phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

"box standard" or "box deluxe"

Posted by RRC on November 03, 2005

In Reply to: "Box standard" or "box deluxe" posted by hilary blower on November 02, 2005

: On a recent television quiz show (QI) an interesting common origin was proposed for two phrases - The famous Meccanno construction sets were originally sold in either "box standard" or "box deluxe". It was suggested that "Box standard" was corrupted to "Bog standard" and "Box deluxe" to "dogs bollocks".

Searching eBay and a few sites of Meccano collectors, it seems that up until at least 1978, the various sized sets were numbered 0 through 10 with accessory packs 0A - 10A. Senior and Advanced have been used as modifiers as in "Advanced Metal Construction Set 5", but not Deluxe or Standard that I can find. Does anyone have evidence of there officially being a Standard or Deluxe set? RRC

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