You may have noticed the blog's new look. I've been mulling over the blog's design this past few weeks. Understand that I'm not one to keep a 'look' forever and likes to shake things up every so often. The old Dynamic View template that was used for Toys & Stuff hides the icons to features like favorite links which aren't readily apparent until you did a 'mouse over'. So the search is on for a sutiable replacement template - we'll go with this one right now though there may be another change if I'm not satisfied with this. Let me know if you like the change.
Today Toys & Stuff has another nifty '50s tin-litho aircraft from Japan. I know the packaging says 'A-11 Supersonic Jet' but the real A-11 (or A-12) didn't fly until 1962 and was the predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird!! The 'A-11' ruse was most probably just a slick marketing gimmick to beat any copyright raps. To me, with its straight wings and single seat cockpit it looks rather like a caricature of the F-80 Shooting Star. The reason I say it's probably the F-80 is because the next major jet to be developed was the F-84 Thunderstreak which was also straight winged but its air intake was in the nose. The air intakes on our toy are clearly on either side of the fuselage. After the F-84 came the F-86 Sabrejet - a swept wing design.
It's not too often that I've been able to acquire both the plane and it's original packaging. This time the 'packaging' is a heavy, ltho'd card onto which the plane rests within slots. And look at the price printed at the top right - 'Only 98¢'! Oh man, I wish these were only 98 cents today :-) There are no makers marks on the plane, other than 'Made in Japan', but the card is printed with the name 'Larami Corp' so I'm guessing that the Larami Corp was the distributor. The wings are integral with the fuselage and the friction motor is attached directly to the underside. The plane measures 9" (22.9cm) L x 9 1/4" (23.5cm) wingspan. Enjoy!