Всюду одно и то же, всюду одно и то же.

[birdwatcher]

Meccano today is very different from its heyday in the 1930s to 1950s and purists look down on the modern French- and Chinese-made Meccano, for several reasons: the plates are thinner, or plastic; the bolts are hex-headed galvanised steel; and new specialized pieces have been introduced (plastic gears, electric motors, battery boxes) which many consider as not "true" Meccano. Large or specialist parts for the Meccano Super Models, such as very long (up to 2 foot) angle girders, loom shuttles, printing rollers, etc are becoming ever more difficult to obtain - some very rare original parts are particularly valuable to collectors. Most of the currently available electric Meccano motors are also small DC models designed to run on domestic batteries, and can only deliver a fraction of the torque of earlier electric motors such as the particularly well known E15R and E20R universal motors, which could be run from a mains transformer or, in the case of the E15R, a 12V car battery.