MAC Forum

Hubley produced a number of helicopter toys. The most famous is the No. 483 helicopter, released over a very long period of time. Some No. 483s were released individually in varying types of boxes. Some were released in sets.

I added a post earlier that features what is most likely a factory prototype of the No. 483 helicopter. You can see that post here:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1111

In this post, I'll add what I believe to be the most rare of the No. 483 Hubley helicopters. These are the No. 483s that were released in the extremely rare Hubley Airfield Set. I've seen advertisements that date the set to as early as 1958. Do any readers know if it was released any earlier than that?

The set is quite large, the heavy cardboard box being 17" wide x 26" long and designed to be made into a hangar for play. All included vehicles and aircraft are very heavy diecast. The set features (2) Piasecki H-25 helicopters in U.S. Navy dark blue livery. The Navy referred to them as the HUP-1, HUP-2 & HUP-3 Retriever helicopters. It also features an ambulance and a "bomber transporter" (which amounts to a tractor/tug and trailer to haul the bomber). Finally, there's the "bomber" for all the die-hard airplane enthusiasts.

Would one of the airplane experts like to weigh in and give us some info on this "bomber?"

Here's a photo:

I have heard of that set, but never seen it. Great find. Besides the blue helicopters there is that tractor/trailer which also is extremely rare {and easily broken}. The 'bomber' looks like the first issue, but hard to tell if it has a hump on the top of the fuselage {2nd issue} behind the engine cowling or not.
I do not have my Hubley book here in France to verify the date but 1957/8 seems right and I am sure others here will look it up

grwebster wrote:I have heard of that set, but never seen it. Great find. Besides the blue helicopters there is that tractor/trailer which also is extremely rare {and easily broken}. The 'bomber' looks like the first issue, but hard to tell if it has a hump on the top of the fuselage {2nd issue} behind the engine cowling or not.
I do not have my Hubley book here in France to verify the date but 1957/8 seems right and I am sure others here will look it up

The bomber does hava hump to prevent the canopy from coming off...

I'm going to add a link to some other Hubley helicopter threads here in case a fellow-collector is researching the topic:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1111&hilit=prototype+hubley

Here's a tough-to-find #302 Air-Sea Rescue Set that Hubley released through Woolworth's. The set features a "Duck," a "Copter," and a "Blimp."

You'll obviously note that the toys are plastic.

The helicopter has characteristics of the Hiller Hornet, as I pointed out in another post on plastic Hubley toys. A similar version of this helicopter toy was featured in different set that was sold on a card.



I don't know what the long and thin, yellow plastic device was used for...