It's funny you had this review. I happen to catch these out of the corner of my eye in a store the other day. Remembering days of my youth I purchased a couple a flew them with my grandkids, what a blast. When I was young I would have to save my money for a week or two so I could buy the big upgrade "rubber band power". Great review

Thanks for the smile, and fond memories...I may have to get one or two to toss around the yard.

" For the fun of it' is right on the money. Anyone else return bottles for the deposit to buy these as a kid? WE also would chase the milkman for chunks of ice to suck on a hot summer day.
Thanks for a sweet memory Mchael.
Rick

This was a great, fun review.

I remember saving my pennies for balsa planes when I was a kid. The little gliders were 10 cents, the rubber band plane with wheels was 25 cents and once in a while I would save a long time for the 50 cent big rubber powered plane with wheels.

One day a little while back I was at the hobby shop and saw a display of balsa toy planes. Even though inflation had increased the prices I still could easily afford a half dozen of them. It made me feel incredibly wealthy!

I passed them out to friends at work and we had an impromptu contest. What fun!

Michael

Thanks for the review. To me, nothing quite matches the thrill of seeing my own rubber powered model floating around in a thermal. I hope we see more of these models reviewed.

John Blankenship

The ones we all bought as kids were likely the the Guillow gliders and rubber powered planes. They still exist and are still produced in springfield mass. The Revell planes are cool, but it bothers me a bit that Guillow will lose more shelf space. The guillow planes used to be everywhere. Lately, I only saw them in Michael's craft stores. Last time I was there, no guillows, but the Revell planes instead.

Oh man...my Pa would occasionally stop at a little store on the way home from work, and bring home a little North Pacific Sleek Streek for me to play with. As I got older, some of my paper route money went to financing a small numbered air force of those little suckers..I had a blast with 'em..thanks for the memories, it was a great article..
Cash

Im 39 , and when i was a kid the rubber powered version went for about 79 cents. I could make one of these babies last for days! The rubber would give out and I would have to tie a couple smaller rubber bands together.

I'd have to agree with everyone else and say looking at this article brings back memories.

When I was ten (which admittedly was only 6 years ago...) I'd buy little balsa gliders all the time. My favorite thing to do would be to cut a little notch in the front and launch them straight up with a rubber band. Did it with paper airplanes too, which works better than expected. Actually, I suddenly remembered when I was about three or four and my dad would buy me these things once in a while, and I'd be amazed. One day I tried to take one out of the packaging so fast I broke the wing, and my dad said he wouldn't buy them anymore. The fact I still remember that trivial detail explains how much I loved the things.

To be honest though, do those gliders really fly? It looks more like, as Woody puts it, "falling with style" me. Hmmm... that's a good trait for a slingshot plane.

Great review, but I have to say it made me sad. Why? Because these models are poor imitations of what many of us grew up with 30 years (or more) ago. No company has offered as much performance per dollar (or per quarter!) than the original North Pacific series, especially the Sleek Streek and Star Flyer models. These models featured contest grade balsa, cambered wings, efficient propellers and front end assemblies, and properly sized rubber motors. Their flight performance with a little adjusting was outstanding. When I see the latest generation of slide-together rubber models with their flat wings, sad looking propellers, and giant rubber bands I feel sorry for kids today. They don't know how good it can be.

Long live the Sleek Streek!

Steve

I recall taking 2 rubber powered ones and overlapping the left and right wings in my wish to have a twin engined Lockheed sort of flyer

thanks for the great review

I remember the North Pacific and Guillows planes, but the best ever were the Jim Walker gliders that had folding wings -- you launched them with a slingshot. One actually got away on me in a thermal!

This biplane interests me because it is clearly an SE5a, and (apart from different surface printing) clearly is the same as ones that I used to have in the UK 35 years ago, and which I was also able to buy in the UK for my daughter a few years ago. There's been some good use made of that tooling over the decades! There is also a Fokker D.VII in the same series, so maybe that will come out as well from Revell.

I agree with Steve though: the Sleek Streek was the greatest model of its kind. I still have a pair of wings for the moulded blue foam version, which was very good, and an original motor stick. I'm planning to make a couple of recreated Sleek Streek copies this summer.

Way to be a wet blanket, mlbco!

Back in MY day, the AJ (Jim Walker) were the only ones available. 74 Fighter (a dime), Interceptor (folding wing, .39 I think), and AJ Hornet (half-a-buck). Twin Engines (as Visigoth said), Biplanes, landing gears -- tree climbing.

My great Aunt once time gave me 5 74 fighters. I felt so rich!! I still ahve a few rubber jobs and a HLG. Need to get these for the grandkids, though.

thanks for the memories.

howell