Linka

This unique model building system – produced by Thomas Salter Ltd. of Scotland and launched at the Earl’s Court toy fair in January 1979 – enabled modellers to easily create all manner of life-like HO/OO (1/76) scale buildings.

All you had to do was mix a compound, pour it into the set of reusable rubber moulds and wait twenty minutes. The result was a section of wall with brick or stone markings. Other moulds produced windows, doorways and a whole variety of other building components which you could then fit together and paint.

There were three Linka sets available: Brickwork (for constructing houses, garages, railway settings etc), Stonework (which made castles, churches, farmhouses etc) and a third set which was a combination of the two, with some additional architectural features.

Linkalite, the moulding compound provided with the sets could also be purchased separately. The Brickwork set initially cost £6.99, the Stonework set £8.49 and the combined set was £14.49.

Linka was marketed throughout Europe and North America and enjoyed tremendous early success. But poor instructions and inadequate market research meant a flurry of initial sales were not followed up by repeat business.

Dissatisfied consumers complained that Linka produced shoddy results and Salters went into receivership in
1983.

The remaining materials and tooling were sold to Stuart Manley who began manufacturing the sets in the magnificent old Victorian railway station at Alnwick in Northumberland and the product was re-introduced to the market in 1984 as Linka Systems.

Sales were steady but the market failed to grow and Linka Systems ceased operation in September 1993.

Linka was relaunched again in 2003 by Linka World Inc. in the US with the moulds now used for modelling in plaster or resin.