Sky Wings Airliners

[Tone]

They are the last of their kind: all-metal airliners with the names of real airlines that sold for a dollar apiece. Sue Richardson lists these airliners as Home Toy brand, later sold as Freda. In USA they were found in dollar stores in the 1990s. There is also one series with brightly-colored pastel cheat lines and cartoon animal heads on the tails. These are less attractive than the airline planes.





#F801, a 747 SP, I also have this one in American and Air Canada colors, and a British Airways with silver wings on Imperial brand card. Singapore Airways is a nice choice for a toy plane.



#F802 - A300 swissair




#F804 DC-10, I also have the JAL with silver wings. The reg# on the wing is a nice touch. Note that KLM has the very early 70s scheme before the turquoise upper body.

[Tone]

The SAS 727 has a misprint on the fuselage. I'm not convinced SAS even flew the 727 as it had large fleets of Convair 440s, Caravelles and then DC-9s. Some airports didn't allow jets so the 440s lasted in service longer than one would expect. There are two Lufthansa 767s, the later with no cheat line sold on Ja-Ru card. The QANTAS 767 bears the signs of tampo printing applied before the white undercoat had dried completely. It also has an upper deck of windows!

#F803 767





#F805 727



Not shown is the TriStar. I have a Hong Kong versions on an old card in Northwest colors, and a silver wing Alitalia on an Imperial brand card, neither line ever flew the TriStar.

[MichaelB]

I have buckets of these as well, Tony. For a "no name" brand they certainly had a lot of names!
I don't know where Richardson got the "Home Co" name, but I have never seen these presented as anything but under the name of whoever was selling them. Yes, I agree, they were just about the last of the "real" airline branded cheap planes. That said, the liveries were surprisingly well done.
A spotting note here, all these should have their model number cast in underneath. They used an "F" prefix, then a series of numbers: F801, F802 and so on.
I have never seen a catalog, a listing or any reference to the numbers themselves.
They also produced two fighters, F807 F-16 and F808 F/A-18. IIRC these had those "orange" canopies and were the predecessors of the more truly generic later issues already mentioned which also featured orange canopies.
I show 5 liveries for the 747SP F801
5 for A300 F802
3 for 767 F803
4 for DC10 F804
5 for 727 F805
2 for 1011 F806
Hmmm....no SAS 727s in real life, eh? I'll look into that. SAS tended towards Douglas products.
Jasman and Smart Choice were/are two additional resellers. The older Sky Wings and Imperial issues featured "silver" wings. Other suppliers were Magic, Wing Warriors, Tak-A-Toy, Skies of Freedom, and Boley Super Jet.
Again...I have never seen a "Home Co" card or reference other than the Richardsons and it's tough to tell if additional material has been removed from the casts.
A nice set...much nicer that one would expect to find in the grocery store.
Mine are all at the bottom of the heap, so don't expect any photos anytime soon....
Thanks for posting, Tony!
Michael

[Tone]

I would like to add that the toys I have photographed all had small gold oval labels marked "MADE IN CHINA" applied underneath, which I removed from the planes after I opened them. The earliest issues I have, made in Hong Kong, I left in the packages, so I cannot compare the undersides. They include a Delta 727 and an Air France 727.

My Animal Livery Airbus has blisters in the paint that are sensitive to a fingernail. They are still not "dry" after all these years!

This red, white and blue F-18 came on the Ja-Ru card, it has no number cast underneath and it is very flimsy.

[MichaelB]

The "Sky Wings" F18 had it's F number still cast in...it became a generic and appeared in a tan camo; a green camo; and as a Blue Angel. Very common on the shelves under a variety of names. Nowadays the only "store" lines I see are in the CVS drug store...even they have dropped the Yat Ming pieces and moved onto cheaper products, but at the same price. Can't bring myself to buy one, but I suppose I must - for history's sake! ...now I wonder if these new ones are the F generics evolved? ...hmm...those include an SR71, so maybe I need to bite...