Blast from the past

Styrofoam Gliders

Those born in the 80's might know what a Styrofoam glider is. This was a toy which I remember playing a lot when I was a kid and almost every sundry shop sells it. The entire toy is made from Styrofoam and the best thing is that it glides without much effort. Just flick it with your wrist and it will happily glide across the room. I remember assembling it and spending hours just throwing it in the air, running after it once it landed just to pick it up and start the process all over again.

 

I'm surprised to be able to find it at a shop in the wet market. I thought this type of toys went extinct the day the tablet and smartphone was introduced to kids. The shop was selling this at MYR 0.70. This could be the cheapest and most fun toy available in today's market. The model I picked was the North American Mustang MK2.

Front of packaging

Back of packaging

 

The instructions on how to assemble the plane is shown at the back of the packaging. Also shown at the back are the numerous different type of design available. There are a total of 12 different gliders to choose from.

 

After opening the package, slowly remove the contents and this is what you will get:

 

Contents stacked up nicely

 

Top parts of the plane

 

Bottom parts of the plane

 

As can be seen, the Styrofoam has a printed design of the plane. The only piece which was printed on both sides is the body. The rest are just printed on the top part which kind of make sense. When you are holding/throwing the plane, no one will bother to look at the bottom anyways.

 

To assemble the wings and horizontal stabilizer is simple. There are 2 holes on the main body. The one in front is for the wings and the one at the back is for the horizontal stabilizer. Just insert the wings to the front and the horizontal stabilizer to the back. Just make sure you insert the parts slowly. Remember: they are Styrofoam and they break easy.

 

2 holes on the main body

 

After some slow and careful method was deployed, the completed plane can be seen.

 

Almost completed plane

 

Notice the white plastic on the top of the nose? That is the weight for the plane to make sure that when the plane lands, it lands with the nose pointing down. Another reason for the weight is to protect the plane when it hits a hard object like a wall. This will make the plane last longer so that it is able to add more flight hours.

 

There were suppose to have a small pin to attach the propeller to the nose. Either I have lost that part when I was taking it out of the packaging or they did not include it with my plane. Either way, the plane still 'fly' nicely and I'm not complaining.