I had all kinds of toy airplanes when I was a kid, everything from the Matchbox planes to the big Fisher Price Fun Jet (which, to this day, I still love...and, yes, I did buy the Christmas tree ornament). But my favorites were the ones marketed by Ertl in the "Planes of the World" packaging. I loved them because they looked reasonably realistic -- and, best of all, they had retractable landing gear.
I had several of them -- offhand I can remember having two of the 747s, one in Pan Am colors and the other with the Space Shuttle on top, and at least one L-1011 -- but this one was my favorite. A few years ago I found it, and though it's beaten up, it still brings back the memories:
We used to see DC-9s at the local airports, and in these colors. Now, an older me can see just how cartoonish a DC-9 this is, but the 7-year-old me thought this was something else. Here's an underside shot, showing you what I thought was the most awesome thing about it:
When you're a kid, that's something else. (The 747 was really cool because not only did the nose and wing gear retract, but so did the body gear in the belly. Made of awesome.)
I couldn't fly it around and take pictures at the same time, but imagine the backdrop is sky, okay?
And one more shot back on its gear, just because I could:
This one's beaten up from years in various toy boxes, but it's now cared for again. I remember thinking this was the most perfect toy the young me could have, because I wanted to grow up and be a DC-9 pilot for this very airline. (Well, we saw how that would have worked out, so maybe it's good you got into something else, kid.)
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