Category:Konstrukta

Supersonic Jet-Craft and Space Rocket Builder [image info]

We don't know much about the KonstruktA Manufacturing Company, other than their name appears on the box for the Supersonic Jet-Craft and Space Rocket Builder, along with "A Moko Product".

Although the set is marked "Patent and Registered Design applied for", we've drawn a blank on tracking the company down though those avenues.

What we have found is a record of a Konstrukta Manufacturing Co., Ltd., run by Edward Minott and Gilbert Austin Boulton, of Birmingham, that went bankrupt and called in the receivers in 1955, with the proceedings dragging on until 1957.

Since we think these sets appeared in the mid-1950s, the company might have been very short-lived, and might even only have made the one product before going bust.

Comparison with the Dan Dare set

People's first reaction to the "Supersonic" set is that it looks awfully reminiscent of the "Eagle"-licensed "Dan Dare Space Ship Builder" made by Bartram.

The two physical boxes look suspiciously similar, the layout of the parts looks similar, and both have the same basic construction methods, with silver bodyshell parts and red and green panels, strips and vanes, and black rods or half-rods. Parts are thematically similar but notably different ... which could be deliberate to avoid claims of plagiarism, the only parts that look the same being the blue wheels.

Addresses

• Konstrukta Manufacturing Co., Ltd. – 14 Vesey Street, Birmingham 4

External links

• Supersonic (meccanoindex.co.uk)