Beta Builder. Anyone remember it?

[onyx39]

Had a huge set of this when I was a kid ( was a deprived child as parents could not afford Lego!)
Anyone else remember it?

[IroningMan]

I remember the name - I think I inherited a set from my Dad that was replaced with Lego before too long.

[stevep944]

I had this too, in many ways it was better than lego, real roof tiles etc

[Wacky Racer]

Remember it well.....Poor man's Lego....

I also used to have:-



and

[Simpo Two]

I had a few Meccano magazines from the 1950s (not mine I hasten to add!) and in the back were adverts for a construction toy that actually comprised little bricks and you stuck them togther with mortar, just like a real house. Can't remember the name though.

[perdu]

My rich mate Dave had a set of Bayco building pieces

Great fun designing a building then laying out little steel rods to slip wall/brickwork sections down.

Thanks for that picture, the name of those things slipped my mind (back in the early sixties, girls and mo' bikes happened!) and I have often wondered what the blimmin' things were called.

[bxlbaz]

Count me in, I asked Father Christmas for Lego, and got Betabuilder. Funny enough it didn't emotionally scar me, well not until now

In a similar vein I asked for Scalextrix and got this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSi81Ke5QIU if you watch it until about 1' 12 you will see the subtle but important difference between the two systems which threw a slight spanner in the works of racing cars

My expression must have been a picture when I put two cars next to each other and me and my brother pressed down on the hand controls

[Stew2000]

There's a large box of my dad's Bayko in the loft. It'll sit there collecting money.

[Simpo Two]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayko

[RichB]

Simpo Two said:

I had a few Meccano magazines from the 1950s (not mine I hasten to add!) and in the back were adverts for a construction toy that actually comprised little bricks and you stuck them together with mortar, just like a real house. Can't remember the name though.

I had this set as a kid or something very similar. It had base boards which were like blueprints and hundreds of little bricks about 18mm x 10mm x 5mm. You actually glued the bricks together with flour and water paste (or at least we did). Quick and easy to mix up and when we'd finished building the house you simply demolished it rather realistically into chunks and the soaked them in a bowl of warm water and the bricks came apart for re-use. I can't remember how the roofs were built though Anyone?

[Evangelion]

I asked for either Lego or Betta Builder and ended up with something called Stacks. Each piece was an entire storey or roof. That was my Dad all over; always bought the cheapest of anything.
Don't get me started talking about his cars ...

[ktcanuck]

I had a set called Brickplayer on the late 50's early 60's. Real bricks and mortar. None of this artificial stuff!

[mrmaggit]

Yes, terrible stuff. Went together, then couldn't be separated. The roof tiles were the same, except that they tended to sag, then separate into lumps of 20 or 30, but then wouldn't break down further.

There is a reason why Lego succeeded, and Bettabuilder didn't.