The Merchandise GuideEagle Models: Product Enterprise Eagles
Compiled by Martin Willey
The Merchandise Guide
The Retro Eagle Freighter is a companion to the Retro Eagle Transporter released in May 2019. This version was first announced in August 2019, for November release; it slipped to January 2020 (arriving in February).
This is set 9 in the series, although the number is no longer used on any packaging.
The original Dinky Freighter was white, but they have based their "1975" Eagle on the later blue version (from 1977-1979). The original Freighter pod looked nothing like anything in the series, so they have just used a standard cargo pallet.
This is a repainted version of set 1 cargo pallet. The nuclear waste cans have the Dinky yellow colour. The box is based on the Dinky 1975 bubble box, but the blue Freighter never came in this box (only the white Freighter). Although it's not authentic to the series or Dinky, Sixteen 12 have increased the limited edition size from 500 (for the Transporter) to 1000.
The box is slightly different dimensions to the standard box- 38.5cm x 33cm x 11cm. The design follows the Retro Eagle Transporter, with a 1980s Sinclair Spectrum "Retro" logo and the date 1975 (as mentioned above, the blue Freighter actually dates to 1977).
Children's TV shows of the 1970s were fantastic.
They were ground breaking, they were imaginative, they were intelligent... but most of all they were inspirational.
Even shows such as Star Maidens still made some of us want to rush into the garden with a Starcruiser model kit, a Super 8mm camera, and a box of matches!
I don't know anyone, 50 years on, whose career path or hobbies haven't been influenced in some manner by the excitement and originality of these television shows.
Series such as UFO, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who and Space: 1999 led to the creation of some of the most exciting and colorful toys and kits of this glorious era.
So... in celebration of this inspirational decade of children's television, we present our homage to the toys and packaging design of the time with our Retro Eagle Freighter.
May our imaginations always be fired!
Although presumably written in the UK, the text uses the American spelling of "colourful".
The reproduction box has the original Dinky number on the side (360), with Dinky's logo swapped to that of Sixteen 12. The original Dinky box has yellow illustrations showing the functionality of the model (the winch, magnet and remove the pod); the Sixteen 12 model does not have those features, and no illustrations are present. Instead, we get a large Alpha Moonbase logo.
The yellow nuclear waste cans have the more accurate markings of the Breakaway Eagle ("Danger Radiation Hazard"); they are not based on the Dinky markings ("Danger Waste Material", later "Fuel Waste Container").
Pictures thanks to Gordon Moriguchi. The Dinky Eagle box is the 1975 original design (for the white Dinky Eagle Freighter); the blue Dinky Eagle is the 1977-1979 version.
Copyright Martin Willey