[John]
First let me say that remembering this toy brings so many memories back that its overwhelming. I need to find one as I can't stop thinking about flying it again. My dad was into RC Planes so everything that had to due with planes ,we had as kids. I just lost my dad and all I think about are planes as I inherited all of his hobby. I have a son who I would love to fly a Dareplane with as I can't teach him to fly RC as he is to young. I still remember the smell of the cable after it got heated up. I remember waiting for the cables to come in the mail after it would break. My dad finally ordered half a dozen cables and a extra set of wings. It took a long time for me to find the name of Dareplane as I found it through the Vertibird.

[LisaJoe]
Merry Christmas!

My wife and I just put up my old family tree from when I was a kid. It's the old aluminum type, with the big red glass bulb ornaments all over it. That's the way that I will always think of Christmas when I was a kid....... that old silver tree with red balls on it and plenty of presents under it. I had just turned eleven years old about a month before Christmas of 1972 and desperately wanted a Mattel Dareplane. I had seen the commercials on TV and made no bones about the fact that I thought that it was simply the most wonderful thing that had been invented by man except for the BB gun. To make a long story short - I did get one for Christmas that year! Halleluiah! When I tore the paper off of that big box and saw the picture on the front I literally let out a loud squeal and rolled backward on the floor from the way I was kneeling and kicked my legs up in the air in a sort of bicycle pumping motion. When I finally burned off enough energy to return to the world around me I immediately grabbed the box, ran downstairs to the lower floor of our bi-level house and started to try to set the whole thing up without having even taken one glance at the instructions! The high-flying spirit of my exhilaration was immediately shot down in flames by my mother who, with the rest of my family, was still upstairs opening the remainder of their Christmas presents with a somewhat more measured sense of glee. She, along with Dad too, wanted me to come back upstairs and open the rest of my presents and "ooh" and "ahh" over the gifts that they had worked hard and sacrificed for. I reluctantly complied and trudged back up the stairs to share in that family time that I now treasure more than ever.

When, after what seemed an eternity, I was finally given permission to go downstairs I immediately raced back down and started "settin' 'er up"! I think my older brother helped me, probably because the sheer power of my exhilaration must have migrated to him somehow. We both got it set up and were flying in short order. I honestly don't recall playing with a single thing that day besides that Dareplane. My brother liked it too though he was 5 years older than I and I did have to harness the authority of my parents more than once that day to convince my brother that it was my Dareplane and not his and that, although I was willing to let him partake of the joys of flying the amazing toy, I was the lord of that particular section of our families brown and white tile floor that day! I decided when he played with it and when he didn't. Boy! What a Christmas!

Unfortunately, my bliss was rudely cut short when my Dareplane began to malfunction that same day! I couldn't get enough RPM to the plane to keep it aloft and slowly, over the course of an hour or two after I began noticing the problem the little plane would fly no more. My brother and I examined the entire set as best we could and concluded that the tether that ran from the tower to the plane had become fouled with plastic shreds. Well , at least had the other, longer, tether to use so we switched to it and late into the night on Christmas night it began to show the same symptoms of the prior tether. After about 16 hours of playing with my beloved new toy, it was broken! I was mortified! How could this happen?

After all kinds of attempts to repair the toy by me, my brother and my father we all came to the conclusion that the tiny cable that ran inside of the plastic hose-like tether had chewed away the plastic on the inside of the tether. As it twisted around and around at a fairly high RPM and as the tiny cable chewed away more and more plastic on the inside ,it (the plastic) for the lack of having anywhere else to go, would ball up and eventually crowd the tiny cable and through friction act as a kind of brake being applied to the cable itself. Then, as the friction increased so did the heat and the whole thing would seize up with no way to fix it. The same thing happened to both tethers.

My mother, being the thrifty one of the family, became mildly enraged at the incredibly short life of this piece of junk that she had scrimped and saved from my dad's precious earnings to buy for me and literally searched the entire city of Louisville, Kentucky to find! She was going to be "damned" if Mattel was going to get away with this! With her help I drafted a letter to Mattel (I think I wrote it) and explained the problem as best I could and how disappointed I was at it's short lifespan at my house. After about 2 weeks the postman delivered to my house a brand new Dareplane set! I was ecstatic! The next day(I swear I'm not making this up!) I received another Dareplane set! I - was - in - heaven! Unfortunately, after about two to three weeks of playing with both of the sets I managed to seize up all of the tethers that there were. I eventually became disheartened and gave up on them (all 3 sets) and they eventually made it to the trash. But oh! The joy of that Christmas day in 1972 ( I'm pretty sure that it was '72 but it has been a long time since then). "The Dareplane story" became a tradition at my Mom and Dad's home for many years at Christmastime. We laughingly would rehash the tale for years until, sadly, my Mother passed away in 1999. My Dad has since remarried and my wife and I spend part of our holidays with them but it isn't the same, the stories don't come forth. Now those reminiscences of my most memorable childhood Christmas live only in my own mind for it doesn't seem right somehow to tell them anymore at family gatherings.Though in my mind, I still go back there , to that house in Valley Station, Kentucky, and squeal and kick my feet in the air and fly my beloved Dareplane.

[Larry "houdini"]
The dareplane was the best toy ever sold. However, I am not saying it was the most reliable.

I had to contribute to this site because I must admit, the dareplane was a "great" toy. For Mattel to try and market a product that had such a large margin for failure. They too must have had
some great times with the product during the development phase.

I remember getting my first one for Christmas. I actually found it under my parents bed prior to the holiday. My brother and I actually opened the box / assembled (no stickers) / took it for a test spin and put it back in the box. Amazingly my parents never knew of our test flights! (we even had to vacuum the carpet because of the circular pattern it created in the living room floor)

Needless to say, I broke it the first week after Christmas. My dad and I drove over to Mattel Toys
(Corp.) They immediately gave us a new one! I did however forget to included the fight cables on returning the first one, so I was excited to now have 4 cables.( 2 long, 2 short). My second one also broke in a week or two of operation.

Here is a list of product failures we encountered with the two sets.
1. Brass (square shaped) drive release, fell off propeller drive shaft. This seated inside one of the gears in body of plane.
2. Spring push/pull wire breaking off elevator control handle.
3. Brass speed control contact breaking. (you know about that already!)
4. Foam wings breaking apart.
5. Plastic vacuum form body breaking apart.

My dad and I "actually" had some great fun, in trying to keep my plane flying!!!!
Sense then, I have encountered the need to fix and fly a few more of these planes.

Thanks for the memories,
Larry "houdini"

[Kevin]
Hi there,

Stumbled across your web site and thought I would say hello. This brought back some major memories. As a kid, my parents got me the first year, first edition Vertibird (orange, with astronaut and life raft) and I loved it alot. My uncle noticed this, and when I came to visit him, he took out a brand new Dareplane that he had bought for me. This must have been the original version you mention, although I don't remember the physical style of the plane that well, I know that it was a plug in, and another feature different than my Vertibird is that the controls were much larger. This plane would really fly, and needed alot of room to work.

Contrary to the experiences of others, I played with this thing for hours and hours and hours with not even a hiccup. I remember thinking that it was really amazing. I outgrew it, (or so I thought) and my uncle ended up giving it to my cousin, and HE played with it for a long time. I don't know what happened to it, but I do know that it did not break, as unbelievable as that sounds next to the experiences of others.

Quality control issues aside, this was, without a doubt, one of the finest toys ever made. You really flew it...now kids are more interested in staring at a computer screen that gives you the ILLUSION that you are flying something.

Regards,

Kevin

[Wayne]
My Story:
Received my Dareplane for Christmas. After less than a week, my Dareplane failed as I now find out happened to many others. Probably a good thing given it had a few dents and scratches I put on it while learning to fly it. Returned it and got another one at the store... and the same thing happened.
My parents wrote a letter to Mattel and Mattel sent me 2 brand new Dareplanes. In addition, I still had the broken one. I played with one of the new ones and used the broken one for spare wings and stuff. I kept one brand new in the box as I thought I would want to have it forever. I didn't play my Dareplane too much (fearing it would break again) so between two old ones and a bit of plastic cutting and repairing, I kept one of them going at all times.... and still kept the new one in the box never opened. Here's the bad part - the year I went to college, my parents moved and ended up selling most everything in a garage sale - including my brand new mint Dareplane!!! It is the only toy or anything else I ever tried to save or collect and it still angers me to this day.

End of the story... and now the present.

I was delighted to find the Vertibird clone for sale at Target (Kooltoyz) for $15.99. I bought one for my son and find myself playing with it quite a bit. I saw via ebay and your website the new areplane clone but am trying to find out where I can buy one. The ebay site is selling it for $50.00.... a total ripoff and I refuse to be taken like this (they are also selling the same vertibird clone for $35.00 - 2X what you can get it for at target). Let me know if you find a place where I can order or buy the Barn Stormer Dareplane. I've told my kids of my airplane story and would love to show them in person.

Thanks for your help and for your site - brings back lots of memories.

Wayne

[Mike]
Hi,

Saw your site. I loved my dareplane. Mine was never returned for the recall but it had several issues over time...

Transformers: The control did run warm. Never hot, but warm. I remember taking mine apart when it finally died for good. The rheostat obviously contributed to the heat, especially if you weren't running full throttle.

Control cable: I know mine was replaced at least twice. I recall that they were easily kinked

Prop drive: Big weak area! The spring release for nose first crashes eventually wore the drive gear out. It would make it slip when trying to fly. You know that sound of grinding gears when you nose it into the ground? Mine started doing that on full throttle starts & stunts.

When my wings were no longer repairable I pulled them off and used the plane as a stunt car. I jumped it off ramps. I always wished the plane had headlights. I liked to fly mine in the dark. It would have been cool if it had sound effects too.

Safety issues? I suppose if the transformer was left plugged in for days, it would get too hot for UL. There probably wasn't a lot of venting in the case. Even though the prop had rubber tips, it would hurt if you got your fingers in it. I imagine it would do a number on an eye if some moron put his face in the way.

In the end, I think the toy was just too fragile for most kids. It was not easy to store. Mine lasted over a year. I played with it every day for weeks. Someday I might spend the $2-250 and get another new or mint one.

Mike

[Charlie]
Thanks very much for the great site. I've spent years looking in toy stores for anything like a dareplane since mine broke when I was a tike. finally got a semi-working one off ebay, but it could use some help when I get time. haven't even tried to fly it yet with its funky cables.

I enjoyed your repair page (dremel) with the pictures and descriptions. I was always a tinkerer as a kid, and I conscripted my dareplane power supply into service on my vertibird when the dareplane broke. worked perfectly, and I never bought batteries again. even used to use the dareplane power supply to light firecrackers remotely by putting the fuse in a spring between the terminals, and cranking it up until it got red hot and lit the fuse like an idiot, I gave the vertibird and dareplane power supply away when I got older. Paid a pretty penny for used ones on ebay this year.

Charlie also submitted some flying hints, included at the bottom of the stunts page.

you absolutely NAILED the wonder of the dareplane with this description: "The amazing thing about the Dareplane is that it was, in essence, a real plane. You didn't just fire it up and fly it. It took some time to develop your skills. Once you mastered it, you could loop, dive, and fly it like a real plane. In many ways it was the next best thing to having an RC plane in your house."

It has always sorta bummed me out that no toy maker ever made an improved dareplane. what a great toy to teach kids the art of aviation. while Ilove the vertibird, the vertibird couldn't hope to imitate a real helicopter in that price range or anything near it. a fixed-wing aircraft is much simpler, and the dareplane is, as you said, a real plane, albeit one hampered with a permanent tendency to skid, in mandatory, perpetual turns. ; )

it's great to see your page, and if you ever get into the parts/repair end of it like over at whirlybird, i'm sure you'll have more than enough business. thanks again.

Charley

[John]
Dear Mr. Dareplane Dude,
I was the owner of a dareplane in 1972, I was 12 years old, and you are right, they were the coolest. I must have been one of the lucky ones, though, because mine lasted for years. That is, until the day I accidently stepped on it and was broken hearted. I am writing to you mainly because of my excitement to be the very first visitor on your website. I was on-line with Whirlybird, trying to locate the Dareplane cousin, Vertibird, for my son for this Christmas. I am glad to be reminded that although we grew up in about the most blah decade in history, we did have some cool toys. Thanks for the website,
John