Printed from www.nzmeccano.com
The NZMeccano 10-set survey results
The NZMeccano 10-set survey is available here. If you are the fortunate owner of one of Meccano's largest outfits, please tell us about it by going to that page!
This page shows some of the results of our 10-set survey, from the live data collected so far.
If you can think of other information you would like to see (from the data we retrieved), please make a comment at the bottom of this page and we'll see whether it can be added!
The survey was launched on 7th September 2009, and the results to date are as follows:
Overall data set
So far, 538 people have filled in the survey form, describing 1216 complete outfits. These people have an average of 2.26 outfits each!
The outfits described are as follows:
| Outfit 10 |  612 |
| Outfit 9+9A | 102 |
| Outfit 7 | 74 |
| Outfit 6+6a | 71 |
| Outfit 6 | 70 |
| Outfit L | 65 |
| Box E | 63 |
| Outfit K+Ka | 57 |
And here's where all the outfits are located:
| UK | 307 |
| Australia | 80 |
| New Zealand | 66 |
| Rest of Europe | 53 |
| Canada | 48 |
| USA | 46 |
| South Africa | 20 |
| Rest of world | 14 |
| Asia | 6 |
| South America | 5 |
| France | 3 |
Here's what people do with their 10-sets:
| I build models | 251 |
| I keep it in a box | 168 |
| In my building stock | 120 |
| Undecided | 117 |
| Something else | 38 |
Looking only at the 10-sets, the colour schemes are as follows:
| Medium red/green | 234 |
| Blue/yellow/zinc | 162 |
| Light red/green | 79 |
| French blue/yellow/zinc | 62 |
| Dark blue/Dark yellow | 29 |
| Zinc/yellow/black | 27 |
| Blue/gold | 25 |
| Silver/yellow/black | 25 |
| Other or mixed | 22 |
| Dark red/dark green | 16 |
| Blue/gold/green | 10 |
| French blue/gold | 10 |
| Nickel plated | 9 |
Meccano Builders results
If we limit ourselves to the Meccano 'builders', those who have said that they build models with their 10-sets or who have split the parts up into their building stock, we can split up the analysis by colour scheme. In the following graph, the builders are in red and the collectors are in green:
| Medium red/green | |
| Blue/yellow/zinc | |
| Light red/green | |
| French blue/yellow/zinc | |
| Dark blue/Dark yellow | |
| Zinc/yellow/black | |
| Blue/gold | |
| Silver/yellow/black | |
| Other or mixed | |
| Dark red/dark green | |
| Blue/gold/green | |
| French blue/gold | |
| Nickel plated |
Collectors' outfits
George asked me to show the colour distribution of 'show' outfits, those that are in really super condition and are true survivors. To qualify for this, we need to look at only those outfits that are in better than 'excellent' condition, with at least the original cabinet, were manufactured by Meccano, and aren't used for building models. The colour schemes break down like this:
| Medium red/green | 28 |
| Light red/green | 16 |
| French blue/yellow/zinc | 13 |
| Blue/yellow/zinc | 12 |
| Dark blue/Dark yellow | 9 |
| Silver/yellow/black | 5 |
| Zinc/yellow/black | 5 |
| Blue/gold/green | 3 |
| Blue/gold | 1 |
| French blue/gold | 1 |
| Dark red/dark green | 1 |
| Nickel plated | 1 |
As expected, the 'classic' medium red/green presentation cabinet is the most common, as it is seen as the definitive No.10 set, even by Meccanomen who were brought up on later colour schemes.
- 897 outfits (73.8%) are in an original cabinet or box
- 652 outfits (53.6%) are in a reproduction cabinet
- 956 outfits (78.6%) have all their manuals
- 785 outfits (64.6%) have their small parts boxes
- 639 outfits (52.5%) have their original stringing cards
- 557 outfits (45.8%) have dust sheets or shrinkwrapping
- 534 outfits (43.9%) have their outer packing carton
- 609 outfits (50.1%) have a key!
How did we find them?
So, where do people buy their large Meccano outfits? Here's an analysis of the source of outfits, broken down into those outfits bought before 2000 (in red) and since 2000 (in green):
| Through eBay | |
| From a dealer | |
| Club member | |
| Some other way | |
| Toy auction | |
| Classified | |
| Bought new | |
| From a lucky contact | |
| Friend | |
| It was a present | |
| Spanner | |
| Inherited | |
| Other internet site | |
| Can't remember |
No surprises here, with eBay taking over as the primary source of Meccano outfits in the last decade. Meccano club members, friends, and Spanners make up the most common sources for more recently purchased outfits. What this chart does show us is that a large proportion of outfits have changed hands in the last few years.
Note that outfits where there was no purchase date, or no source information, are not shown in this chart.
Further breakdown of outfits
Let's have a look at all of the outfits now (of any size), and see how many are original and how many have been 'built up' from either spare parts or over a gradual period through various stages. The original outfits are in red, the built up ones in green:
| Medium red/green | |
| Blue/yellow/zinc | |
| Light red/green | |
| French blue/yellow/zinc | |
| Dark blue/Dark yellow | |
| Nickel plated | |
| Dark red/dark green | |
| Silver/yellow/black | |
| Blue/gold | |
| Zinc/yellow/black | |
| Other or mixed | |
| Blue/gold/green | |
| French blue/gold |
As expected, the most common 'built up' outfit by far is the medium red/green. Original nickel outfits surprisingly show only one entry. The unusual 'mixed colour' original outfit is an export one which was supplied in a mixture of medium red/green and light red/green.
Let's break down the outfits in the same way – red for original and green for built-up:
| Outfit 10 | |
| Outfit 9+9A | |
| Outfit 7 | |
| Outfit 6+6a | |
| Outfit 6 | |
| Outfit L | |
| Box E | |
| Outfit K+Ka |
Comments
Total number of messages on this page: 15. This is page 2 of 3. 
Len (at 5:07pm, Mon 14th Jul, 14) |
I also own a complete run of red/green outfits from 00 through to 9, a No.8 Gold/blue hatched set, Elektrikit, Mechanisms & Gears Outfits, plus a run of late 60's sets from Play Set through to Breakdown Crew Set. And a couple of Accessory Outfits thrown in for good measure, a late 1950's 8A and a mid 50's 1A plus loads of loose parts! |
Alan Esplen (at 10:02am, Tue 29th Oct, 13) |
Is there a record of the names of those who have taken part in the survey. I took part in the original Spanner survey but am not sure if I added my two No 10 sets to this one. I do not want to distort the figures by taking part twice. |
Enrique Segre (at 8:49pm, Sat 20th Jul, 13) |
I have since the last survey ,besides my original 10 set(1970) and probably another two in parts, become some sort of collector as I bought the following: |
Doug Hedgley (at 6:14pm, Wed 12th Sep, 12) |
I don't really know why but this survey was very interesting. It was well done, as is the rest of this website, the best bar none on the web. |
louis boselli (at 10:50pm, Sun 24th Apr, 11) |
Very informative - and fun! |
Phil Fisher (at 4:25am, Wed 21st Jul, 10) |
Interesting - it looks like only about 5% of sets are still with their original owners ! |