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) - #12 Piper Tri-Pacer

This is obviously not a Piper Tri-Pacer.  This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #3 Grumman F6F Hellcat that comes in the red and blue packages. This is a half decent copy as the print job is poor but still resembles the original.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #12 Piper Tri-Pacer

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #11 Spitfire MK1

This is not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like either.  This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #1 Hawker Hurricane that comes in the red and blue packages.  It's a pretty poor copy because the print job is quite poor all over it.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #11 Spitfire MK1

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #10 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk

This is not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like either.  This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #9 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk from the red and blue packages.  This is a really good copy.  The light colored spot on the wings is actually glare.  I don't think it was a coincidence that this glider ended up in this package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #10 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #9 Norther American Mustang MK2

This is obviously not what the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look like.  This glider is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #4 Supermarine Spitfire MK.II that comes in the red and blue packages.  The fuselage looks quite nice, although the quality of the print job on the wings is quite poor.  I have no idea why this Spitfire would have ended up in the Mustang package, considering #11 is supposed to be a Spitfire.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #9 Norther American Mustang MK2

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #8 Focke-Wulf TA 152H

This is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look.  The glider pictured here is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #2 Messerschmitt BF109E that comes in the red and blue packages.  The quality of this copy is quite high although the glider was not aligned properly in the printer as you can see.  I figure that this glider ended up in this package because there are 2 German airplanes in the Power Prop Flying Gliders set and the Power Prop Gliders set, and since the FW190 was already taken, the BF109E ended up in the TA152H package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #8 Focke-Wulf TA 152H

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #7 Lockheed P38J or Lightning

This is clearly a Lightning, but this is not how the glider that comes in this package is supposed to look.  This is a copy of Power Prop Gliders #12 / #13 Lockheed P-38 that comes in the red and blue packages.  It is a pretty poor copy as the print job is quite poor on all of the parts.  Once again, I do not think that it was a coincidence that this glider made it into this package.

Power Prop Flying Gliders (in wrong packages) - #7 Lockheed P38J or Lightning