#960 CORGI JUNIORS - AIR BUS HELICOPTER (Nr. 35-B) and ARMY RED CROSS HELICOPTER (Nr. 40-B) (1975 and 1977)



Among the Corgi Juniors, this helicopter model is one of the most fragile ones. The blades are made of plastic and can be broken or bent in some models. It also has 4 very small wheels that are part of the base and that can also be broken.

The helicopter represents an helicopter similar to the Boeing CH-47 Chinook. Despite being named "Airbus" or "Air Bus", I am not aware of any double-engine helicopter by the European aircraft manufacturer. Maybe the name is just referring to an aircraft for transporting people by air, and therefore Air-Bus.

Corgi, like all the other die-cast manufacturers, released several versions of each model, and in this case, the Airbus came in a military and a civil version.

The civil model is painted orange and has "Airbus" stickers. The "A" logo is slightly similar to the real Airbus (the company) logo, but it is not related. It was available from 1975 to 1979. There is a colour variant in blue with the same stickers as the orange model, but this one is way rarer than the two showed in this entry, and I do not have it.

The military model was made in dark green and had stickers with the word "Army" and the Red Cross. It was available in 1977.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: AIR BUS HELICOPTER (Nr. 35-B) and ARMY RED CROSS HELICOPTER (Nr. 40-B)
• Scale: Unknown
• Year: 1975 and 1977
• Company: Corgi Juniors (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#959 TOY BIZ – THE UNCANNY X-MEN WOLVERINE AND SABRETOOTH DELUXE EDITION (10 INCHES) (1995)

 

I am not into superheros. I barely know the names of the main characters and their abilities, but that is all. I only like a few old toy lines that could be classified into this category: Airgam Comics, Secret Wars, maybe some Batman, but that’s all.

I recently got these figures in a big lot of mixed stuff, and they are actually quite cool. Astounding 10 inches high figures, not very well articulated, but as a decoration article they are something absolutely great. They are marked Toy Biz 1995, and with this information it was easy to identify them as “The Uncanny X-Men” toyline. I am not sure of this, but Toy Biz made many similar superhero figures, all of them from the Marvel universe with different boxes. Some are marked Spiderman, other Marvel Universe, other Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Ghost Rider... among the X-Men, we find the "ordinary series" together with other subseries like  X-Force or Metallic Mutants. They are all compatible, and can be mixed up to play an extended multiverse, maybe the different boxes are just a way to highlight the series for parents, so they get the right figure.

The series altogether have several dozens of Marvel superheroes, most of them very well known. Sabretooth is maybe among the less known of them all.

Some figures came with accessories, as in the case of Sabretooth. Wolverine came with a gun, that I think I have somewhere else.

The figures should not be confused with similar figures made also by Toy Biz in around 4 inches size. At first sight, they might look identical, but take a look at the following picture for a size comparison. I like the smaller figures much better, I will probably sell these big ones as soon as I have the chance... they take so much space.
Toy Biz is an toy company with a long history behind. It is best known for this toyline and all its Marvel superheroes, although it also had some other famous licenses. Something many people does not know is that ToyBiz is closely related to Marvel Comics and it was even at some point renamed Marvel Toys.

The history of the company in a few words:

• Late XIXth century: Chantex, Inc. founded in Canada (Montreal) by the Zuckerman family.
• 1980: Chantex grew until 1980, when it merged with Earl Takefman´s Randim Marketing Inc. a school supplier manufacturer and wholesaler, becoming Charan Industries.
• Charan Toys is a subsidiary of Charan Industries. Charan Toys was one of the leading licensing toy company by the mid-80s.
• 1990: Charan and its subsidiary ToyBiz was purchased by Ike Perlmutter
• 1993: ToyBiz exchanges with Marvel "exclusive and perpetual, royalty-free licenses" of Marvel characters for 46% of the firm. Avi Arad joins the toy company from Marvel.
• Mid 90s: licenses from Hercules and Xena, Gerber, NASCAR...
• 1995: ToyBiz acquires Spectra Star, Inc. and Quest Aerospace Education, Inc., two toy companies.
• 1996: Classic Heroes candy division started. Licensing agreement with Apple Computer to enter the electronic learning aids segment of the toy industry.
• Late 90s: Marvel Entertainment Group files bankruptcy, and ToyBiz partially acquires it.
• 1997 Marvel Entertainment Group is salvaged.
• 1998:  Marvel Entertainment Group is merged with Toy Biz, becoming Marvel Enterprises, being Toy Biz a division of the new toy company (now written with a space between Toy and Biz).
• 1999 license of the WCW (World Championships Wrestling), expires when the WCW was purchased by the WWF in 2001.
• 2001 Marvel passes the rights fo a Hong Kong toy manufacturer that is then allowed to produce toys under the Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. brand, getting most of the workload for the manufacturing of toys.
• 2006 Marvel sells the license rights to Hasbro and Toy Biz is compensated with several millions of dollars, and the Toy Biz brand won't be used anymore by Marvel. The company is renamed Marvel Toys.
• Late 2007 Marvel closes the division after the poor sales of several series of figures not related to Marvel Comics characters (as they had sold license to Hasbro).

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: WOLVERINE AND SABRETOOTH [DELUXE EDITION] (10 INCHES)
• Toy Line: THE UNCANNY X-MEN
• Year: 1995
• Company: Toy Biz (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 25 cm (10 inches)