Mystery Monday: Generic 1980s plane?

 

A recurring theme for this feature and the blog is that the hardest items to identify or learn anything about the ones that are cheap and generic enough for kids to ignore or take for granted. This time around, I have perhaps the most egregious example in my vast collections, a specimen so completely nondescript I didn't even remember noticing if I still had it. In a further twist, I started trying to identify it from online searches well before I went looking for the genuine article, which I suppose turned into a fixation in itself.  As it happened, I already had two or three very good guesses who might have made it, so it wasn't hard to narrow things down. It was only when I had a near-certain identification that I finally checked if I still had it. Sure enough, it was right where I would have looked first if I had really been trying, and an inspection confirmed what I already had concluded. But before we go further, here's some pics of the item, a toy plane from ca 1986.

As usual, I have a story to go with this one, albeit a fragmentary one. Somehow, when I was maybe 5 or 6, I was offered a toy as a gift or reward (I don't think it was at school), and I had a further choice between a Bigfoot truck or a plane. Given my usual eclectic tastes, the plane intrigued me more than the truck, so I picked it and took it home. It quickly became my go-to if I needed an airplane to go with a story but it didn't really matter what it looked like. Needless to say, these appearances usually ended with a fiery crash. To my further recollection, it was often a getaway craft for the bad guy that only came in to be stopped or destroyed with some dramatic heroics. As a further consequence, I can more readily recall having characters climbing on it than trying to fit them inside. That was enough to reconstruct in my mind that it was smaller than the nominal 3 3/4" scale of Star Wars and GI Joe but not so far off that I simply had to keep it in some kind of distance view (something I did very often).

For the research part of this, when I thought of the plane for this blog, my first semi-serious guess was that it might be/ have been a Timmee product. I had learned that Timmee/ Processed Plastic had made some vehicles and playsets scaled to action figure size, notably a "Star Battle" Star Wars knockoff mini-line. I was all the more intrigued after running across photos and listings for PP "Hi Rider" monster trucks, which definitely looked like a fit for the toy I turned down. (It was quite clear it wouldn't have been an "official" Bigfoot toy.) However, I never found anything that closely matched my plane. If anything, it was far more mundane than the Timmee fare I had long been familiar with, so I moved on.

Then I caught one big lead: According to certain records, there was a copyright infringement lawsuit in the very early 1980s over the design of a toy plane, with the defendant being Buddy L, another manufacturer of interest. (I had previously turned to actual court records researching generic Godzilla.) The long and short of it was that it seemed very possible my plane was the design in question, made either by Buddy L or the people who sued them. As soon as I was sure I still had the damn thing, I went straight to the underbelly, and don't blame me if you already looked at that link.

Yes, the actual name of the manufacturer is Gay Toys, a company I had previously seen mentioned occasionally. Obviously, they started out well before the term had its current connotations, and obviously, they changed their name, though apparently not until 1986. Here is a pic of what it would have looked like in full glory before my usual sticker removal. I must say, I'm a little impressed there's as much left as there is. It's one thing to have a residue when kid me was done, it's another to leave an entirely intact outline.

That brings us back to the plane. I decided it was again time to do a test of scale (see the Tonka camper installment). As seen above, it turned out to fit Sidekick Carl, kind of. However, he didn't quite fit properly, mainly because of that crossbar. That would be a recurring theme, as evidenced by the Toxo Warrior.

Something extra I noticed that I had forgotten about is that there is a second set of fully sculpted seats in the back, where it is absolutely impossible to fit a figure or any size. It's an impressive bit of unnecessary detail, but also a good indication that the ones in front are there for show far more than function. 

Meanwhile, I had one lucky break with the Construx pilot guy, who happens to be almost exactly 3 inches tall.

And one more. Bossk!!!

And while we're at it, why not a few more toys from the manufacturer? First up, a pretty good match for that tuck.

Another interesting angle I might follow up on, some Gay Toys action figures, apparently included with some Star Wars and GI Joe knockoff vehicles. The online listing gives the sizes as 3.5 and 5.5 inches, both a little smaller and far bigger than "standard" figures

And then there's this. Just... no. Dear Logos, no.

That's all for now. As usual more to come, but boy, have I had enough.