DEPENDING on your point of view Meccano was either an ingenious gateway to a whole new world of discovery, or an infuriating collection of nuts and bolts that mostly ended up lost down the back of the sofa.

Either way, almost every boy in the North-East will remember his first fumble with what was always the grown-up version of Lego.

Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the staying power of Meccano was being marked in a special centenary exhibition at the Beamish Open Air Museum last weekend.

More child-resistant than Action Man and harder on the brain cells than most homework, Meccano has seen off generation after generation of so-called rivals.

But as Ian Mordue, secretary of the North-East Meccano Society, explains, the popular toy's biggest test is just round the corner.

"Around 500,000 Meccano sets were sold last Christmas, but to be honest I can't really see it lasting another 100 years.

"It's not just competition from a whole load of other toys - I think it will only be popular as long as there is a need for engineering. Once computers start doing everything it might not survive. Having said that, as long as there are fathers with a fond memory of Meccano, there will be youngsters picking it up."

While Furbies, Star Wars figures and Cabbage Patch Kids failed to last the distance, Meccano has kept a century-worth of children out of trouble.

Devised by Frank Hornby - of Hornby Dublo train-sets and Dinky toys fame - Meccano, or Mechanics Made Easy as it was originally known, was patented in January 1901.

Originally sold just in simple box sets, it adapted to the burgeoning toys market in the Sixties and Seventies by issuing themed sets.

Beamish's exhibition saw dozens of models, many of them motorised, bringing a century of Meccano to life.

Alongside a range of historic trams, buses and planes was a large working magician who will make a Meccano toy car disappear before your very eyes.

As Ian points out however, it's not just the toy car that's done a disappearing act.

"A lot of people don't realise that Meccano is no longer manufactured in this country. When Frank Hornby's Liverpool museum closed down in 1979, production was transferred to a site in Paris, then eventually to Calais. On top of that, the factory is owned by Nikko, a Japanese corporation."