Sea King Helicopter with Apollo capsule (Dinky Toys 724)
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Sea King Helicopter with Apollo capsule (Dinky Toys 724).jpg) (i)
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A boxed blue and white model motorised "Sea King" Helicopter with winch, and Apollo space capsule, Dinky Toys model no. 724.
The model has a hatch in the side for fitting an AA-size battery, which powers the main rotor. The helicopter also has a thumbwheel-operated winch, and came with a floating plastic Apollo space programme space capsule with an eyelet for attaching a hook, so the pack was essentially a space capsule recovery set, with lots of play value.
Packaging
The 'copter comes with a special card plinth "diorama" reminiscent of the slide-out plinthed display packaging used on the 1960s Corgi Toys Batmobile and James Bond Aston Martin DB5. When you open the main box, there's a slide-out interior layer of packaging that had the card plinth and a background, that's initially folded over the contents. An ingenious piece of artwork shows an angled ship's deck, with the actual model helicopter parked on it, with a section of sea bottom-right where the capsule sits, and the top left area is a region of sky with an image of another retrieval helicopter.
Later releases omitted the two-stage box and diorama background, and just used the plinth part with a vacuum-formed clear "plastic bubble" cover.
Real helicopter versions
The background to this Dinky Toy is a little confusing: it's sometimes listed as the "Westland Sea King" (which was used by the Royal Navy), and if you didn't apply the optional US Navy decals that came with the bubble-packed helicopter, then, yes, you could get away with treating it as the version produced by Westland for the UK.
However, the US version was actually designed and built by Sikorsky, and if you were playing with the model and treating it as a British helicopter, you had to find some reason why a British 'copter would be winching a US space capsule.
Dinky Helicopter versions
The basic "helicopter with winch and motor" design was so good that Meccano Ltd. also produceda German Bundesmarine version of the Sea King, with black rotors, a grey body with red highlights, as Dinky Toys 736.
The Bundesmarine version probably explains why subsequent issues of 724 had the blue push-fit rotorblades (main and tail) replaced with black versions, so that the same stock of plastic parts could be used for both models.
Capsule versions
At some point, the white plastic space capsule was replaced with a slightly nasty egg-yolk-yellow version.
Kit version
The Dinky Kits range also included a version of the helicopter, unassembled and unpainted, as Dinky Kit 1040. However, this didn't include the space capsule.
Background
The "Sea King" was originally a Sikorsky design, with the Royal Navy's version being a "localised" variant built under licence by Westland – at first glance the Westland and Sikorsky "Sea Kings" look like the same aircraft with different markings. However, the Westland version was fitted with different (Rolls Royce) engines, and ended up with quite different avionics due to its different operational requirements – the US version was meant to operate from an aircraft carrier as part of an integrated response team, whereas the UK version had a more stand-alone role, and therefore (for example) had a much greater need for its own decent radar system.
The Westland "Sea King" was in service with the Royal Navy from 1969 to 2018.
External links
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