Airport Playsets

I was looking through a catalog of airplane merchandise and recalled that they used to sell this stuff at airport terminals years ago. For instance, at the American Airlines Terminal at JFK, they used to sell playsets featuring an American Airlines aircraft and several cars,etc. This was a good way to get kids interested in aviation. For the past several years, I can't find any airplane or airliner merchandise available at local NYC airports. I recall an airplane shop at EWR which sold model airplanes, posters, captains' hats, etc. JFK had such a shop, too. Nowadays, this merchandise must be ordered over the internet or through catalogs. I guess that sales were slow at airports so they stopped selling these great items. Sad.

All the airport gift stores still sell these, I see them at every major and most smaller airport stores I travel to.

They should have "the airplane shop" in the nyc area airports and/or in the city.(Manhattan)

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Originally Posted by jetblue187

They should have "the airplane shop" in the nyc area airports and/or in the city.(Manhattan)

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They used to ba an Airplaneshop at JFK years back, when the terminal was 4E at the time. I bought models from there along time ago.. But yea I wish there was one again in the NYC area..

The giftshop or bookstore in the US Airways terminal had the playset and just a few Gemini Jets a year ago when I flew through there.

Speaking of airport playsets...lets see if any of you had this when you were a kid.

When I was growing up, I believe the maker was Kenner, and it was a "JFK Airport Playset". Came with a Little terminal building, where you lifted up the base of the control tower slipped on a cheap little record and it played ATC transmissions, came with a red hangar with 3 bays, one for AA/TW/and PA, along with 3 white 707's and a runway carboard mat,

I actually had 2 of these and had them up until I was 14 and they got lost when we moved

Also had a huge UA 727-100, that was all white plastic, the front door opened and the rear stairs, ran on batteries and was loud. This thing was huge, and I lost this when I moved also at 14, actually got smashed by the movers


Now I am showing my age

Don't recall who made it, but I had a pretty neat plastic Federal Express 727, about the size of a Tonka truck. It came with three cargo containers, and had a working cargo door and a knob you could turn that would move the containers in and out.

I got a Schabak die-cast Concorde several years back. It was so cute; the nose would actually droop. Unfortunately, the nose snapped-off as did the visor. I guess that's why the model was discontinued. It came in various liveries. I never knew about a JFK Playset. It should have been sold in the airline shop at JFK's IAB 4E, but I never saw any.

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Speaking of airport playsets...lets see if any of you had this when you were a kid.

When I was growing up, I believe the maker was Kenner, and it was a "JFK Airport Playset". Came with a Little terminal building, where you lifted up the base of the control tower slipped on a cheap little record and it played ATC transmissions, came with a red hangar with 3 bays, one for AA/TW/and PA, along with 3 white 707's and a runway carboard mat,

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It was VOICE CONTROL KENNEDY AIRPORT, and as the TV commercial said "The tower calls and tells you what to do"

It came with a board game type layout of the runway, small plastic 707's, a Lear Jet and a Twin rotor helicopter.

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Also had a huge UA 727-100, that was all white plastic, the front door opened and the rear stairs, ran on batteries and was loud. This thing was huge, and I lost this when I moved also at 14, actually got smashed by the movers

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I remember seeing this hanging from the ceiling in FAO Schwartz. I never got one though and always regretted it. I did get an metal, Aero-Mini Pan Am 747 which I still have to this day (along with a BOAC VC-10, Eastern DC-8-63, Blue Brannif 727, and TWA DC-9-14 among others)

When I was like 9 in 1977 I got the Matchbox Airport playset with a bunch of Matchbox "Skybusters" airplanes for Xmas. The Airport was a vinyl case that folded out to display 2 runways, taxiway and ramp spaces, as well as surrounding roads for your Matchbox vehicles. The set also came with a cardboard terminal and tower that you folded together and completed the '3D' effect for the set. It's long gone but I still have 2 of the Skybusters airliners, a BA 747 and SwissAir DC-10 on my shelf.

I was in Walmart the other day and luckily for kids today, little die cast airplanes are still around for kids to get their hands on. Skybusters are still around, and while most are pretty toy like they had a few realistic ones. They had a nice looking Citation X and a Alaska 737. Paint was a lot more detailed then my 30 year old models.

The also have Hot Wings and another line by Maisto which looked very detailed (mostly military). I'll be starting my son on them when he's just a tad older!

Now, anyone remember Bachman Mini Planes?? I think at 75c a plane back then I must have bought the whole rack over time!

Pete

That was it...The Voice Control Kennedy Airport.

And I remember the Bachmann had a ton of those, and the Matchbox Airport, and Ertl had a set of aircraft, TWA L-1011/BN 727 blue/EA DC-9/AA 707/UA DC-10/and PA 747. At the same time a play set came out called "Girder and Panels" and they had a International Airport, which my dad got me 2 and we built an airport for my ERTL planes

Have a few of the Aero Mini TWA DC-9/727/UA 737-200/NW 727 and OZ DC-9

The Bachmann I still have a PA 747 and TWA 707

I still have all of these

I have seen the UA 727 on Ebay once and never again and never a Kennedy Airport Play set

Gosh those were the days