Bral

Bral’s best-documented product was Il Costruttore Meccanico, a metal construction system made in Italy from the early 1920s. The sets used steel parts and features shared with Meccano and Märklin systems. Early sets were numbered 000 to 4, and each could be expanded into the next with an add-on or conversion set. The manuals and range changed over time, with a major revision around 1950.

In 1952 Bral renumbered the range from sets 000 to 4 to sets 1 to 9, adding sets to the sequence. The second post-war phase ran from 1952 to the late 1960s; its larger sets were the most successful phase of the system, and the sets could still be expanded through conversion packs. Later editions retained sets numbered 1 to 9 but gradually reduced their contents. Around the 1970s, the system was also marketed as Il Costruttore Bral. Bral produced construction sets for sale under other brand and store names during that decade. The specialist index names Roberto Braglia in Milan as manufacturer/distributor and separately lists BRES S.R.L. at the same address as a later manufacturer/distributor.