Rediscovered: Fisher Price Mini Copter (1970)

It’s back to the box o’ goodies again, this time to find one of the very first toys I owned—a Fisher Price Mini Copter. I have absolutely no memory of playing with this toy, but it was definitely in the pile of goodies my folks buried with me in this photograph below from February 1973 (I was 2 yrs. old). Can you see it?

Whoa…I just noticed the Fisher Price Fire Truck in the foreground. Crazy. Anyways. Get to the chopper!

My favorite aspect of this toy is the solution FP came up with for the tail rotor. It’s genius. The simple, three-spoked wheel 1) carries over the three-bladed main rotor in design, 2) simulates the tail rotor perfectly and 3) provides a third wheel for mobility. All seamlessly engineered. It’s the best.

What’s interesting is how they chose to feature three different “Little People” on each windshield panel. They could have easily picked one pilot and shown a front-left-right view accordingly, but instead, it was the perfect way to cross-sell the line. Wow, look! Even a dog can fly the copter!

Image property of Dying In Downey (dig that name!): After seeing this ad, I don’t think there was a Fisher Price toy I didn’t own back in the ’70s. I had all four of those toys pictured, and won’t even begin to name the countless others I had, including at least half the ones pictured in this old Fisher Price magazine ad from 1973 which I found a couple of years ago. Man, Fisher Price just owned the toy industry back then, didn’t they? Geez.