The balloon logo next to the word Meccano represents the British toy brand Palitoy. This is a timeline for Palitoy:
1919: Cascelloid Company was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in Coalville, Leicestershire, UK. Their first toy made in 1920.
1931: Cascelloid bought by British Xylonite. (Xylonite was another name for Celluloid plastic).
1935: the Palitoy trademark was created by BX for their toy products.
1968: Palitoy was sold to US food company General Mills, and became part of their toy division, also known as CPG (Creative Products Group).
1971: GM acquired Meccano France from the receivers of the UK toy company Tri-ang, while Meccano UK was sold to Airfix.
1981: GM acquired the UK Airfix Group, including Airfix kits, GMR model railways (rebranded as Palitoy Mainline), and Meccano UK.
1985: GM pulled out of the toy market. Airfix was sold to Humbrol, Mainline to Dapol. Lionel trains and MPC kits were also sold off. The Palitoy brand name was discontinued.
1987: Tonka bought the part of CPG which included Kenner toys, Parker games and the former Palitoy, this grouping being sold again in 1991 to Hasbro.
To emphasise the convoluted nature of the family tree of British toy companies, Meccano was founded by Frank Hornby, who was also responsible for Dinky Toys and of course Hornby Model Railways.
So, we know that Palitoy were selling toys in the UK in the early 1970's which were made in Hong Kong under licence from Tomy, the Log Delivery Set and the Merry-Go sets being examples. We also know that GM's acquisition of Meccano France gave them rights to the Meccano name world-wide, with the exception of the British Commonwealth.
So now we have a Tomy toy bearing the 'two kids' logo rebranded as Palitoy (i.e. the balloon logo) Meccano with the French words for Stop and Start alongside the on/off switch, and it's not such a surprise after all!
And here's a Palitoy one:
![[Image: image.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/fTDC3BTG/image.png)
![[Image: Untitled.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/SYQ09Fd6/Untitled.png)
(This post was last modified: 02-01-2021, 12:46 PM by Super.)
1919: Cascelloid Company was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in Coalville, Leicestershire, UK. Their first toy made in 1920.
1931: Cascelloid bought by British Xylonite. (Xylonite was another name for Celluloid plastic).
1935: the Palitoy trademark was created by BX for their toy products.
1968: Palitoy was sold to US food company General Mills, and became part of their toy division, also known as CPG (Creative Products Group).
1971: GM acquired Meccano France from the receivers of the UK toy company Tri-ang, while Meccano UK was sold to Airfix.
1981: GM acquired the UK Airfix Group, including Airfix kits, GMR model railways (rebranded as Palitoy Mainline), and Meccano UK.
1985: GM pulled out of the toy market. Airfix was sold to Humbrol, Mainline to Dapol. Lionel trains and MPC kits were also sold off. The Palitoy brand name was discontinued.
1987: Tonka bought the part of CPG which included Kenner toys, Parker games and the former Palitoy, this grouping being sold again in 1991 to Hasbro.
To emphasise the convoluted nature of the family tree of British toy companies, Meccano was founded by Frank Hornby, who was also responsible for Dinky Toys and of course Hornby Model Railways.
So, we know that Palitoy were selling toys in the UK in the early 1970's which were made in Hong Kong under licence from Tomy, the Log Delivery Set and the Merry-Go sets being examples. We also know that GM's acquisition of Meccano France gave them rights to the Meccano name world-wide, with the exception of the British Commonwealth.
So now we have a Tomy toy bearing the 'two kids' logo rebranded as Palitoy (i.e. the balloon logo) Meccano with the French words for Stop and Start alongside the on/off switch, and it's not such a surprise after all!
And here's a Palitoy one:
![[-]](https://www.blueplastictracks.org/images/collapse.png)