#17 G.I. JOE – SKY HAWK (1984 and 1990)

The Sky Hawk V.T.O.L. (Vertical Take Off and Landing) was one of the first non-real vehicles of the G.I.Joe collection. In the previous years, all vehicles were adapted from real military vehicles. To my knowledge, this mixture of jetplane and helicopter does not exist. Theoretically, or according to its "blueprints", the turbofans located at the top of the plane behind the cabin thrust the plane to take off vertically, and, once in the air, the engines rotates to displace the plane horizontally. The idea is pretty cool, because so a machine would be very fast, and could turn and maniobrate in very short distances.

 The toy was part of the third american wave and was also available in Europe. In other countries (Brazil, Argentina and Japan) was also sold with slight different shades of green. In this picture, you can see the turbofans and the tail fins (by the way, the side ones are placed in the wrong side). The cabin is very small, and has only capacity for one figure, preferably an early one, that are a little smaller. The seat has a peg to fix the figure to it, and when the cockpit is closed, the figure is "trapped" by the knees, and does not move, no matter how many loops it flies. This picture shows the front side of the plane , with the twin cannons that can be turned to one side or the other. The stickers have a good quality. In this next picture, you can see the control panel, which is also the trap hat ties the figure by its knees. Years later (in 1990), the same toy was released with a "chrome" layer, and black parts (cabin, engines, tails...) for the Sky Patrol section of the G.I.Joe team. This vehicles are difficult to find in good shape, because the chrome layer could fall apart by playing. The box displays a different (but very similar) artwork with different colours. I do not own this second version loose, and therefore I can only display the following pictures from my collection. From the 4 Sky Patrol vehicles, this one was the only which did not change its original name, because it already started with the word "sky". The HAVOC became Sky HAVOC, the Night Raven was renamed Sky Raven, and the Sharc, Sky Sharc.

 

UPDATE (Dec/2020): A couple of diorama pictures plus better "studio" pictures of the vehicle.

FACTS and FIGURES

• Name: Sky Hawk V.T.O.L.
• Toy Line: G.I. Joe (Wave 3 / Wave 9)
• Year: 1984 / 1990
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size: 17 cm

#16 ACTION FAN Nr. 18

Action Fan is an argentinian magazine, dealing with vintage and modern action figures. It is published a few times a year, and #18 has just been released. In all this time, they have grown a lot, and now it's a very professional and interesting publication. It's written in spanish.

In every number, articles are written by very prestigious collectors and bloggers from South and Central America, and in my opinion, his director Master Robert, is making a great job, controlling almost everything in AF: articles, formatting, interviews.

My recommendation for all collectors around, is to download and read this magazine. This number includes many articles about Thundercats, one article about Tron vintage figures, and a very interesting interview with the argentinian action figure sculptor Martín Canale.

http://actionfan.wordpress.com/

Hope you like it!

#15 MADELMAN - HELICÓPTERO (1975)

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)

#14 DINO RIDERS – STYRACOSAURUS with TURRET (1988)

My most successful entry until now is #1 Monoclonius with Mako, so I think it’s time to comment something more about this wonderful collection.
This time I’ll present the Styracosaurus, which is very similar to the Monoclonius. First, notice that both dinosaurs have exactly the same body, legs and tail, and only differ in the head and in the color scheme.
Another difference is the filiation, The Styracosaurus is ridden by Valorians, while the Monoclonius belongs to the Rulons. Interestingly, in cartoons and comics, both factions ride Monocloniuses.

The first dino-riders wave is completely balanced: Valorians and Rulons have equivalent dinosaurs in size and weaponry, and there is the same number of figures from one and the other side. From the second wave on, the Valorians are much better equipped, with bigger and most numerous dinosaur types, and more figures too.

This time, I’d like to talk about the boxes of dino-riders’ dinosaurs. Personally, I think these boxes are one of the best packages ever made for toys. The only flaw I can find is that they are sometimes very big for its content. With this exception, let’s analyze all good points I find in them. To illustrate my words, I’ll use pictures of the Styracosaurus’ box (first wave).

1) Amazing artwork on front

2) Even better artwork on back

3) Flap that allows the buyer to see the actual toy

4) “Highlights” of the toy and content of the box on the inner side of the flap

5) Dinosaur’short description

6) (Not expressely “package”:) comic book included.

FACTS and FIGURES

• Name: STYRACOSAURUS with TURRET
• Toy Line: Dino-Riders (Wave 1)
• Year: 1988
• Company: Tyco (U.S.A.)
• Scale of the dinosaur: 1:24
• Size of the figures: 2½’’ or 6,5 cm

#13 SCALEXTRIC – PORSCHE 917 (Ref. C-46 or 4046) (1972)

I collect Spanish Scalextric cars. Even though slot car manufacturers are many, and they all offer very good quality models (even better than Scalextric itself), I focus only in this particular brand. It’s the one I knew as a child, and the only one that there was in Spain for decades. They are relatively easy to find, but not at good prices.
 

Porsche 917K model was the only model released in 1972, but could be found during several years, until 1980. It was made in five different colours: yellow, red, dark red, white and light blue. In Mexico, the same model was made in other colours: dark green, orange, light blue (darker than the Spanish version), yellow… these versions are very rare to find nowadays.

Porsche 917K "Gulf" (Photo: Brian Snelson)

The “real” car was a legend in the early 70s, winning the 24h. of Le Mans twice (1970, 1971). In the following years, many variations from this car were made. The decoration Scalextric chose for its models is the one known as “Gulf”, originally in light blue with orange stripes.

Notice that this model was sold with the Triang logo box (probably because it was exported to England), and that this unit is “race-tuned”. “Race-tuned” models were equipped with a faster motor. The decoration of this Triang model differs from the Exin one: at the rear spoiler, the logo in the Exin model is from Bosch, and not from Shell.

The reference of the Porsche 917 was C-46 in 1972 and 4046 from 1973 to 1980. The pilot wears the “jet-type" helmet in models made before 1977 and the integral helmet in the later years.

Note that the rear spoiler has two silver parts which are very fragile and broke or missing in most second hand models.

UPDATE: Pictures from the same model in red and light blue:

UPDATE 2: Fotos of a Spanish Porsche 917 in yellow (the logo at the spoilers is "Bosch" instead of "Shell")

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: PORSCHE 917 (Ref. C-46 or 4046)
• Scale: 1:32
• Year: 1972 (to 1980)
• Company: Scalextric Exin (Spain)
• Size: approx. 14 cm