Wall of Harriers

[grwebster]

you are full of surprises!
You don't see many people with Polistil airplane toys and you have a great selection.
What else have you got hidden away there, metalav8b ?

[metalav8b]

GR,

Indeed my focus has been harriers for the last twenty years, but I've certainly picked up a few other goodies including the Polistil. My dynaflites collection isn't nearly as complete as Michael's, but I do have all the "Wild-Flites" series. I also have almost a complete collection of the ERTL Force One series including the mini's which was my original inspiration for diecast airplane collecting. (I suspended a bunch of the ERTL's with fishing line from my bedroom ceiling back in college)

My son is a huge fan of the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-22 Raptor, so we've been collecting those birds in addition to his collection of diecast Dodge Vipers. You make me jealous of the extent, age, and rarity of your collection, and if I had the time, the room, and disposable income, I would love to expand it, but at least I convinced my wife to dedicate a room in our basement to my hobby. It's a strange and eclectic collection of planes, but it makes visiting air shows, toy stores, airports, and garage sales much more enjoyable when hunting for the next one.

Cheers

-Chris

[grwebster]

The early, small scale ERTL series were also sold in hard, clear plastic boxes under the Corgi, Lintoy, Bachmann {Super Metal Mini Planes}, and Tomica names, and are, for me, one of the nicest die cast series produced as play toys. Some of the early toys in the series had movable control surfaces but were either later discontinued or modified to solid castings {P-51, De Havilland Racer, Piper Cherokee etc...}I can see how they inspired you to start collecting toy airplanes. Later the molds were used in China for cheaper toys, with less than excellent finishes and decal/transfers. The landing gears were also changed to plastic at this point, but Michael is the expert, so I hope he will correct and add to my comments. I tried to find an original ERTL package but I guess I never kept any.
When the ERTL Force One series came out, I broke my collections pre-1970 focus and collected the series, but these i kept in their packs and never displayed them. At one point I found a supplier in the UK who had the European Force One variants and they still remain in the unopened shipping carton, and by now I have totally forgotten what is in the box. In 30 years someone, hopefully one of my children, will enjoy opening it.
Blister packed toys are hard to collect, either one has to leave them unopened, or take them out and enjoy them. I know a few collectors who collected two examples of each, opening one and keeping the other original.
It is frustrating to see the degradation of the re-usable blister boxes Dinky Toy used in the late 1970s for their 'big plane' series. Aero Mini's last packaging in blisters can't be opened without destruction.

[angelreader]

Thats a new one to me GR ? never seen or heard of a Polistol Harrier,excellent.
Barry.

[Striker1]

Well done what a fantastic way to remember the RAF Harriers. What you should also do is place some pictures beside them so they can really be remembered.

[MichaelB]

That Polistil looks more like the Kestrel, rather than the later Harrier!

[MichaelB]

Those first ERTL planes look like the Force One Miniatures, which also included a Harrier in the set. This line of somewhat chunky releases dates from 1991. They were always hard to find, and didn't seem to penetrate the market.
ZEE produced several Harriers, including the AV-8A and the AV-8B. They repeated the -8B in their Super DynaFlite line. The -8A was released in a green camo, and later in overall gray. The -8B was in white with red trim in both lines, and the SuperDF was also released as a "Wild Flight", as you have shown.
Again, for ZEE, these are both nice casts with the -8B being ubiquitous and the -8A a rare bird.
A146 AV-8A Green Camo; Gray
A154 AV-8B White with red trim.
A219A AV-8B White with red trim.
A219B AV-8B Silver with blue trim.

Chris, I see where we traded notes back in 2007! Good to find you here at MAC!
Michael

[metalav8b]

Michael,

Yes, you are spot on. Those are Ertl Force One Miniatures in the photo and "chunky" is a great description of them. Below is my harrier collection of Dynaflites/Super Dynaflites/Hot Wings. I have two A146 toys, but they differ ever so slightly and was hoping you might know why. The one on the left has a flat dull finish, Zylmex is stamped on the undercarriage, and Hong Kong is stamped under the tail along with A146 Harrier. However, the one on the right has a glossy finish, and both Zylmex and Hong Kong have been removed. Can you shed any light on the early days of Zee to explain the variation?

Regards,

Chris

[MichaelB]

Sure, but it's from the end of ZEE, not the early days. ...the ZEE stamped issue was a rare bird for a long time - hard to find. ZEE folded in 1996 and I didn't know what was going to happen.
Happily, Red Box Toys bought them and began to reissue the line, and one of those early re-issues was the AV-8A! I haven't looked to see if the cast in parts had changed, but wouldn't be surprised if they had, and would certainly have believed that it would have changed by now.
As a PS here, I now haven't seen the AV-8A in years and years.