) intended purpose. Similarity with the Lott’s railway scene on page 16 is intended, with accessories from the same source.

BRICKPLAYER was the last of the ‘big four’ building sets to appear and is, after Bayko, probably the best remembered. It was produced by J.W. Spear & Sons Ltd of Enfield, who were generally well-known for indoor games and similar items.

Joseph W. Spier, born in 1832, had emigrated to the United States from Germany at the age of twenty, becoming an American citizen in 1860. Late in 1861, following the outbreak of the American Civil War, the family, now called Spear, moved back to Germany and soon found work in the same lines of business that are still associated with their name. In 1878 a company called J. W. Spear was formed in England as fancy goods importers, whilst the following year in Germany Joseph was the sole proprietor of his new manufacturing company. Despite some serious setbacks and the unfortunate death of the founder, the firm prospered under family control, having become J. W. Spear & Sons in 1884. While the original factory continued the production of toys and cards until it was destroyed in the Second World War, much of the production had been moved to England in 1932 as the influence of the Nazis became stronger.

Just how Spears came to develop Brickplayer is not known, but, being established in Britain in the reasonably optimistic 1930s, they must have been well aware of the building-toy potential. In particular, they might have taken a close look at the products of Gulliver Brick of east London, whose miniature bricks were very similar to the eventual Spears product. Gulliver is virtually unheard of now, and it is conceivable that Spears bought them out. We do not know, but the timing would fit.

Brickplayer reached the shops a few months before the first wartime Christmas, its initial Meccano magazine advertisement being in December 1939. There already had been artificial systems in stone, plastic and rubber, but now it was real bricks, real cement, a real trowel and real mess. Two sizes of kit were available, each also containing foundation plans, card doors and windows, and pre-cut roofs. Accurate results could doubtless be achieved with practice, but any attempt was very time-consuming, and it is hard to see now how any child would have the necessary patience. In all but the warmest and driest environments, setting was a slow process, as were the eventual soaking and thorough cleaning of the bricks if they were to be reused.

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