How times have changed...

[kay]

Hmmm . . . I've just seen on e-bay that someone wants ?90 for a Bayko No. 1 set ? and I had a number 4. I wonder what that would fetch?

I don't think I had a 4, but we had a shop which sold Bayko bits separately - had a big counter full of compartments with all the different pieces, like the best Bayco set you could imagine, and I can well remember the excitement of spending pocket money in there.

The frustration was that, no matter how many new pieces you bought, you always ran out of something just short of completion. I believe the same law applies to Meccano and Lego too. Even to Duplo and Playmobil - which brings back a memory from new parenthood, of constructing a 6ft high "DNA" model from duplo.

 

[mch]

I had a Bayko building set, can't remember which number it was. I seem to recall that you could buy a set to upgrade to the next level.

On the health & safety issue, as a child I had many toy soldiers made of lead. When a few had broken I would place them in an old pan with a long handle and melt them over the open coal fire. I then poured the molten lead into the inner part of an Englands Glory matchbox (soaked in water so that it didn't immediately go up in flames) and when it cooled I had a small perfectly formed lead ingot. Needless to say I did this when my parents were not around!

 

[pwhole]

There were a few other interesting outcomes of boys (and girls) with chemistry sets in the 1960s, and these three definitely survived 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsvElED0-O0

 

[AR]

I used to  melt bits of lead too, though I used the spirit lamp from my chemistry set and the lid of a tin of humbrol and was doing it in my bedroom! I also got given a baccy tin containing mercury by my older sister's boyfriend (it had apparently come out of a broken machine at work!) and I used to let that flow from hand to hand - some might say doing things like that in my teens explains a lot about me now.....