Construction toy, manufactured by Dutch company Moubal, between 1939~1941.
More information + manuals: mobaco.nl/Elba
Patented
Patent (NL49313C) was filed by Harmen Elsinga on 27 January 1939 and granted in September 1940.
Both boxes A & B



A colorful & minimalistic looking system, but certainly well thought out!
Reconstruction parts
I just had to reconstruct & try this one!
Wanted to know the game play, although that was a bit disappointing, I still like it somehow. I think the difficulty is, that when building, both walls and trusses needs to be very well aligned, which takes relative to much effort. This function should be split, or tolerances of the wall interfaces should be increased or self-aligning…




I knew already, my DIY version was a little bigger, but today I got my own version of box B, which is ofcourse more fun.
Some system characteristics
Here a short list of some system characteristics and how it’s retrofitted into the virtual LeoCAD library:
Part types: | Original: | Virtual: |
---|---|---|
Trusses | Cardboard Thickness: 2.5 [mm] | Single color pieces |
Pannels | Cardboard Thickness: 2.5 [mm] | Single color pieces |
Typical wall panel | 55 x 85 [mm] | scaled |
Bay size | 57.5 [mm] | 60 [mm] |
LeoCAD settings: | ||
Draw line every X studs | 3 | |
Snap XY | 8 [mm] (1 Flat) | |
Snap Z | 1 [mm] (1/20 Stud) | |
Rotations | 90 [deg] |
Library information
Here an overview of the parts library:

The single Elba category, consists of these part types:
Part types: | Numer of parts: |
---|---|
Trusses | 3 |
Floors | 1 |
Pannels | 12 |
Total parts: | 16 |
Building in LeoCAD

I like it, how the trusses interlock with each. These trusses also supports the floor panels and walls panels. Since the walls are not interlocking, the building easily tips over, so it’s not very ridged.