Dave Liquorice explained on 07/11/2020 :
I used to dream of having enough Meccano to actually build more than
a basic "car". We couldn't afford it. Nor any of electronics
construction kits, had to make do with stripping old boards of bits
that me Dad skip dived for.

Same here, plus relatives would collect 'interesting' parts too,
including Lancaster altimeters, bits of radios.

Still have alot of those pasrts...

I wish I still had a lot of the things I have had my hands on over the
years, but I've had to move around to much in my working life.