Vertibird Anyone?

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Discussion

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 4th December 2014
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I had this as a kid, and played for hours on end with it. It's basically a primitive tethered helicopter which you control by varying the speed of the rotor and tilting the fuselage forward or backwards:

http://www.stuffwelove.co.uk/vertibird.htm

It's fully mechanical and uses pull-push wires and a drives through a sprung balanced arm. Mine got a bit the worse for wear, so was retired in the late '70's IIRC. I could ever figure out how to get into it to fettle/lubricate it because the units appeared to be glued together.

While having a clearout at home, I rediscovered it, and decided to repair it for my kids. In the absence of any online "how to" guides on these, I just spent about 1 hour razor-sawing the cases apart, which finally revealed the mysterious inner workings:







One of the controllevers got snapped off, so I'm going to cast a new one in resin, and give the whole thing a clean up.

Any ideas on how to make replacement stickers? there's no way they will peel off the bases.

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Thursday 4th December 2014
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I suppose if you photograph them you could print onto a (or some) large sized label sheets

I know they do some that take up four spaces on an A4 sheet, maybe there's a single sheet size. Can you get a Rexel catalogue?

Then top off with Tamiya Satin varnish aerosol

hidetheelephants

23,753 posts

192 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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If casting in resin is unsuccessful perhaps 3D printing might be the answer?

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yes I could photograph them, but some wrap around the edges of the base and have angled bits. I was thinking of edging them with tamiya tape, then removing it and sticking it on a flat board to get the right dimensions before drawing some more on CAD. The Vertibird logo will be tricky though.

I think the CAD modelling of the levers would take longer than resin casting, but it's definitely an option. Shame the levers will end up being black though.

Yertis

18,015 posts

265 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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I have no idea how to help you with your specific questions but it will come as no surprise to to learn that this was a prized toy of mine. It was a toss-up between this and the Airfix Deck-Landing thing. But once the rotor drive 'wire' breaks, you're through.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yertis said:
I have no idea how to help you with your specific questions but it will come as no surprise to to learn that this was a prized toy of mine. It was a toss-up between this and the Airfix Deck-Landing thing. But once the rotor drive 'wire' breaks, you're through.
Super Flight Deck? Got one of those too!

I can't see anything in the drive mechanism in the Vertibird that can't be replaced easily enough, after all they were mass produced and anything too complicated or expensive wouldn't have been possible at the price they were sold at. At the end of the day, the drive shaft is just a length of piano wire with a couple of spring couplings at the ends.

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

144 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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I had one of those as a kid! Great fun although it stung a bit if you put your finger in the blades while it was "flying". Got to be a market for someone like Firebox to re-release these as a retro toy. They made a new Big Trak after all.

Yertis

18,015 posts

265 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
Super Flight Deck? Got one of those too!
Show off. But did you have BattleSpace?

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
C0ffin D0dger said:
I had one of those as a kid! Great fun although it stung a bit if you put your finger in the blades while it was "flying". Got to be a market for someone like Firebox to re-release these as a retro toy. They made a new Big Trak after all.
Next best thing?

http://www.peterhirschberg.com/vertisim/

Sort of defeats my whole idea of promoting physical toy type stuff to the kids, but there we go.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yertis said:
dr_gn said:
Super Flight Deck? Got one of those too!
Show off. But did you have BattleSpace?
No - never head of it TBH. I have got a Matchbox "Counter Attack" set, which got almost as much use as the Vetibird!



Pneumatic machine guns, mortars, disintegrating houses...brilliant.

Red Firecracker

5,276 posts

226 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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Vinyl reproductions (of various versions);

http://stores.ebay.com/railshouse?_dmd=1&_nkw=...

Yertis

18,015 posts

265 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
No - never head of it TBH.
Then let me introduce:




Tri-ang did a complete range of this stuff, which combined the exhilaration of running a realistic model railway with the quiet satisfaction to be found in modern military operations.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Red Firecracker said:
Vinyl reproductions (of various versions);

http://stores.ebay.com/railshouse?_dmd=1&_nkw=...
Yup - noticed those this morning. For £15 I'll have a go I think. Ta.

Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yertis said:
Then let me introduce:




Tri-ang did a complete range of this stuff, which combined the exhilaration of running a realistic model railway with the quiet satisfaction to be found in modern military operations.
Blimey, I had some bits of that. Was given a box of old train bits when I was a kid, the ambulance car, the four gun unit and I think the searchlight. Always wish I had kept them, but cleared out the train sets when I was 16

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Yertis said:
dr_gn said:
No - never head of it TBH.
Then let me introduce:




Tri-ang did a complete range of this stuff, which combined the exhilaration of running a realistic model railway with the quiet satisfaction to be found in modern military operations.
Ahhh why didn't you just say the Army Train thing? hehe I've got most of that lot too - Helicopter Launcher, Exploding truck, Aircraft Launcher, Missile Launcher...Activated by a little black plastic tag next to the track?

HoHoHo

14,980 posts

249 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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Will it have a working HUD?



















Only joking smile

Looking forward to the final result, no doubt it will probably be better than when it left the factory!

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
quotequote all
So here it is finished (although not got around to siliconeing the controller base on yet:





Converted it to mains instead of batteries while I was at it.

The stickers came from the EBay link posted earlier, from a guy in Medicine Hat Alberta of all places. Look fine though.

Deerfoot

4,897 posts

183 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
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dr_gn said:
Medicine Hat Alberta of all places.
I know it well!

It's home to the world's largest teepee.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
quotequote all
Deerfoot said:
dr_gn said:
Medicine Hat Alberta of all places.
I know it well!

It's home to the world's largest teepee.
Well, whatever it's famous for, the stickers were spot-on. I never expected to find any, anywhere. I asked the seller if he also did repros of the carboard buildings that came with the set, but he implied that would be a bit obscure...like the stickers were fairly mainstream biggrin

nick heppinstall

8,054 posts

279 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
No - never head of it TBH. I have got a Matchbox "Counter Attack" set, which got almost as much use as the Vetibird!



Pneumatic machine guns, mortars, disintegrating houses...brilliant.
God that brings back memories !! I had one of these one Christmas and loved it ! Played with it more than anything. Not thought of it for.... A very long time !!

Must be pretty rare because I cant find any on ebay ....

Going back to the Vertibird .... I had a few when I was a kid. I had a white one as well as one like yours.

I also had a Star Trek one where you flew the Enterprise around and my favourite which was a Chinook.

If anyone knows who made the Enterprise and Chinook ones... I would like to keep an eye open for them on ebay...