Meccano Magazine

Meccano Magazine was an English monthly hobby magazine published by Meccano Ltd between 1916 and 1963, and by other publishers between 1963 and 1981. The magazine was initially created for Meccano builders, but it soon became a general hobby magazine aimed at "boys of all ages". It remained in circulation for over sixty years.

History

The magazine was launched by Frank Hornby, the inventor of Meccano, as a bi-monthly publication in 1916 in the United States as "Meccano Engineer", and was a month ahead of the UK issue. The first copies were given away free but in 1918 readers had to pay two pence for postage for four issues.

In 1917 and again in 1932, Hornby published a history of Meccano, its manufacture and marketing in the magazine. In 1919 it doubled its size to eight pages and now cost one penny. New Meccano parts were advertised for the first time in 1920 and in 1922 the magazine became a monthly publication. From the May 1924 issue, the magazine had full-colour covers, and the December 1924 issue was 96 pages, costing six pence. By the 1930s Meccano Magazine had a circulation of 70,000.