A LOOK AT MY FAIRYLITE STINGRAY

 Some photos, old and new of my Fairylite Stingray, which I’ve featured a couple of times over time here on the blog.

I have fond memories of owning one way back in 1965, and to my young eyes it was  perfect. I ignored the less than accurate shape, the limited colour scheme, and the annoying four wheels and friction motor underneath, and simply imagined it diving under the sea, giving Titan and his Aquaphibians a hard time!

Nowadays, I’m a little older in years, and think, like many of you it’s always nice to find and sometimes own a piece of nostalgia from my childhood.

I found a damaged example of the toy on eBay, and bought it for a tenner. Luckily the body wasn’t in bad condition, apart from the usual problem of broken tail parts, missing rear hydro-planes, and no red rate master.

I knew I could get excellent replica parts of the hydro-planes and a rate-master from Greame Walker’s Big Red Toybox website, but that still left reproducing, and replacing the missing tail parts.

Being a woodworker, I decided to carve a couple of small pieces using close grained ramin wood, which is easy to sand to get something like the right shape.

I reckon it worked out okay, and once painted looks fine to me.

To complete the restoration I picked up a replica box from the Big Red Toybox, and voila, I’m all set to kick that pesky Titan’s butt!

Here’s a photo of Stingray next to another supersub!

The advert for the Fairylite Stingray in TV Century 21, dated October 30^th, 2065.