Although I've featured the Dinky UFO Interceptor on the blog
before, I've since acquired an original box
along with that all important card support to go with my original
display card.
The Dinky UFO Interceptor came out in 1971 and continued
production until 1979. The original box artwork shows a white Interceptor just
like in the UFO TV series but as we all know the colour of the model did differ
from the illustration.
I would have got mine
more or less when they first came out, although it appears Dinky tried to cut corners on some
of the very early examples, and used the Joe 90 figure with his arms
outstretched from Dinky’s Joe’s Car as the pilot.
Dinky soon rectified this and replaced Joe with a proper
pilot with his arms lowered. On mine the pilot is sat in a chrome cockpit
behind a clear plastic canopy screen. (There are also versions with blue tinted
canopies)
It comes with chrome side jets,
chrome bell shaped intakes and a chromed top front plate. The rocket exhaust
and front grills are painted gold. The missile is white with an orange tip. The
landing legs are orange.(There are also versions with red legs and possibly an
occasional red missile tip but I'm speculating these probably appeared a little
later)
At some point during the mid-seventies, Dinky decided to
drop the box and display card in favour of their bubble pack with card base.
In 1978, according to the date on the box, Dinky repackaged
the UFO Interceptor, this time with a window box and polystyrene tray.
During this time the Interceptor went through some cost
cutting changes too. The chrome parts were now just plain red plastic including
the cockpit. The engine exhaust and the front grill were just the natural metal
colour. The missile at this point was
now yellow with a black tip. (there were also code 1 examples of a white
missile with a black tip. Thinking about it, it wouldn't be difficult to mix and match the
rubber tips on the missiles to come up with a yellow/orange variation but I couldn't say
whether or not they came out of the factory like that)
Although the Dinky UFO Interceptor falls victim to Dinky’s
dubious habit of changing the original colour of some of Gerry Anderson’s TV
series creations it’s still a pretty accurate die-cast model and it’s no wonder
that a lot of collectors like to repaint them so they look more accurate, but
while I might be in the minority, these days I'm quite happy sticking to that
‘unique’ green colour.
