Vogue Construction Sets

This time we'll take a look at a relatively short-lived system from England, the birthplace of Meccano. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Vogue construction sets were manufactured by Vogue Playthings Ltd. in the town of Melton Mowbray. The product line was small, as were the sets themselves. There were just eight sets in all, three standard building sets and five "supplementary" spare part sets. The building sets were the No. 1 Junior (98 parts), the No. 2 Intermediate (230 parts), and the No. 3 Senior (270 parts). Each set was packed in a flat cardboard box, and all shared the same artwork, which also appeared on the front of the instruction manuals (see image below). Inside each set, parts were arranged in molded trays, one in the No.1 and two each (stacked) in the larger sets.

The image below shows the 35 parts in the Vogue inventory. At first glance, these parts suggest that Vogue was yet another Meccano clone. Most of the parts are steel, and sport green and red paint very similar to Meccano of the same period. Parts have the same ½" hole spacing as Meccano, and most of them have equivalents in the Meccano system: note the strips, angle girders, flanged plate, sector plate, and even different flexible plates. However, there are a number of interesting differences. Although the hole spacing was the same as Meccano's, oddly the hole size was not: Vogue used smaller diameter screws and axles than most other systems. Also, instead of being square or rounded, the corners on the ends of both the strips and girders are clipped off at a 45° angle.