Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter (1:64)

This is a casting Corgi got their money's worth out of with a number of movie tie-ins, Superman, James Bond etc, some Police versions and later on some promos, it was made well into the post Mettoy era, the last version I am aware of is the 2001 James Bond Stromberg version

The first outing was in June 1978 from the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me (926) as flown by Naomi and shot down by Bond, this was deleted in in 1980, but came back twice more in the post-Mettoy era. The second release was in August 1978 (927), this is a TV related model supporting an Australian TV series made in 1978 and 1979, there was a Jeep & trailer to go with it. The helicopter has a small winch below to help with those tricky rescues. Corgi made the chopper from 1978 to 1980, it was always metallic blue with white trim, this does not seem to have been a big seller and consequently it is scarce and prices are quite high.

Next came the Superman version (929) released in June 1979. Here we have the Superman franchise being thoroughly sweated with the introduction of an eye in the sky for those newshounds at the Daily Planet, City of Metropolis' premier daily paper. The Daily Planet Jet 'copter was released in June 1979. It is always red with a white underside and has large paper 'Daily Planet' labels on the sides. The helicopter was deleted from the range after a year in 1980. This short run and the popularity of the Superman franchise keep values high. In August 1979 along came another Bond version, this time Drax's Helicopter from Moonraker (930), it was deleted in 1981.

There was a Police release in July 1980 (931), deleted in 1981, I've not been able to find one of these so far.

There have been a number of post Mettoy releases some of which are shown below.