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Being bored at work yesterday we were chatting in the office about where my heli addiction comes from, and looking back it seems my Dad has a lot to answer for. As a 9 year old in the early seventies I saw this advert...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k6AUP4mS9g"]YouTube- Mattel VertiBird Air Police TV commercial[/ame]
...I was grabbed, gotta have one! gotta have one! Please Dad Please?
Then Christmas 1974 he got me one! Now I dont expect todays playstatation generation to get this post at all but as some of the older members might testify this was the nuts!
It actually flew under its own power by virtue of a spinning wire up the flexible arm, (like a torque tube really) and forward and reverse were controlled by tilting the body. Hours and hours were spent playing on this, so much so that I wore it out and got another one the next Christmas!
Fuelled by nostalgia I had a little look on the WWW and in the virtual world where absolutely anything is available there are some for sale. Not cheap, but there is a following.
But perhaps even more jaw dropping is the fact that some Vertibird enthuisiast has gone and designed his own Vertibird sim!
VertiSim Home Page
Its a bit tricky operating it with keyboard buttons instead of the plastic levers, but I'm back in 1974, on my bedroom floor stopping bad guys again!
If you're over 40 bored and the weather's too bad to fly, stick on a Slade album, a stripey tank top, fire up the sim, and feel the 70's again!
If you're under 40 bored and the weather's too bad to fly, stick on a Slade album, a stripey tank top, fire up the sim, and try to imagine a time when this was as good as it got!!!!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k6AUP4mS9g"]YouTube- Mattel VertiBird Air Police TV commercial[/ame]
...I was grabbed, gotta have one! gotta have one! Please Dad Please?
Then Christmas 1974 he got me one! Now I dont expect todays playstatation generation to get this post at all but as some of the older members might testify this was the nuts!
It actually flew under its own power by virtue of a spinning wire up the flexible arm, (like a torque tube really) and forward and reverse were controlled by tilting the body. Hours and hours were spent playing on this, so much so that I wore it out and got another one the next Christmas!
Fuelled by nostalgia I had a little look on the WWW and in the virtual world where absolutely anything is available there are some for sale. Not cheap, but there is a following.
But perhaps even more jaw dropping is the fact that some Vertibird enthuisiast has gone and designed his own Vertibird sim!
VertiSim Home Page
Its a bit tricky operating it with keyboard buttons instead of the plastic levers, but I'm back in 1974, on my bedroom floor stopping bad guys again!
If you're over 40 bored and the weather's too bad to fly, stick on a Slade album, a stripey tank top, fire up the sim, and feel the 70's again!
If you're under 40 bored and the weather's too bad to fly, stick on a Slade album, a stripey tank top, fire up the sim, and try to imagine a time when this was as good as it got!!!!
Never did get it 
That's the one! 
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