Is the Milton Bradley Star Bird just a hybrid of Kenner Star Wars toys? The Star Wars bandwagon was huge but did respected Milton Bradley leap onto it too with their 1978 mega ship?
I had once considered it to be one of the stand-out space toys of the late Seventies, like the Century 21 Zero X of the late Sixties before it. I didn't have a Star Bird though and my opinion was simply superficial.
On closer inspection of its substantial online gallery, I now cannot help but see Star Wars.
Beyond the obvious similarity of the names, the main Lucasisation comes basically in the following areas:
1. The cockpit window looks like the split window at the front of the Millennium Falcon
2. The rear gun mount looks like R2D2 and other domes on various Kenner Star Wars craft
3. The rear wing fins are reminiscemt of the X-Wing.
Now I may have this completely wrong and the Star Bird is actually a classic design in its own right.
But at the moment I would have to say that it doesn't come close to THE stand out iconic spaceship of the Seventies, both on the screen and in the toyshop, the Millennium Falcon.
What do you think readers?
I see what you mean Woodsy. Maybe the Star Bird design was a hybrid influenced by a few popular sci fi movies and TV series of the era, as well as Star Wars. Personally, I can see elements of a Cylon Raider from the 1980s Battlestar Galactica TV series in the front section/cockpit of the Star Bird. I totally agree that the rear gun mount looks like R2D2 and the wing fins do look to have an X-Wing influence.
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