H is for a Hover of Hong Kong Helicopters

I'm rather pleased with these pictures, nothing special, just a nice juxtaposition of 'cheepie' helicopters covering 60-odd years of both toy production and helicopter usage in combat.

On the left is a modern/current production pound-shop toy from the nineteen-nineties through to the noughties [awful bloody word], and showing in the inimitable style of Hong Kong/Chinese toy producers, the sort of command/control/utility helicopter flitting around in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The middle machine (with a bit of a mend on the rotor!) is the classic HK take on the UH1B 'Huey' or 'Slick' of Vietnam and the drug wars of the 1960's, 70's and 80's and was a typical rack-toy inclusion in carded sets of the late 1970's/80's. I have a couple of complete ones but they both have red plastic rotors and look a bit silly - even by HK standards!

While on the right in each picture is an early HK toy dating from the late 1950's to the early 70's and while also trying to depict a UH1, seems to carry some of the earlier 'chopper' styling of the Korean conflict or a dozen brush-fire/colonial-exit conflicts about it.

Each given a vaguely corresponding figure from Airfix as a scale reference.