Flimsy Flyer

I decided to open up a pack of the 1967 Topps Fighter Planes the other day, thanks to one that popped up on eBay and called my name.  I had an unopened pack already (the five cent version and not the rarer ten cent one) and the example I snagged was also a nickel product, but with some pencil marks and a little dirt on the flip side of the wrapper.  So I opted for a surgical strike and happily managed to open the bottom flap of my new acquisition without causing any real damage to the envelope. Upon removing the contents I was greeted with some surprises.

Here's the pack and what was once inside:

Surprise number one: despite looking like a military-centric version of the Styrofoam Flying Things, which were being sold at the same time, they are made of very thin cardboard with a light gloss on both sides. The cardboard is not much thicker than a stiff piece of paper. I have to say the quality of the graphics was pretty good overall.

Surprise number two: the fuselage had a metal nose clip already attached but a spare was knocking about in there as well.

Surprise number three was that the other side of the fuselage didn't have the MIG-15 designation showing on both sides. Like the Flying Things however, the underside of the wings and tail were black, but unlike FT, there was no manufacturing information present thereon:

I'm not sure these fragile planes would have survived more than two or three flights, which might help to partially explain their scarcity today.  They were known too as a failed test, as this circa 1967-68 Topps trade ad shows them at the bottom right:

But let's face it, Topps always found ways to dump as much failed or unsold product as they possibly could before trashing something. 

I find it intriguing the ad mentions test stores across the country.  I suspect some test boxes were handed out by various Topps salesmen or jobbers as they made their normal rounds. Also of note-there's a small fortune in unopened packs and boxes sitting there!

Another Plane

This is proving to be a banner year for Topps test issues coming out of the woodwork.  I doubt there's been this much material available since the early 90's. This time it's the 1967 Fighter Planes turn.

Some recent eBay auctions have turned up various proofs from this set, which seems to be the easiest way to find anything as I still have yet to see an assembled one. Two of the proofs I've already posted about but two are new and the auction description also has an interesting tidbit.

Here is a proof of the Bell X-1 fighter:

The auction description mentions this was an (actual) Topps archives file copy and while that is good information, the better part of the description mentions the proofs are on glossy photo stock.  This is no doubt due to their having to be reproduced on thin Styrofoam. (UPDATE 4/5/25: Nope, they were printed on thin cardboard. )

The second proof gives the Skyray F-4D:

I'm not sure what those punched holes are for but some proofs have them and some don't.  The holes had some significance as they are cleared on the back of the piece against a backing board, so maybe they were to hold them in place for some reason.

That wrapper is just leaned up against the back, it's not attached.  25% of the set has now been documented in proof form. That's pretty good for something this obscure I think but it's weird proofs are found more readily than the product they were used to create!

Fail Safe

Friend o'the Archive Lonnie Cummins recently sent along one of the most stupendous Topps trade ads I have ever seen.  Dating to 1967 this ad details failed test issues-and there's a bunch!

It's easier to see if I blow up the photo:

I'll start at twelve o'clock:

Secret Agent Bubble Gum and Bubble Gum Shots capitalize on the interest in James Bond/Get Smart spy thrillers then sweeping the country.  A pen shaped piece of gum is not all that exciting, now is it?  It seems this would have been a good way to repurpose Get Smart Secret Agent kits but it's just a confectionery item. Bubble Gum Shots?  No thanks.

Going clockwise we get more confections. Fuzzies sound gross and Happy Hearts candy must have been a test for a Valentine's Day product.  Below them though we get to Captain Nice, a legendary rarity among test collectors.  I am freaking out over that box-wow!

The planes are Fighter Planes. They are even tougher than Captain Nice and I've only ever seen packs, never an assembled toy. As I have determined from my research, the planes date to 1967, just like the Captain.

Whistle Gum gives the purchaser a plastic flute I guess. The next item is a lot more interesting though-King Kong makes an appearance! Kong dates to 1966, despite a 1965 copyright as it's one of the first Topps sets to have a commodity code on the box.

Bag o'Baseball bubble gum is intriguing but looks like straight up confection. That leaves us with Nutty Tickets, another 1967 set which is tough but never struck me as being "test issue tough".

Ten items, ten duds!

Planely Speaking

I've got a bit more to say on Topps Fighter Planes, last looked at here in 2011. Looking at them in the context of a Topps mania for flying aircraft novelties, that ran from the mid 60's until the mid 70's, they seem to fit into the gaps of Flying Things, which were issued in three waves (circa 1966-67, 1970-71 and 1975) and Marvel Flyers (1966).

Fighter Planes were issued twice, once in 5 cent packaging, with their Brooklyn address and once in 10 cent livery, using the Duryea address (according to Chris Benjamin). Topps was listed as a distributor as the planes were made in Japan (although I suspect the wrappers were produced in the U.S.) and the product contained no gum. I had originally thought the five cent version was an early 1960's issue based upon the artwork on the wrapper (which was an envelope) but the first item on the checklist:

I've shown those previously and they are courtesy of Howard Schenker. The set of 24 seems to consist mainly of a mix of World War 2 and Korean War fighter jets and newer planes introduced in the 1960's. If you look at the checklist carefully you will see the first plane listed is the F-111. This would be the "Aardvark", manufactured by General Dynamics and introduced in 1967.   Given the F-111's debut date, the set could not have been issued any earlier than 1967, which is my best guess as to a date right now. (UPDATE 2/22/23: Test flights were already happening around 1965)

I suspect the Fighter Planes were issued after Marvel Flyers (which had a ten cent price point at a time when Topps was firmly entrenched with five cent packaging, maybe due to the costs of licensing) but before Flying Things (ten cents on all packaging for the first four series). In any event, Topps mostly dropped five cent pricing in 1969 (Stickers and Tattoos being the most common exceptions) so there is really a three year window in which they could have been distributed. Other companies offered similar styrofoam planes and indeed they were popular boys birthday party favors back in the day.

The ten cent version, which uses the same artwork but for which I do not have a back scan, alas, was given a 12 subject checklist by Chris Benjamin in his 4th guide and he seemed pretty decisive on the matter, so I assume he had seen the reverse of this particular wrapper.  For the record, he lists:

Bell X-1
F-51 Mustang
F-86 Saber Jet
F-100F Super Saber
Flying Tiger
Grumman (sic) Avenger
Hawker Hunter
M-109
MIG 15
X-15
XF3D-1 Skynight
Zero

Topps reissued certain Flying Things series in similarly cut down fashion as time progressed, going from a high of 24 planes to a low of 6 by 1975. I'm not sure what year the ten cent version was issued though, maybe between the 1970-71 and 1975 Flying Things would be my guess but a product code would seal it.

Here is a nice flattened box, courtesy of REA:

As well as a proof of the wrapper/envelope:

Not to mention some proofs of the planes proper:

It's a neat set and a bit hard to find compared to Flying Things and Marvel Flyers.

Plane Crazy

The many mysteries of Topps Production and Marketing seem never-ending.  Recently, Friend o'the Archive Howard Schenker sent along a scan of some packaging for a toy issue called Fighter Planes.  The box scan he sent is well-executed but the set itself is not well known so sales must not have, ahem, taken off:

That young lad looks like he could step into an episode of Leave It To Beaver. The pack is essentially a reproduction of the box artwork:

There is a handy checklist on the back and we can see the pack is an envelope and not a true wrapper:

As always, the indicia is helpful:

While the artwork just screams 1950's, the type face and Made In Japan notation put this into the 1960's to my mind.  Just what year is unclear, although the Non-Sport Archive wrapper reference indicates 1957 and while some of the dates in that book (which is quite useful and well illustrated folks) are off by a few years, the attribution must have come from somewhere.

Woody Gelman kept a wrapper example in his files:

And in this scan from the aforementioned Non Sport Archive, we see a ten cent version was issued at some point:

There is no extant scan but Chris Benjamin, in his The Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards, No. 4 writes that the ten cent pack has a Duryea credit, which puts it at 1969 or later.  Benjamin also shows only twelve planes for the later issue's checklist, just half of the five cent version.  I want to dig some more and see what turns up on these planes.  If you have an idea, drop me a line.