c.1954 Yonezawa, Trans World Airlines DC-7 in Original Box
Yonezawa manufactured this excellent rendition of the Douglas DC-7 in lithographed tinplate over 50 years ago. It's friction drive motor causes all four of its twin mounted propellers to rotate simultaneously. Great toy in excellent+ to near mint condition comes complete with its original box. Elegantly detailed TWA (Trans World Airlines) passenger airplane with embossed wing flaps and cockpit. A combination of gray-green, white, red, and blue it was lithoed with the five TWA logo's, two Trans World Airlines logos, three registration number logos, one logo for the manufacturer, and one logo for the Japanese trading company. Twelve in all! But it's the color layout that makes it so attractive; solid red and blue to accent the wings and engines, while striping was used for the fuselage and upright tail wing. These all stood out from the primary silver and gray colors. The toy comes apart (wings and fuselage) and it has its original clip which keeps them together. The friction motor underneath the wings gets its power from the two large rubber traction tires. Two smaller tinplate wheels, front and rear, stabilize the toy upright. In addition to the Yonezawa logo, both the airplane and box were printed with the E.T.Co. logo. This stood for the Tomiyama company a Japanese importer and exporter. The box also has the logo of its U.S. distributor Cragstan on the cover. The box itself features an awesome full color illustration of the Trans World Airlines plane, looking at it from underside as it passes through the clouds. The box bottom was manufactured with a perfect ¾" diameter die cut hole directly in the center. This would've accommodated the clip underneath the plane, when the two parts were separated, to keep them from moving around inside the box. Size: 9¼" fuselage, 11¼" wingspan. Sold: Sep. 2008
Price Sold: $ 381
