Some Helicopters from My Collection

[Tone]

The German toy company Arnold made some fantastic VTOL aircraft toys!

GR asked if any tandem rotor helicopter toys were released, and the answer is YES. The British European Airways helicopter was released with a couple different box styles. The fuselage is 10.25 inches long, and the dual spinning rotor is super-cool.

I'll include a photo of No. 66522E below.

My research shows the toy was released from 1956-57, but I don't have any toy advertisments to substantiate those dates. I'd love to find some Arnold catalogs in order to determine the depth of their helicopter toy line. Any help out there?

The British European Airways helicopter is a beauty, but don't take my word for it... Check out the photo:

German Arnold No. 66522E British European Airways helicopter.jpg

OOOOOHHH ! ! ! I didn't know about this one! I'll add it to the Tin Toy Production List. Could that be a Bristol 173?

[Tone]

So RICO made that tin Autogiro. From a distance it looked just like a die cast Tootsietoy!

[alas]

I'm glad there are more of us!
GR, the Arnold Fairey R. is not that small - wingspan must be about 20 cm, fuselage 30. I must confess I never tried to get it to fly - though mine is MIB.
From Arnold's, with the handcrank system, I also have the satellite which flies really well, and the beautiful platform - I never tried to fly that one either.
And the bigger and smaller sikorsky's of course, except - alas!' the BEA. Mark D recently bought one from under my nose. That's how we became friends - bidding against one another...
here some pictures of the more rare ones:

the small on flown from the tower

satellite and platform

[grwebster]

Some rare items there. Amazing

[fliegerii]

I really appreciate to see the pictures of the Arnold Helis. The Rotodyne is super-rare. Never saw one in more than 12 years collecting in Germany (!). Same for the Bristol, from which I even did not know, that it exists!
Congratulation for owning these pieces!

What I can say is, that the S-55 Heli-body is existing in several versions. There are different gear types and there is one with a clear plastic canopy.

I also have a mint boxed in the latest version sold in a blister. I really flies! I tried!

[hovermd]

I later flew the Bell AH-1 Cobra, another SUPER FUN helicopter to fly! While I love all types of helicopter toys, I'm especially fond of very realistically designed toys. Here's a nice example of the Cobra:

The attachment Bell AH-1 Cobra.jpg is no longer available

I have this variant:

YEP - The ATC Bell 209 Cobra police version is out there while the green military toy pictured above comes in at least 2 box styles that I know of... And, Cragstan released a whacky Phantom Helicopter version that has mulit-colored see-through plastic so you can see the innner workings of the toy. Pretty wild!

Cragstan Phantom See-Thru Bell AH-1 Helicopter