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Cheap Buys: 1/300 Scale Hot Wheels Blimp


Blimp
Product #
Aerial Attack #4
Manufacturer
Suggested Retail Price
$0.97 USD


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Devil Dice writes:

File off the Gondola , paint it black , and you have a very big nasty looking bomb to build a scenario around.


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30 October 2007page first published

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The Good News
You can pick up a toy blimp in the local toy department for less than a dollar, and it is approximately 1/300 scale.
The Bad News
It's more toylike that you can tell from the package.

Mattel has brought out the Aerial Attack series for their Hot Wheels line of toy cars. There are four toys in the series, and #4 is the Blimp. This is apparently a re-release of a 1991 model (that's the model's copyright date), possibly with a new paint job.

Blimp

Peering into the package, you see a swirly-grey colored blimp with psychadelic art titled Hot Air Sky Swami. The blimp's nose is ribbed, and the four-vaned tail is purple plastic. The gondola is chromed, with two thruster bulges at the rear and a "landing flange" around the bottom - but no painted details (no windows!).

The packaging says "Rotating sign!" - and when you get the toy out of the packaging, you find that the backside of the blimp has a rectangular opening. By turning the tail, you can make two messages appear (basically, the swami saying 'yes' or 'no') or you can go for blank space.

The answer is 'no'!

Unfortunately, with my sample, when you twist the tail to change the messages, the blimp's hull starts to crack along the seams.

So it's undetailed, it's flimsy, it's toylike - but the gondola measures 7mm tall (about 1/300 scale), and the price at Wal-Mart was only $0.97 USD.

Other models in the Aerial Attack series are two prop planes and a helicopter.