After many years of looking, watching, and waiting, my last great vehicle find popped up on New Year’s Eve. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what I want to do to it and the not-so-small matter of where I’m going to put it.
In the early 2000s, you could say we were in a bit of a golden age in toy collecting. There were dozens of new startup companies and lines, and retailers overall were a lot more receptive to filling up their toy aisles than they are today. We were definitely transitioning to the online era, but for a little while, we still had that icon of childhoods long past: the store catalog.
In particular, JCPenney had kept their toy department on the catalog, even when most of their stores had deleted it from their floor plans. This had continued into the mid 2000s, when dwindling toy sales and some bad press convinced them to let it die. Remember when the proto-mommy bloggers started wringing their hands about this one? Yeah, around then. You’ve heard me complain about this before.
But screw that (and them). We’re more concerned with the other page:
That there is a little guy hanging out with the Fairland Toy YF-22 Raptor, the only jet vehicle in existence that was ever even remotely scaled to a 1:6 action figure. The word is that in some of the JCPenney’s locations that still had toy sections these monsters were clearanced out for prices around $20 or so. I don’t think they ever made it out to my neck of the woods because I can’t imagine a scenario where I wouldn’t have walked out with one.
Interestingly, there is not a ton of information out there on the particulars of this vehicle. I have only seen a few boxed shots, and though I’d imagine there were a fair amount of clearance purchases, these very rarely come up for sale, and it’s been that way for several years. Fairland Toy apparently produced these just for JCPenney, along with an equally large AH-64 (also in the ad) and a M1A1 Abrams — I believe that one is what I picked up and posted a couple years ago.
Let’s talk dimensions a little bit here. Fully assembled, this YF-22 comes in just under 40 inches long, with a 30-inch wingspan. That’s basically a toddler. But, even then, this is significantly undersized. With production Raptors at 62 feet long and 45-feet spans, That makes it still small for 1:12; it’s actually closer to 1:18, but it isn’t hard to see why they didn’t go any bigger than this. It is massive, handily beating out all of my planes and only losing in wingspan to one of my custom beast bombers. To give you an idea, the F-14 Tomcat (Skystriker) is almost the same length, and has over 20 feet more wing. So that would mean a “true scale” Skystriker would have to be just as long and have another foot-and-a-half of wing as this “1:6 scale” Raptor. Certainly, both these planes rank among the largest fighter aircraft in US service, and both would appropriately dwarf my beloved Harriers, but it’s just crazy to think about.
For features, the YF-22 has a (re)functioning canopy, 4 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles that peg into the wing pylons, and retractable landing gear. The cockpit is very big, open, and empty. A 12-inch pilot fits with no trouble, and I am kind of considering making this a 2-seater for 1:12. Construction is modular, so it is possible to break down into smaller sections for moving. Which is good, because it has to make a sharp bank to clear a doorway.
Now, despite what a massive, heavy chunk of plastic this is, these were never intended to be a high-end collectible. As such, while most of it has survived very well, there are some blemishes in the plastic, one particularly on the wing, a couple missing missiles, and the tab that secured the canopy is long gone. So I’ve added a magnetic catch to the cockpit, to solve one of those issues. The rest, I’ll get to in time.
The YF-22, which, of course, grew into the F-22 Raptor, is currently the most advanced 5th generation fighter on the planet and has only barely been joined by the F-35 as the only two in active service. It’s strange to think about just how recent the F-22 program actually is because it seemed like it was almost old hat by the time this toy was made. When the ATX trials were going on in the early 1990s, this thing was everywhere; all kinds of toys, video games, posters, and so on. Reaching active service in 2005, this toy vehicle, along with the G.I. Joe Valor vs Venom version actually preceded it.
Even stranger, the F-22 has already concluded production, and will continue to only number around 178, making it also one of the rarest birds in air superiority history. I can attest after seeing them at a couple Air Shows and one mock dogfight, where it plucked 6 F-15s out of the sky, this is truly one of the most beautiful and dangerous aircraft ever made. The terms YF-22 and F-22 are probably interchangeable in this case, seeing as the YF-22 prototype is very likely what the toy was based on, there are some differences between the two, as F-22A is the actual production combat aircraft. If we were talking a model kit, there would be some cosmetic things I could point out more clearly, but as this is a more “generic” toy rendition, I think either designation is fine.
So now that it’s place in my collection is assured, I have to set about adding some 1:12 features to it, and figuring out how it will be displayed. Like I mentioned, I sort of want to make this a 2-seater, and interestingly if I pop the tailplanes out, it looks very similar to the proposed FB-22 Strike Raptor- basically an enlarged F-22 with co-pilot and internal bomb bay. But if I add the single seat, I would have the closest thing I will ever get to an accurate 5th generation fighter plane. Scratch that, it will be the closest I ever get to having a fighter plane perio — well, let’s not be too hasty. Some guys go out and buy $100,000 sports cars when they have mid-life crises. I imagine I’ll do something a little different. If you guys would be interested in a follow-up, once I get the cockpit and paints done, let me know in the comments below.
