This is with no doubt, one of the best Spanish toys of all times. It’s a helicopter made by Madel and sold from 1975 to 1982. Madelman was the response of the Spanish toy industry (which was very powerful until the early 80s) to American toy lines like G.I. Joe / Action Man, that were available a little bit earlier. Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with this collection, and I do not own any figures to display with the helicopter.
Madel built several versions of this toy:
1975-1982 Helicopter (two versions: yellow or dark green)
1977-1982 Helicopter with missile launcher (dark green).
1977-1982 Rescue helicopter with stretcher (blue and white)
1979-1981 Superman’s helicopter (red and white)
From this 5 versions, the first two (yellow or dark green helicopters) are by far the most common.
What makes this model special is the great care that the manufacturers from Madel put in it, it has so many details, that I don't think I'll get to describe all of them. The helicopter is made in an scale of approximately 1:10, and looks a little like an Agusta Bell 47 "Sioux". I don't know if it represents another real model.
Anyway, notice the big cabin with enough space for two figures, the rotor with 3 blades that move pulling the trigger, the central part, with space for two jerrycans and an engine part at the top, the squids, and the light tail with tail-rotor at the end.
The cockpit deserves to be analyzed very thoroughly. It's equipped with two seats made of cloth, that include their respectives (two-part) seatbelts. The cockpit consists of the central console with a silver sticker, and two steering sticks. It's done in a way, that pulling (or pushing) from one of these sticks, pulls (or pushs) from the other one automatically.
Behind the seats, there's another good point, and it's a "caution" sticker.
The tail of the helicopter is extremely fragile. Many the helicopters I've seen in Ebay or other blogs are missing some part of it.
The central part of the helicopter has a handle with a trigger that activates the rotor. Additionally to the rotor movement, it makes the engine and blades noise by hitting a paper membrane (located behind the seats, see picture above). It's a completely mechanical system (no electronics, or whatever). This is probably the most surprising feature of the whole toy. There is also place in this central part for two removable jerrycans, that are also difficult to find in perfect shape. The black cap of these cans is not removable, and it seems childen broke many of them while playing.
The landing squids are also very fragile. The squids of my helicopter are broken at two different places, but nothing is missing. If you're looking forward to buy one of these, pay special attention to this point. At the vertical bar of the squid, there's a stand to step in the cabin
.
The model in the pictures is 100% complete except for two round stickers at the sides of the cabin.
FACTS AND FIGURES
- Name: HELICÓPTERO MADELMAN (Yellow Version)
- Toy Line: Madelman
- Year: 1975
- Company: Madel (Spain)
- Size: 40 cm
- Scale: 1:10 (estimation)
