Petrel Flying Gliders

Allow me to share with you some toys I grew up with in my childhood. One of the toys I played was flying gliders which was made of light weight foam that with proper fitting just glide gracefully in the air. It was affordable and at my time they were selling 50 cents each.


Today I still see flying Gliders on sales however those cool 70s and 80s design was never to be found. One of those is this Petrel or sparrow plane from Gatchman series.


Here is the full packaging in it's full glory in it's original packaging. 


These vintage series has 6 designs of spaceship from different Japanese animated series in the 70s and early 80s. My favorite was the Phoenix from Gatchaman.


There is a instruction of the assembly of the plane. However some parts seems to be different from the actual product.



When I opened up, the plane consist in 3 parts.



The body of the plane was color printed on both side but the wings were printed one sided. If assembled, the plane may not glide well if you have not fix the plastic tip on the tip of the plane as the weight of the head will let it has speed when you throw it in the air.



I did not assemble it as it is because due to the condition of the foam which is rather fragile and old, it is easily snapped into pieces. If I would fix the plastic tip on the tip of the plane, it will made a permanent marking on the plane.


This toys were not built to last as I remember in my childhood you can only play it certain period of time and soon the material may just wear off.

I did not keep this toy on purpose but I found in my recent shopping there is a shop that sell these vintage stuff and it is certainly not cheap. I got this for SGD$5 each and I paid that amount just to keep it as a memory due to the design of the plane.

Nowadays there are still flying gliders but there certainly do not have these vintage design. I will share more in my following post and I hope you share my fond memories of such toys.


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