Background

Dinky Toys is the brand name of a range of diecast and other toys manufactured by the Meccano Company and its overseas subsidiaries. The Dinky Toys brand was first introduced in April 1934. However, the story of the Meccano Company goes back much further.

Meccano Limited was founded in 1908 by Frank Hornby. Meccano was an engineering-oriented construction kit and he had originally developed it for his sons and patented Meccano in 1901. Over time, see timeline, various subsidiaries were opened; initially France. The company published a magazine for Boys, Meccano Magazine, this started in 1916. Also over the years the Company diversified into quite a few products, the most significant being Hornby Trains (and later Hornby Dublo, 1938) and then Dinky Toys.

There are links here to an overall timeline of the history of Meccano Limited and then three links to more detail concerning the development of Dinky Toys from origins back as Hornby Series Modelled Miniatures in 1931 through to the demise of Meccano as a going concern in 1979.

Read a brief history via these links or use the menu options.

Trace the history of Dinky Toys following the Hornby Railway Accessories from 1924 to Modelled Miniatures that were to become Dinky Toys to the Early post war years to the takeover of Meccano by Tri-ang/Lines Brothers and the final years to 1979.