Matchbox and More

[MichaelB]

Picked up yet another new Matchobox at Target yesterday. Looks like a Hughes 500 (now MDD now Boeing 500) with twin engines and NOTAR. Matchbox identifies it as "Airblade"....yeah, me too...
Howver it is marked as "SB86". I suppose that what the numbers mean on the side of the fuselage: SB8609 as in Sky Buster 86 from 2009. New card as well, but the same old stuff. I didn't see any other new metal on the shelf, just more colorful versions not worth noting.
However, I did find something new. All these months I've seen the "Forces of Valor" planes across the aisle. As they are large (and expensive) 1/72 planes I wasn't interested, but they looked nice enough.
This time I find a new rack from Forces of Valor, and at first I thought the title said "Micro Machines"! But no - "Macho Machines" is what is written. A new addition to the Forces of Valor line from Unimax Toys, Kowloon HK. Shown on the back are F16s, the F22 and the F117. I picked one up just to take a look. They are very much the size and quality of the Maisto pieces, and might even be a little bit better.
This is my kind of stuff, although the subject choices are mundane.
When did Hong Kong start reappearing on Made In China stuff? I remember when DynaFlites started having Made In China stickers on the item, and the handover was in 1997. Maybe we begin to see some pride reappearing?
Michael

[Tone]

Keep an eye open for the Sky-Buster Piaggio Avanti twin-pusher Metro Commuter, it is a cool plane. We have one at ALB and you should hear those props buzzing, it sounds so different than the usual prop-jet.

[MichaelB]

...love the Piaggio...beautiful plane...when looking at it is there any doubt it is of Italian origin? With a little tempting I can be forced to upload "art" shots of it...here's the Matchbox, which they do not label as a Piaggo. Truth be told, it only has some Piaggio features as they have added in some Beech Starship details as well. The other closely matches the Adam jet, which I think has been cancelled. These came out last August.
Michael