MECCANO Era “Confused” BAYKO Leaflet

This page concerns a document dating from 1960, shortly after the 1959 MECCANO take-over, which was printed in time for, if not actually well ahead of, the BAYKO relaunch, but has features that are difficult to understand - or to explain - but I'll try!

Plimpton era parts.
Left - the relevant Plimpton era parts.
 
Right - the MECCANO era equivalent.
 
When MECCANO took over BAYKO, they changed all the windows from the Plimpton 'cruciform' style in green to a 2-pane style in yellow…
…this document only got half way!
Similarly, the Bay Window Cover was also changed from red to light green…
…but not in this document!
So why did this happen?
MECCANO era parts.
What lead MECCANO to produce such an inaccurate flyer which effectively advertises a product which never existed?

The most likely explanation is probably time pressures - but, during the MECCANO take-over period, BAYKO was effectively off the market for not far off a year, though Plimpton product was supplied for a time, leaving ample time, with a craft knife and paint brush, to have done a much more convincing job - even if the pukka product wasn't available. Having said all that, the printer's code includes a date code for September, 1960, so they really did have plenty of time to have got it right.
The various windows shown [in the boxed set] in the picture are the
Plimpton era,
'cruciform' style
but in the
MECCANO era
yellow colour.
Picture of the 'confused' flier dated September, 1960
The Bay Window Cover shown [in the top left hand corner of the boxed set] in the leaflet is in the
Plimpton era red,
not in the
MECCANO era
light green.
If you look at the windows in the 5 models shown on the flier, and also the one depicted on the set lid, they are all the correct MECCANO era moulding and colour - which makes it all the more confusing to my mind.
There is a fuller description of this Flier, and similar ones, in a separate section…
178 mm x 245 mm = 7 x 9.65 inches

[Almost] unbelievably, MECCANO were still repeating this error in their first full colour BAYKO advert in 'MECCANO Magazine' in February, 1961, getting on for three months after the sets staggered into the shops.
In most cases I tend to support the 'cock-up' theory of life rather than the 'conspiracy' theory and that's probably what applies here too - but you've got to admit it's odd!
Perhaps it's best viewed as an early pointer to the troubled history of BAYKO under MECCANO control, a period which, from a BAYKO perspective, was riddled with inconsistent decisions. There are many among fans of other MECCANO products who blame the focus on BAYKO for issues in their favourite hobby - they're wrong, the incompetence was shared out equally!
This document is, almost certainly, the one referred to in a similarly confused MECCANO brochure from 1960
 
 
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