Triang Fours

I'm not a real collector of old model railways, although a 9 wagon train of Giraffe cars puled by a "Davy Crockett" has a special place in my heart, but I'm fascinated by the products that appear when our favorite companies go "off piste" .

At the moment, I covet a Hornby 3DS game system. This is a bizarre monorail along which a space ship hurtles. The player then uses a second space ship to shoot at the target. Points are scored and it makes noises. I'd love to show one off at a model railway event just to annoy the purists.

However, while browsing in a charity shop a few days ago, this goodies was in a corner. A Triang Fours game. Yes, Triang the model railway maker.

A 3D game of noughts and crosses, just like that 3D chess game Spock and Kirk are always playing in Star Trek, but with much simpler rules.

The "board" is four layers of plastic with holes in, one above the other.

Players take it in turns to place plastic counters into the holes, the objective being to make a line of 4 counters. The single sheet of instructions covers this in several languages.

I've never seen another of these sets, so I assume it's worth many millions of pounds. Mine is complete, has a tatty box missing its top and there is a crack in one of the plastic plates, but nothing to stop it being played.

I paid £1.50, which has got to be a bargain hasn't it?