Arto Haarala's Swedish P-38 - Renwal Knock-off?

We don't often get guest submissions here at Toys and Stuff so it's a pleasure to bring this find to your attention. Arto Haarala hails from Finland and he and I are both readers of Moonbase Central's blog out of the UK and enjoy similar tastes in toys. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

"Dear Ed,

Greetings from Helsinki Base. I hope my message finds you and Bettina well and in a festive mood counting down to New Year. 

It has been my intention to send you these pictures of a wonderful plastic plane I bought from Sweden last autumn. I think it is an unlicensed Swedish copy of the Renwal P-38Lockheed Lightning. I believe you have the original in your collection, as I came across your blog post on the Renwal whilst googling for references.

The box (17 x 12,5 x 3,5 cm) is very plain with no mention of manufacturer and states only in Swedish P-38 Plast Plan (P-38 Plastic Plane). The plane itself measures 12 x 16,5 cm. Very Fifties feel to it.

I just adore it all. The P-38 is made of slightly marbled, hard - yet still a bit flexible - plastic. As I am fond of all kinds of bootlegs, clones and fringy plastic toys, this was one of my treasured finds of the year!

I hope you will enjoy it too.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Cheers & Keep on Swordin'

Arto"

(Here's the photos Arto submitted. I too enjoy knock-offs and we do feature some occasionally here on the blog, the last one being a tin-litho copy of Marusan's Space Scout from India.)

Renwal No.38 P-38 Lightning

For many years I was really into WWII aircraft, mostly those from the European Theater of Operations (ETO) and the P-38 Lightning was one of my all time favorites as it was with so many other plane enthusiasts. Toy companies were quick to oblige kids love affairs with this plane by pumping out Lightnings by the truckload, either as plastic kits, ready made plastic toys, die-cast, wood - I mean you name the medium and the P-38 was probably made in it! This Renwal version, part of their Tr-Scale line of toys, was made from 1945-47 and from 1949-53 with a retail price of $0.29. It came in various colors, with or without decals, single sale or in sets with other airplanes. My example has a rough box and is itself kind of battle worn, the plastic having warped over time and missing its propellers. It measures 4 7/8" (12.38cm) L x 6 1/2" (16.51cm) wingspan x 1 1/4" (3.17cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The box was quite rough but a tad bit of cleaning up in Photoshop makes it look a little more presentable.

Side and end flaps have the same design