Meccano Percy

My approach to eBay is to leave things on watch for a long while, on the basis that occasionally, I get lucky and something I want pops up at a price I am willing to pay. 

Meccano's model of Percy falls into this category. Launched in 1965, it's sort of O gauge and clockwork. The loco comes with some blue plastic track, of an interesting section, and a couple of wagons. A few years after its launch, a version with a smokebox door instead of a face appeared, something Hornby has recently done. 

Percy sets tend to go for £60+ and while I want one, not that much. I fancy running it on the Garden Rail layout at Peterborough as a bit of fun. Mine came in at £30 including postage. 

For that money, you don't get "mint boxed". 

The box is tatty, the red van is missing a set of wheels and the key is missing. 

I must admit, I really like the box art, not least because it refer to the books, which I think are the only source of true Thomas material. I do wonder about the stick - wouldn't a couple of identical coaches have made more sense, or was a larger range planned? As the model was discontinued a year after introduction, nothing came of those if there were. 

The missing key isn't a problem. I've wound the loco up with pliers and it works fine. I'll make a new key at some point. 

Then I can recreate at least some of the famous appearance of this set in The Avengers episode, "A funny thing happened on the way to the station."