##RARE## COLLECTABLE ## TEMSI - SET NO.2

TEMSI METAL CONSTRUCTION SET

HISTORY
Temsi (an acronym for Technical Electric Metal Toy Industry) was basically a metric version of Meccano. The Temsi company was founded in 1946 by a local stamp manufacturer, Jan Blom, in the Dutch city of Hengelo. Blom apparently copied the Meccano system and then began producing his own sets, marketing them under the Temsi name. [He was able to do this, it seems, because of insufficient patent protection on the Meccano system at the time]. By the 1950s, Temsi had become a major name in the construction toy market in Europe, due in part to the scarcity of Meccano sets in European toy stores in the years immediately following WWII. However, a combination of rising manufacturing costs and declining interest in traditional construction toys in the 1980s forced the company to declare bankruptcy.

Then, in 1987 Temsi was resurrected by a new owner, Jan Beldhuis, who moved the entire production to a new factory in Hengelo. By 1994, all sets had been redesigned with new artwork and packaging. Thereafter, new Temsi construction sets were manufactured until 1999, when the production line was shut down for the last time. All remaining stock, along with manufacturing machinery, was sold to the German start-up Metallus, which is currently producing reproductions of Marklin Metal sets and spare parts.

During the first few decades of production, Temsi sets were numbered from 0 to 4. By 1985, two additional sets - 00 and 5 - had been added to the line. In addition, a series of "conversion" sets were also available by then, numbered 0a through 4a. As their name suggests, each of these sets contained the parts necessary to convert one set into the next higher numbered set. For example, the set shown in detail later in this article, No. 4a, contained the parts needed to upgrade set No. 4 to set No. 5.

SET IN VERY GOOD CONDITION.