Why Stokys changed its hole spacing from 10 mm to half an inch

The first Stokys construction system did not use the hole spacing that became familiar to its customers. The Stockmann brothers’ original 1941 design placed the holes 10 mm apart.

A leading toy retailer advised them to adopt the half-inch spacing already used by Meccano and Märklin. Stokys followed that advice. Half an inch is 12.7 mm, so this was a change to the geometry of the parts, not merely a different way of writing the same measurement.

The timing mattered. Stokys’ own history explains that wartime disruption had made imported Meccano and Märklin sets almost unavailable in Switzerland. The Swiss company was founded in 1941, and its first basic metal construction sets followed in 1942.

The 1948 price list pictured here belongs to those early years. Alongside the boxed sets it lists individual components, showing how a construction system could be extended part by part rather than bought only as a complete new toy.