I recently acquired a beautiful Japanense Nomura Toys (T.N.) example of the Bristol 171. This one is in a Pan American livery and apparently was copied from the DC-7C toy that was jointly released by Yonezawa and Bandai. That DC-7C toy was released sometime around 1959-60.
The helicopter I purchased has a date of Jan, 20, 1963 written on the original box.
You can view pictures of the Yonezawa/Bandai DC-7C elsewhere on MAC Forum to compare the two.
Just like the DC-7C, my Bristol 171 helicopter has ' Pan American ' and ' Pan Am ' on it, along with ' Clipper Fortuna ' and ' N742PA. ' I did some research and don't believe Pan Am ever actually operated the Bristol 171. Also, I can't find any evidence that Pan Am used the ' Clipper ' moniker on any helicopters.
T.N. released a couple variants of the Bristol 171. I also have ' Air Patrol Dept ' and ' Air Patrol Police ' versions. As an aside, T.N. partnered with Cragstan at some point and released an ' Air Patrol Dept ' version that also has ' Cragstan ' prominently featured on the side.
You might notice that the entire tail detaches so the toy will fit in its rather compact box.
Here's a photo:
