Norelco Mechanical Engineer

Hi folks, Doc here. As all of you regular visitors to Girders & Gears know well, our focus here is on metal construction toy systems. Most of these are of the "traditional" variety such as Meccano, Erector, Marklin, etc. However, there have been many other types of construction sets produced over the years. One of the more unusual and specialized of these is the focus of this feature. The Norelco Mechanical Engineer ME 1200 construction set was produced in the 1960s by Philips, the famous manufacturer of consumer and industrial electronics. Philips also sold an identical ME 1200 set under their own name, along with the ME 1201 and ME 1250.

THE PARTS
True to their Philips heritage, all of these sets, including the Norelco ME 1200, had a heavy emphasis on electronic circuitry. They featured a variety of clear plastic components, including pierced disks and circuit boards, along with a large assortment of metal axles, pins, and bushings of various lengths, plus wires, clips, springs, and other electronic components. Rounding out the inventory were black plastic/rubber tires, wheels, and belts and a large, detailed instruction manual.

THE MODELS
The Norelco manual featured a variety of model designs, most of which were simple wheeled vehicles. One or more clear plastic "circuit" boards served as a mounting platform for the electronic and mechanical components and the wheels. The mechanisms typically consisted of a series of clear plastic disks mounted on axle shafts; rings of metal pins inserted in each disk interlocked with pins on other disks. Funtionally, this produced a kind of gearbox, which, working in combination with an electric motor (with battery), drive belts, and pulleys, could be used to power the model and any other mechanisms it contained.

A typical example is MODEL F8, an illustration of which is shown at right. As described in the manual, this model is an "Electric Car which reduces speed in the dark and lights headlamps automatically". The moderately complex circuitry which was used to accomplish this is shown in the illustration below, which depicts the electronic components as they were layed out on the top and bottom of the circuit board platform. Two other models are also shown.