Spitfire Styrofoam Aeroplane - Introduction

It has certainly been a while since I have updated this blog.  I have continued to keep an eye out for interesting gliders and I actually found some on E-bay a number of weeks ago.  I purchased some vintage gliders that were made in Japan from an E-bay vendor in Argentina of all places.  I couldn't resist getting my hands on these ones as they were unlike anything I have ever seen for sale before on E-bay. 

I had to purchase 2 items off of the Argentinian vendor.  Each item had a cardboard upper section which I presume was used as a store display.  Stapled to the cardboard section is 12 individual glider packages.  The first item had 6 English gliders (presumably Spitfires) and 6 German gliders (presumably Bf 109s).  The second item had 6 USA gliders (presumably Hellcats) and 6 French gliders (possibly a Dewoitine?).  

Close up of the graphic on the upper cardboard portion

6 Spitfires & 6 Bf 109s

6 Hellcats and 6 Unknown French gliders

Fighter Gliders - Introduction

"Fighter Glider" is a search that I routinely do on E-bay to find gliders that I have not seen before.  Quite a while back I did a search and found a lot of 10 "Fighter Gliders" for something like $7.00 which were labeled as being made in China.  Most of the gliders I have that have come from China have been gigantic pieces of garbage, but for whatever reason I decided to buy these.  All of the packages look the same so there is no need for a group shot.

Fighter Gliders - front side of package

Fighter Gliders - reverse side of package

I automatically assumed that these were counterfeits.  When I looked through saved images of gliders that I have, I found the following pictures that confirmed my suspicions that these are counterfeits.

First I found this picture which I had saved long ago.  It looks like it is an authentic glider to me.  One of the lot of 10 Fighter Gliders looks almost exactly like this one, but this one is more detailed and has the looks of an authentic glider.

Then I found this picture, which I had also saved long ago.

The glider in this picture looks a lot like one of the gliders in the set of 10 I bought.  The quality of the picture is poor so I couldn't zoom in on the package detail any closer.

And then I found this picture on E-bay being sold by the guy whom Eric & I each bought a box of Tsubame glider from.  His description says "World Acrobat Team Airplane" which is familiar as I believe I have seen similar gliders for sale on E-bay in the past.  The Fighter Gliders that I bought were definitely counterfeited off of the gliders shown below which appear to be the real deal.

I was able to zoom in close on this picture and read the detail on the packages.  Looking at the packages pictured above from top to bottom, the packages say

"Snow Birds"

"Blue Angels"

"Thunder Birds"

"Red Arrows"

"New Blue Angels"

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - Introduction

Not long after I first started collecting gliders I found a complete set of 12 for sale on E-bay.  They had all of the characteristics that I was looking for, which are that the front side of the packages has the propeller logo and the reverse side of the packages says "Made in Taiwan".  The seller was asking a reasonable price, so I bought them.  My major motivation for buying this set was that it contained the Lockheed P-38 Lightning glider which is quite difficult to find.  Shown below is a picture of the front side of all of the packages and the reverse side of one of them.

A very nice looking set (especially the Lightning)

"Made in Taiwan", shown as clear as day

I quickly realized that there was something wrong, as you will soon see.

Large War Plane Gliders - Introduction

This is my collection of "Large War Plane Gliders".  They are made by a company called Oriental Trading, which has a website www.orientaltrading.com which sells them for $14.00 per dozen.  There are 4 gliders in this set.  They came individually packaged in a plastic bag.  These gliders are among the largest that I have.  The fuselage is just under 38 cm long, and the wings are just over 40 cm wide.  The wings and the horizontal stabilizer/elevator are printed on the top and the bottom.  All of the gliders are shaped exactly the same.  A Spitfire, Mustang, Warhawk and Fw-190 have very different shapes, but the glider makers must have decided to save some costs by using the identical shape for all 4. 

I had seen these gliders for sale on E-bay.  They were being sold individually for about $4.00 plus shipping.  That was too expensive for me so I didn't buy them.  One day I saw a group of 11 of them for sale for about $10.00 which was more reasonable, so I bought them.  These are really well made gliders.  The graphics are great despite the gliders having the wrong shape.  The only complaint that I have about them is that the propeller does not stay in the nose weight at all.  The little peg that holds the propeller into the weight must be too small or not long enough.

Large War Plane Gliders - Introduction

World-Class Fighter Planes - Introduction

Back in August 2012 I located a website in the UK which sold the Tiger Moth Bi-planes that I posted pictures of a number of months back.  I ordered 9 bi-planes from the lady who operated the website.  In one of her e-mails, she mentioned that she also had some other airplanes around that she wanted to get rid of. She said that she had a complete set of 6 jet fighters.  She said that these jet fighters were no longer manufactured and that this was her last set, so I bought them.  I haven't opened any of the packages or attempted to assemble any of these airplanes since buying them.

Each package contains 1 World-Class Fighter Plane comprised of 2 sheets of foam which contains the various airplane components  These airplanes are quite big.  The fuselages vary between 47 - 50 centimeters long.  The wingspans vary between 34 - 35 centimeters wide.

It appears that these airplane models can be used as display models as there are instructions on how to hang up the gliders with string (string not included in the packages).  These might also be hand launched gliders, but I'm not too sure about that.  One of the pictures printed on the foam sheets appears to show hand launch instructions.  It also appears that there are nose weights (aka "head coins") but they don't seem like they would add too much weight to an already pretty heavy airplane.  I wonder if this glider would actually fly or whether it could crash very quickly.

I may sell these, I may keep them.  I'm not too sure at this point.

World-Class Fighter Planes - Assembly Instructions

World-Class Fighter Planes - Hanging Instructions

World-Class Fighter Planes - Hand Launch Instructions?

Glider with "Power Prop" - Introduction

I was going to post this set of gliders dead last, but I couldn't wait much longer.  These gliders are labeled as a "Glider with 'Power Prop' " and were made in Taiwan. These are the very first gliders that I ever bought or were bought for me.  I can vividly recall standing in line with my Dad at Canadian Tire and seeing these for sale beside the till almost 25 years ago.  I recall collecting the entire set over subsequent visits.  I remember playing with these gliders a lot.  When they broke, I fixed them with scotch tape.  On some I drew lines with a pen where the exact center of the wings / tail were in hopes that it would fly better if I lined everything up symmetrically.  On others, I experimented with cutting the corners of the wings to see if they would fly better, which they didn't.  I remember getting annoyed that I had so many packages so I decided to consolidate identical gliders into 1 package.  These sat in a box in my in my childhood bedroom probably from whenever I got them all the way until 2008 or 2009 when I asked my Dad to bring them to me on one of his visits.  Some of these gliders based on the same airplane are different from each other and I have provided comparison pictures. Enjoy!

Glider with "Power Prop" - Introduction

Pocket Gliders (PG12) - Introduction

This is my collection of Pocket Gliders which appear to be from the series PG12.  They were made in Taiwan by a company called Fly Leader.  I bought them from a company in the UK.  I have 2 sets of them.  One set is still in the original packaging as shown in the picture below.  I have assembled and photographed the other set for this blog.  Quite a while ago I posted pictures of a Pocket Glider series which had 9 gliders in the set.  They were quite small in size in comparison to these gliders.  Some of the gliders in that set of 9 are also pictured here in this set of 6.

Pocket Gliders (PG12) - Introduction

Power Prop WWII Glider - Introduction

This is my collection of Power Prop WWII Gliders which came in cardboard backed packages.  I found them all on E-bay and was really happy to have purchased them.  They appear to be the same Power Prop Gliders in the red & blue envelopes that I posted about recently as well but with better quality graphics.  I have 8 of the set of 12 (or 13?) and I hope to find the rest some day.

Power Prop WWII Glider - Introduction

Counterfeit Power Prop Gliders (Jets) - Introduction

More counterfeits purchased from an E-bay vendor in Australia...
I was very excited when I saw these on E-bay about 2 years ago.  I bought them and waited for them to come in the mail.  I was pretty disappointed to find out that they were counterfeits.  I have 3 of the 6 shown, but I definitely don't want any more of these.

Front of the packages

Back of the package

Power Prop Gliders - Introduction

This is my collection of Power Prop Gliders which happen come in red & blue bags.  This collection is different from the Power Prop Gliders which come in the red & yellow bags.  I am not sure whether the red & blue bag set is older than the red & yellow bag set, or vice versa.

Power Prop Gliders

This collection is confusing to me because some of the gliders are labeled as being made in Japan, other in China and others in Taiwan.  One glider came in a white bag.  Some appear to be of much higher quality and detail than others.  There also appears to be 3 different sets of 12 as shown on the reverse side of the packages.

I put the number of each glider that I own in ( )'s.  I am missing the YAK Type 2 and a whole bunch of the third set shown at the bottom. I consider the first 2 sets listed to be identical other than #9.

One set is shown as:
1. Hawker Hurricane (1)
2. Messerschmitt BF109E (2)
3. Grumman F6F Hellcat (2)
4. Supermarine Spitfire MK. II (3)
5. Type 4 Fighter Hayate (2)
6. Type Zero Carrier Fighter (4)
7. Focke Wulf FW190 (2)
8. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1)
9. YAK Type 2
10. North American P-51 Mustang (2)
11. Type 3 Fighter Hien (2)
12. Lockheed P-38 (1)
(For some reason the P-38 is shown as #13 and the Type Zero Carrier Fighter is shown as #6 and #12??)

Power Prop Gliders

Another set is virtually the same except #9:
1. Hawker Hurricane (1)
2. Messerschmitt BF109E (2)
3. Grumman F6F Hellcat (2)
4. Supermarine Spitfire MK. II (3)
5. Type 4 Fighter Hayate (2)
6. Type Zero Carrier Fighter (4)
7. Focke Wulf FW190 (2)
8. Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1)
9. Curtis P-40 Tomahawk (1)
10. North American P-51 Mustang (2)
11. Type 3 Fighter Hien (2)
12. Lockheed P-38 (1)
(For some reason the P-38 is shown as #13 and the Type Zero Carrier Fighter is shown as #6 and #12??)

Power Prop Gliders

Another set is shown as:
1. Focke Wulf FW190
2. Focke Wulf FW190A-4
3. Airacobra P-39
4. Type 4 Fighter Hayate
5. Sparrow 13 (1)
6. Curtis P-40 Warhawk
7. Republiv P-47 Thunderbolt
8. Type 2 Fighter Shoki (2)
9. Messerschmitt BF-109
10. Supermarine Spitfire
11. Type 3 Fighter Hien (1, but the contents appear to be a Supermarins Spitfire)
12. Type 1 Fighter

Power Prop Gliders

Counterfeit Power Prop Flying Gliders - Introduction

This is my collection of Power Prop Flying Gliders which came in a bubble wrap bag all the way from China.  This was the very first set of gliders that I bought on E-bay when I found myself starting to collect these gliders.  These gliders came in plastic bags instead of paper envelopes.  They are very clearly counterfeits.  Some of them bear resemblance to the glider they are supposed to represent.  Others are not even close.  If you buy Power Prop Flying Gliders on E-bay, this is likely what you will get.

One way to reduce your chances of buying counterfeits is to ensure that they come in a paper envelope instead of a plastic bag.

Counterfeit Power Prop Flying Gliders - Introduction

(Vintage) Flying Gliders - Introduction

This is my collection of "Flying Gliders", which appear to pre-date the "Power Prop Flying Gliders" that I posted a while ago.  I think that these "Flying Gliders" are older because the art work on the packaging is much more detailed than on any of the  the "Power Prop Flying Gliders".  Take a moment to look back and compare them if you wish.

I have 11 of the 12 gliders.  The only glider that I do not have is the #12 Piper Tri-Pacer glider.  I am keeping watch for it on E-bay so I can complete the set.

Flying Glider - Introduction

This is my collection of "Flying Glider" gliders which I randomly found on E-bay.  They were made in Taiwan.  They came individually packaged in a pack of three, and all the packs are numerically ordered.  Each glider package included a cardboard insert which has a nice and colorful picture of what the actual airplane looked like.  Many of the pictures show that the actual airplanes were biplanes or had a parasol wing, however as you will see the glider does not resemble the picture.   I have no idea which company made them, although I can't help but think that they very much resemble the Tsubame gliders that I posted pictures of earlier.  I am a bunch of these, and would definitely purchase the rest of them, given the chance.

Flying Glider - Introduction

Build Your Own Fighter Planes - Introduction

Here is something a little different for this post.  I was in a busy Chapters store and I was browsing through a hobby section where there were books & kits on all sorts of crafts, when this gem caught my eye.  Needless to say, I bought it without hesitation.  This kit contains card stock sheets to be cut out, colored and glied together into paper models of airplanes.  The models include:

#1 - Fokker E.I Eindecker

#2 - Nieuport 17

#3 - Albatros D.III

#4 - Sopwith Camel

#5 - Spad XIII

#6 - Junkers D.I

#7 - Messerschmitt Bf 109

#8 - Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

#9 - Supermarine Spitfire

#10 - Mitsubishi A6M Zero

#11 - Ilyushin Sormovik Il-2

#12 - North American P-51 Mustang

#13 - Voight F4U Corsair

#14 - Yakovlev Yak-18

#15 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

#16 - North American F-86 Sabre

#17 - McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom

#18 - Panavia Tornado

I will post pictures of my completed models whenever I happen to have the time to make one.

Build Your Own Fighter Planes - Front of Box

Build Your Own Fighter Planes - Reverse of Box

Flying Gliders - Introduction

These gliders are simply described as "Flying Gliders.  There are 6 in this set, as shown.  I purchased 4 of them from an estate sale.  They are really colorful and nice looking gliders, but they are really fragile.  I haven't tried to fly these because I don't want them to break.  If anyone who reads this blog knows how to get hold of the Junkers Ju88, or the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk from this set, I would love to complete my set.

Flying Gliders

Flying Gliders

Power Prop Gliders - WW1 Glider Counterfeits Introduction

I was really excited when I found this collection of gliders on E-Bay.  They appeared to be WW1 bi-plane gliders, similar to the ones that I had displayed on this blog earlier.  I did see the Chinese characters on the packaging, but decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.  Turns out they were extremely poor counterfeits, as you will see.

Power Prop Gliders - WW1 Glider Counterfeits

Power Prop Gliders - WW1 Glider Counterfeits

Jet Fighter Flying Glider - Introduction

This is another set of Jet Fighter Flying Gliders that I purchased off of E-Bay.  This set was also made in Taiwan and was made in 1986.  I purchased a whole box of these, so I have a ton of them!

Jet Fighter Flying Glider

Jet Fighter - Introduction

This is my collection of Jet Fighters.  They were made in Taiwan.  Earlier I had posted some pictures of counterfeit versions of these gliders that were made in China.  I bought a whole box of them off of E-Bay and now I have way too many!  

WWI Power Prop Glider - Introduction

This is my collection of WW1 Power Prop Gliders.  There are 12 in this set, although they number from 1 to 13 and skip #9.  I bought a box of 4 dozen of these on E-bay.  Most of them are bi-planes, with the exception of the Bleriot XI.  They come with these plastic X's that are supposed to go into holes punched in the wings, but unfortunately most of them do not line up.  They are super study and fly really well.

WWI Power Prop Glider - Introduction

Tsubame Gliders - Introduction

This is my collection of Tsubame gliders, which appear to come from Japan.  Google Translate tells me that "Tsubame" means "Swallow" in Japanese, but that may not be accurate.  There are 8 of these gliders in the set.

Tsubame Gliders - Introduction