In the last entry of “What’s on my mind?” I talked about nostalgia and things that bring back memories. One thing that ALWAYS brings good memories back for me are toys and pop culture items from my childhood. Many times I’m reminded of such items scouring through many of the retro social media accounts that i keep up with. This time around, I was reminded of a classic 80’s toy that somehow slipped through the cracks for most people. Like anything I’m into or intrigued by, I started digging around on the google machine trying to find out all about this toy line. Sadly I discovered there is very little history and info about these fine military toys known as Flying Fighters.
Produced by Hasbro in the late 80’s these toys consisted of a set of military fighter jets. To my knowledge there were at least four different models to collect and battle with. These weren’t just any jets though, as they came with electronic sounds, and a joystick attachment where you could actually fly them around in your own imagination! They also came with some sweet stickers and a unique squadron patch. Of course these HAD to be used in my GI Joe battles even though they weren't even close the the same scale. Flying Fighters also came with plastic missiles that surprisingly could interchange with some GI Joe vehicle missiles. I owned the F-14 Tomcat (Pictured above) and man did I ever get the good out of it. I played with it so much it literally started falling apart from “battle damage.” Sadly though, this was the only one I ever owned to this day.
It seemed like this toy line didn’t last long, and I'm trying to figure out why. Military toys have always been popular with boys,yet none of my friends ever owned any to the best of my knowledge. As mentioned earlier Flying Fighters were produced by Hasbro which had huge success with other toy lines such as Easy Bake Oven, My Little Pony, and most notably Transformers and GI Joe. In my opinion Flying Fighters didn’t appear on many kids radars at the time because the market was simply flooded with licensed toy lines. The 80s and 90s were truly toy ADD for most of us. There were just so many good toys from a variety of genres, it was hard to just settle on even a few. All that being said I’m glad to have the opportunity to shed some light on Flying Fighters toy line. May this blog entry spawn others to put out more information about it on the world wide web for us nostalgia enthusiasts. Do you remember these or have any other memories of military vintage toys? If so leave a comment, and if you like the "What's on my mind?" series consider showing your support. Until next time C YA!
Produced by Hasbro in the late 80’s these toys consisted of a set of military fighter jets. To my knowledge there were at least four different models to collect and battle with. These weren’t just any jets though, as they came with electronic sounds, and a joystick attachment where you could actually fly them around in your own imagination! They also came with some sweet stickers and a unique squadron patch. Of course these HAD to be used in my GI Joe battles even though they weren't even close the the same scale. Flying Fighters also came with plastic missiles that surprisingly could interchange with some GI Joe vehicle missiles. I owned the F-14 Tomcat (Pictured above) and man did I ever get the good out of it. I played with it so much it literally started falling apart from “battle damage.” Sadly though, this was the only one I ever owned to this day.
It seemed like this toy line didn’t last long, and I'm trying to figure out why. Military toys have always been popular with boys,yet none of my friends ever owned any to the best of my knowledge. As mentioned earlier Flying Fighters were produced by Hasbro which had huge success with other toy lines such as Easy Bake Oven, My Little Pony, and most notably Transformers and GI Joe. In my opinion Flying Fighters didn’t appear on many kids radars at the time because the market was simply flooded with licensed toy lines. The 80s and 90s were truly toy ADD for most of us. There were just so many good toys from a variety of genres, it was hard to just settle on even a few. All that being said I’m glad to have the opportunity to shed some light on Flying Fighters toy line. May this blog entry spawn others to put out more information about it on the world wide web for us nostalgia enthusiasts. Do you remember these or have any other memories of military vintage toys? If so leave a comment, and if you like the "What's on my mind?" series consider showing your support. Until next time C YA!