Interconnectable

P-A | K | P-A | K

I was curious to see if the parts from the Peter-Austin set were in any way connectable with those from Kenner. The answer: to a certain extent, yes.

In the photo the base frame is made from Peter-Austin (P-A) parts, the second floor is Kenner (K), then P-A, then topped off with K. It looks like you can stack layers made from one manufacturer on layers made from the other, but you can't mix manufacturers on a layer, because the horizontal girders use different connection technologies. 

I tried snapping a K panel onto a P-A frame and it fit just fine. I need to try mixing and matching the diagonal braces. 

So, P-A  was smart in that if you bought their product you weren't completely locked into the vendor motel, and could do some interconnection with K's parts.

Here's the problem. Those pins on the P-A horizontal girders are weak. I found that if I wasn't careful disassembling a structure it wouldn't take much twisting to snap the pins off the horizontals. You've got to make sure you push the pin parallel to the vertical girder to prevent the piece of molded plastic that connects the pin to the horizontal girder from bending and snapping. The set has 7 broken horizontals and 1 broken vertical. The bag of K parts I bought had no broken girders. Ok, I admit this isn't a statistical sampling, and the parts are 60 years old, but it appears the P-A lug-and-pin connection method isn't as durable as K's. For a child's toy, I can imagine some disappointing breakage while attempting to take apart a structure.