The Hiller Hornet

[hovermd]

The Hiller Hornet deserves a place here in the Helicopter Toys post.

The link to previous entries is here:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=98&hilit=Hiller+hornet

[hovermd]

Here's an unusal plastic toy helicopter by Hubley.

Those rotor tip jets remind me of the Hiller Hornet.

Hubley Toy Helicopter

[hovermd]

Here's one that's made in China. The MF-792 designation leads me to believe it's made by the Shanghai Tin Toys Company.

This company released a LOT of airplane and helicopter toys. Many are quite nice, and I'm amazed at how collectable they've become. Some recent prices paid have been surprisingly high.

Does anyone have any catalogs or dates of manufacture for the Shanghai Tin Toys Company line?

As you'd expect for this post, this "World" helicopter is designed a lot like the Hiller Hornet.

World Hiller Hornet Helicopter

[Tone]

The Chinese tin toys are a topic I would like to know more about. I have been considering them "for collectors" but that is probably because kids' tastes have changed and toy safety laws have become very strict.

Conceivably, the Chinese could have been making tin toys since the 50s and 60s but since the US' relations with the People's Republic had been nonexistent until 1972 (remember the ping-pong diplomacy during the Nixon administration?), nobody here knew about the toys.

The Chinese tin toys were around in the 80s and at least two of them - both airplanes with two propellers #MF-104 and MF-107- appear frequently on line today.

Sky Bus helicopter MS-165 was purchased new in 1987 while the Four-jet Airliner MF-240 (silver/white/red DC-8 Super 61 with pointy nose) was purchased new in 1991. Both were at gift shops and not toy stores or department stores. The Sky Bus was from Australia so it may have been a toy not exported to US.

These toys were current in the 80s and 90s; however, I remember my late aunt, who had been a schoolteacher and supervisor before retiring in 1975, showed me some large magazines that year. They were from "red China," as the US referred to China in those days, as opposed to Taiwan. One of the magazines had some photographs of tin toys made in China so they were in production that early. One of them was a space ship of some sort. Also, when I started collecting tin toys around 1986-87, a local dealer had a "Jet Airliner" that was made in China, and it was already old and play-worn. This battery jet was made using tooling that had first been used in Japan in the very early 60s.

There is a "Tin Toy Robots and Space Toys" forum that I have been perusing for information about tin toy history. One of the posts indicated that "ME" stands for mechanical electric, i.e. battery operated; "MF" stands for mechanical friction (like my airplanes); and "MS" refers to wind-up toys (like the Sky Bus, MS-165). This information is new to me.

[alas]

Here is the hornet with the doggy which hovermd/mark helped me buy the other day:

This is a large navy version by TN

hiller hornet navy.jpg (18.46 KiB) Viewed 7744 times

and a tiny one ( half the size of the others) US Army 'made in Japan'

Attractive model for a toy!

This was the real one:

hiller.jpg (9.89 KiB) Viewed 7744 times

[Tone]

Link to a 1958 toy catalogue page featuring a Hiller Hornet.

http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic ... -masudaya/