As someone born in the 90s, I've only heard the term "erector set" maybe 2-3 times ever (I feel like maybe I remember it mentioned in a Calvin and Hobbes comic, or something of that nature), so I have no knowledge about which term was more common, but one of them kind of sounds risque to me...did the word "erect" not have that connotation back then? It's not hard for me to imagine kids (or even adults, really) giggling every time someone used the term "erector set", so I'd expect that to be something people remembered more than "Meccano", which to me sounds like the name of a coffee brand or something.

Different times, so I doubt there was much blushing.

The 1996 movie Jack with Robin Williams had a joke playing off this. I don’t remember the joke exactly, but one of the boys asks Jack if he’s ever had an erection, and he says something like “No, but I was hoping to get one for my birthday.”

It’s exactly like you imagine. The connotation of the word hasn’t changed much. I can confirm the giggling (personal experience).

From a Firesign Theatre album, 1969:

“That's okay, I brought an Erector Set.”

“Throw a towel over it!”

“Do some pushups, Pablo, Maybe it’ll go away.”

Am 62 and have a large Meccano set in storage. All metal pieces, no plastic, and no "kits", just booklets of projects you could build from a simple cart to a huge gantry crane. Looks like the 'new' Meccano is basically an assembly kit for a pre-designed model. Pish posh lol.

Fascinated by that toy growing up, I credit it to a large part with having a very good grasp of basic engineering. Levers, pulleys, wheels, axles, gear ratios, bracing, structural integrity, load dynamics... all learned by doing while still in elementary school. There aren't many toys that can teach those skills on a screen, not like building and testing actual equipment.

I will pass it on down to one of my grandkids some day and hope they grow up loving engineering and creating mechanical dreams like I did.