DynaFlites

[MichaelB]

The Frankovia pieces are nice, Tony. I never heard of them until I found out from you. Their distribution must have been very, very limited just as the DynaFlites were world wide !Nice enough pieces, but their DC7 was the only prop plane in the genre. Again Schuco/Schabak had a number of very nice 1/600 prop planes, so the genre wasn't abandoned. However, at about the time when all these Far East producers were getting enthused about the market, jets had stolen the lime-light and were higher on the list.

[MichaelB]

Some final thoughts:
A100, the S-55 (sic) appears in the 1974 catalog, but isn't shown after that. A 1972 card back doesn't show it. It does show in my Modern Toys catalog fragment. That document shows it with a 4 blade rotor, while the actual toy has a 3 blade piece. This would place A100 as being from before 1975, as it doesn't show up in any of the later catalogs.
So I'm still looking for hard evidence of the "start date" for DynaFlites, but it seems it's the early '70s, if not 1970 itself.
ZEE did not later replace the "A100" with another item, leaving the numbering sequence unchanged.

Other lines, like Frankovia:
There are a number of other lines that appeared from the Far East at about the same time that look like DynaFlites. Even Lintoy would produce two small airliners. They were very common during the '70s and into the '80s, then began to wash out of circulation creating a drought from the late '80s onward. By the mid '90s the trend was clear and the evaporation from the market continued. Even Matchbox was sold at this time; ZEE and Schabak went out of business. ZEE was one of the few producers who added some new "metal" to the line at the end, but to no avail.
As we know, many of these casts live on as "In-Air" and "Hot Wings", so all is not lost - just the $1 price tag!

I will start going through the DynaFlite line item by item in just a bit. This discussion has been very enlightening and useful to me!
But first I will need to shoot some more pics of the line...
Michael

[grwebster]

Michael, I think it was Schuco who went under in the late 1970s, assets bought by Schabak. A quick google tells me that Schabak was bought out itself in 2007 by a firm called DICKIE-SCHUCO. It also owns Tamiya.
http://www.schuco.de/uk/schabak.htm

Just the same I think the original founders/model makers of the first Dynas would be proud to know that they have many expert fans and collectors. I am always interested to know how toy companies selected models and what their choices were based on. I know a bit about the Dinky Toy process, and the Aero Mini one, but the full dyna story would be just as fascinating. Many thanks or highlighting their efforts and products.

[MichaelB]

It also fascinates me! However, like most endeavors of this nature, commerce was the first step. I would imagine "We have the ability to make toys - what will they be? Since we can undercut the prices of most Western producers, we could corner the market - if they're cheap enough." The first natural selection would be the WWII favorites like the P51, Spitfire, Zero and Me109. After that I would expect them to consider whatever was being used in VietNam - since that's what was in the headlines on the time.
Also, let's not forget that toy airplanes were probably only a small part of the decision! Of much more importance were all the automobiles and trucks! Hot Wheels were just getting started but for any producer they needed a "full line" of toys for the stores.
As usual, after the business decision is made, the real job falls to that talented group of artisans that select the subjects, determine the size, add the details and do the paint schemes. Their work lives on...
I think they were paying attention to the fact of Matchbox was coming to the Far East for the means of production at that time. When did Dinky effectively stop production? ...especially for their smaller, classic sized planes? I feel that their "big" planes was a last minute attempt to stay viable in the market.
Also, when did Hot Wheels invade?
...I will point out that China (which also includes Hong Kong) now rules the toy market with almost total domination!
MJB

[fliegerii]

Yes, China rules the toy world, thanks to companies like Dickie-Schuco. The original name of this company is Simba-Dickie-Group and they went big in the 80s as first German toy company, who did not make the toys by themselves as manufacturing company but imported really cheap junk and trash toys from Hong Kong and China to sell it in big warehouses just with their label printed on the box. They were/are exclusive retailer of Tamiya-Kits and this helped them a little to keep image (Tamiya is Premium brand). They made a lot of money and finally ended up in "collecting" old brand names of famous German toy companies like Schuco, Schabak, GAMA, TippCo. But none of these companies were kept alive, all were shut down here and production transferred to China. Only the Schuco name they are now using for image reason (see above) and they use from time to time the old Schuco toolings to issue replica toys, but also this is meanwhile all made in China.

At this time the toy production in Germany has become pretty low, especially for Die Cast. Siku still keeps the flag up, but also they make a lot in China now.

[angelreader]

Ah now we are getting engrossed in something that dascinates me personally ! how they decided those subjects,the play value,the famous types as opposed to the aircraft that were either in the news or could be expanded into different colourschemes,the choice must have been endless,and how many types never reached the production stages ? we all know about the Dinky directors table whereby a small hand crafted model would be passed around the room,no Blackburn Roc,Avro Tudor,De Havilland Dove,Handley Page Herald ever got past those directors as a viable subject even my own tiny Dragon Rapide that I sent in for consideration must have got the thumbs down for some reason,so likewise at Zylmex what went around the table before those big decisions were made ? it would have been great to be a fly on the wall observing,will we ever get to know ? you never know if someone who worked for Zee sees our dialogue then they might just come forward to reveal all,there were probably Americans on that team,Brits even ? who knows these manufacturers employ the very best in marketing strategy,I would also love to see some prototype models from this line,and did anything appear at the big international toy fairs ? I bet they it did,where do we start the search for this early history that is probably lurking deep down in the annals and records of Zee.
If the company still exists then why not write to them and see what is still available ? they may be proud to reveal a few things,I did this with the late Doug McHard when he was with Meccano,still have the correspondence from him somewhere,he was responsible for suggesting those large Dinky aircraft like the Junkers Ju.87 etc he also worked for International Model aircraft and was responsible for suggesting the aircraft types for their cheap range later taken over by NOVO in Russia,but that is another story,we need people that were involved and they must be still around ? if any of you are reading this then please get in touch,there are people here with their ears on wanting to learn more about Zylmex,more power to your records Michael !
Barry.

[MichaelB]

Most of the DynaFlite selection were mirrored in other lines: a collection of WWII single engine types, and an occasional bomber; modern military aircraft with an emphasis of the jets, of course. Anything in the headlines, and helicopters were always included, and now are among the hardest to find - probably because they were played with so much! Marketing was on for that bunch! The war in Vietnam brought a lot of attention to aircraft being used there and many of those are represented in the DynaFlite line....so...where is their AD-1?
I was surprised to see so many airliners! These days it would have cost a fortune to license all those liveries! Back then it was a given to have a Boeing and a PAA plane; also go see PlayArt in this respect. Like Dyna, PlayArts were also sold in WoolCo under a house name.
Always add a few of the major jet airliner types. All this was before you had to license your product from Boeing and AA (et al) so they used the most prominent of carriers, starting with PAA.
A type which is rarely represented are any type of biplane - and for obvious reasons. ZEE only did one - their "SPAD", which is a Camel. It also did service as a Crop Duster and Air Show plane and came in a variety of colors and nationalities. Much more difficult to make a cheap die cast biplane, so there weren't a lot in the lines. I can think of a few from Mandarin and hence, Tomy, and then there were a set of planes from "Homeco" which appeared under a variety of names, including a promotion from Reader's Digest. Nice enough, but a lot more expensive to produce and they don't convey the proper degree of delicacy that comes with a wood and fabric airplane. It seems ironic to use metal to make a wooden airplane, somehow...
I've got examples of all of those.
Let us not forget Edison, MiniPlanes and the Showcase pieces for their many, nice biplanes. But - they were casting their net for a different market! ...and were working in plastic to boot!
The type selection goes round and round...the current "Postage Stamp Model" has all the standards, but also a good selection of odd balls. Of course they are charging ten times what any DynaFlite ever cost, but it's nice to see them doing a diverse line.
I guess the ideal toy airplane is large enough to play with, tough enough to survive, colorful enough to entice, and with enough working "features" to be intriguing! Sounds like I just described the Marklin Ju-52!
MJB

[angelreader]

Excellent find GR,well if anyone ever comes across a Rapide then I built it ! strangely enough I repeated the same exercise some years later with Lledo when they did their Tiger Moth and PT-17 etc I told them if they wanted a best seller then do a Rapide even enclosing one in one of their boxes to good effect,then Matchbox took them over an who knows what happened ?
Those orginals were certainly finely crafted,it takes a lot of skill to build in wood to that scale,if you had not told me so then I would have thought it was a pukka Dinky ?
We can but try.
Barry.

[grwebster]

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[grwebster]

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