Skybirds Airport (boxed set)
The Skybirds Airport box set (which was being advertised in Meccano Magazine in 1933) was a rather nice thing.
Description
With (internal?) dimensions of ten inches by ten inches by thirty-six inches, the set (when closed) consisted of a long thin box that you might expect to contain a roll of paper.
Opened out, the front panel folded down flat to provide a ten-inch extension of the floor inside the box, giving a total floor area of three feet wide by twenty inches deep. Similarly, the lid opened upright to give a ten-inch extension to the back panel of the box, producing a backdrop of fields and sky, twenty inches high by three feet wide (one quarter fields, then the horizon, then three-quarters sky). The background printing extended onto the two ten-inch-square side pieces.
The floor of the opened box ("tarmac") was finished in a sandy-looking colour. Additionally, the set had a green "mat" (landing field) with a big bold white circle and the word SKYBIRDS emblazoned across it at an angle. The mat is listed as being 43 by 36", and fits sideways inside the box if rolled up, which makes us suspect that the mat was exactly 36 inches wide, and that the 36 inches listed for the box dimensions was probably the interior size.
The idea would seem to be that the box opened to give an airport playset ready-use, with planes stowed in the hangar, and any additional planes partly protected from rattling around in the box by the rolled-up mat.
Contents
The box was sold either empty or populated by buildings: the advertising shows it containing items 24 (Heston Hangar), 28 (Brooklands Control Tower), and 29 (Brooklands Club Building)
Display
Although we have all the buildings used for the set, we don't have the box itself. Our original plan with the Hatley collection was to produce an opened replica of the Skybirds Airport boxed set, and use this to display the range. However, the sheer size of the opened box and mat turns out to be just too big for our display space. So instead we'll be backing the Skybirds shelf with a backdrop similar to the box backdrop, and lining it with buildings, and using a slightly reduced-scale replica of the "landing field" mat, to give the shelf its branding identity.
