Comments on: Mattel SuperStar Sky Show Plane

By: Matso Limtiaco

Matso Limtiaco — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:15:40 +0000

This was the coolest of its type back in the day. At the time my dad and I were also experimenting with U-control (the Cox P-39, I think), but the Mattel was way easier to handle. I remember flying it on an absolutely still day and chasing it for several hundred yards across a big grassy field near the beach in Guam. The main problem was that a hard landing could destroy the styrofoam wings, and after two or three patches they just wouldn’t hold together any longer. I can’t remember if we ever tried to get spare parts for it…

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:01:00 +0000

I also had one when I was 11 or 12. Flew it in the tomato field behind my house. Most memorable flight was one when I gave a “lucky” caterpillar a ride. I put him in the plastic propeller shaft support housing that clipped to the left side of the power plant shown in the picture above. Off went the plane. Flew for a little while then the propeller stopped abruptly. FAA later determined the cause of the subsequent crash was the caterpillar entering the drive gears. Poor little fella. Guess I should have seen that coming though.

By: Steven P. Williams

Steven P. Williams — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:40:55 +0000

I too was one of those boys who just had to have a SuperStar plane. My father was a pilot in the early 70’s and that meant that I had to have one of these cool new panes. I can remember seeing the TV ad showing a boy and his father getting ready for a launch. The boy was the actor who played BOBBY on the Brady Bunch show. If HE had one one of these panes then I had to have one as well. My dad gave one to me and my brother on Chirstmas day 1973. We wanted to take the planes to our local school yard SOOOOO badly. The day came for our first flight and sure enough…it took off and did it’s thing and came right back to us just like the commercials showed it would. After a having move and experincing the woeful negligence of 2 liitle boys, the planes were doomed to destruction. Years later BEFORE ebay was invented, I was working on developing an international toy business when some one showed up with a MINT- in- the- box SuparStar… and I just had to have it!. I have been carrying this plane around with me for almost 15 years now and it too has lost it’s sizzle for me.
I am offering it for sale for the mere sum of $250.00! That may seem like a lot but find me another in mint condition…and then the price MAY go down. Contact me any time…Steven P. Williams email at mrwilliamswhirlingwheels@yahoo.com
Renton Washington

By: Mike Calhoun

Mike Calhoun — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:34:16 +0000

I bought one of these when I was 11 or 12 – one of the few times I actually saved my allowance to get something! It was outrageously expensive, something like $10 or $12 at the K-mart store in Garland, Texas. I flew at at the park adjacent to my elementary school, usually without the discs, so it would just fly in a circle (the park wasn’t really all that big). It flew great until the day it hit a chain link fence and broke the prop. I don’t know how many different ways I tried to glue that prop back together, but it never worked. Wish I’d thought to write to Mattel ………

By: Bryan Davis

Bryan Davis — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:07 +0000

I remember this toy, I’m the younger brother of two that did not get one in xmas 1974 or 75, but along with a neighbor kid and my brother, I remember taking the SKY SHOW to a undeveloped field and flying them. My brother was always good at isntructions until this project came. I remember him launching his plane-probably without the disc and it kept flying out of our reach and landed on the top of a warehouse building. We tried to recover the unit but the owners were not cooperative with us as kids. On the othere hand my neighbors unit flew perfectly, launching the chute as well.
Yep I was a kid in the 70’s and remember all the boys stuff, even the girls stuff because of 3 sisters. My favorite was the mattell “Whirley Bird”, helicopter that basically flew on a stick; although I was about 7-8 years old, I could not get enough of this toy.