Continuing my chopper ride here's a journey I started nearly twenty years ago. Way back in 1994 I saw this black and white picture of a Traffic Patrol helicopter from Taiwan in Dennis Nicholson's bible on collecting Gerry Anderson memorabilia. Its a Bandai Captain Scarlet Spectrum Helicopter knockoff and being a knockoff nut I began to look for one. I posted the picture in the early months of the Moonbase in 2008 and it's one of the blog's handful of mythical toys. Does it actually exist?
Their have been pleasant distractions looking for the Traffic Patrol copter like these Century 21 licensed Bandai originals, which I've stored in my photo archive along the way. There are three different blister packs I've come across on Ebay but their could be more.
And I was further distracted when super collector Ferryman made this fabulous custom Spectrum Helicopter, which we first featured in 2009. From an Imai kit it came complete in a custom JR21 box made by Ferryman. Strange how Century 21 Toys never made one for the European market like this.
As in any knockoff search there have been many interesting cul-de-sacs and false landings. Here are a few of them.
Processed Plastics
Sanchis of Spain
Sky Tour [make unknown]
Like many of the mythical toys that we featured in the first six months of the blog in 2008, when we posed the question 'does it actually exist', the answer only revealed itself years later. Fortunately this particular myth turned to reality and to my astonishment the Traffic Patrol spectrum helicopter actually surfaced.
Coloured blue, here it is with its rotors and white/ red torpedoes [top left, T.Harle] and below we have the toy close up in all its glory [A.Cook]. Despite missing it's rotor blades it's a great looking helicopter and far better looking than I expected. the black and white picture I first saw in 1994 doesn't do it justice. Myth busted.
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