Toys of Christmas Past - Part 3: Vertibird

Vertibird - Mattel - 1970

The greatest toy I never had.

 Next up is the 1970-78 Vertibird. An actual flying helicopter. The retail price was $8 to $20. You could make the copter go forward, backward, up, down or hover. A friend of mine had this and it was one of the most popular toy to play with.
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This came out at the height of the Apollo moon program, and consequently, the first version of the toy featured a space craft and astronaut. If you had the skill, you could hover the helicopter and using the hook on the helicopter you could pick up the space ship and astronaut.

In later years there were other versions of this toy that came out including an air craft carrier and one tied to the Space 1999 [a great show by the way] TV show.  Here is the list.

• 1971 - Set No. 5972 - VertiBird. (Version 1, screw connected drive spring)
• 1971 - Set No. 5972 - VertiBird. (Version 2, drive spring soldered in place)
• 1973 - Set No. 7604 - VertiBird Air Police. (themed to tie into police TV shows of the 1970s)
• 197? - Set No. 7646 - VertiBird Polar Adventure.
• 1973 - Set No. 8243 - VertiBird Rescue Ship. (Another space themed set tying into the Apollo program)
• 1975 - Set No. 9040 - VertiBird Paramedic Rescue. (Themed to tie in to the Emergency! TV series)
• 1976 - Set No. 8997 - VertiBird Okanagan Logging 'Copter. (Also released in Canada)
• 1976 - Set No. 9637 - Space: 1999 Flying Eagle. (Not branded as "VertiBird" on its packaging elements; tie-in to Space: 1999 TV series.)
• 1978 - Set No. 2898 - VertiBird S.W.A.T. Patrol. (Themed to tie in to the S.W.A.T. TV series.)
• 1979 - Set No. 1675 - VertiBird Night Patrol (included phospohrescent plastic parts and stickers)
• 1979 - Set No. 2983 - VertiBird Battlestar Galactica. (Battlestar Galactica TV series tie-in)
• 1981 - Set No. 5306 - VertiBird Megaforce. (Megaforce Movie tie-in)

Later on after Mattel stopped making this toy there were some Vertibird clones produced.  In 2000 Kool Toyz came out with their version of Vertibird called "Chopper Command Helicopter Set".   I purchased one of these sets.  And yes it was fun !

Here is a TV commercial associated with the toy.

The Air Police Version of the Toy

OK, OK, I know you are saying big deal.  This helicopter could only travel in a circle, now a days you have micro helicopters that can freely fly anywhere.  In fact today, I have even seen toy hover cars that actually fly !  Have pity on us.  It was the early 70's, were were amused by mostly anything.  Some of us still had black and white console TV's in our living room.  Many still had rotary phones or radios with tubes in them.  AM radio was still popular, and most of us ate our food with stone utensils..... OK perhaps a slight exaggeration about the stone utensils, but it was still a simpler time.

The original version of these toys are still very popular and very collectible   A Mint in the box (MIB) Vertibird can sell for about $500 on ebay.   I am not sure who would pay such a price, but I am glad they have their priorities straight, LOL.