Star Bird
Encyclopedia
Star Bird is a plastic-bodied, electronic handheld toy that was produced by MB Electronics
from 1979 until ca. 1981. It was developed by Bing McCoy who designed a number of successful toys in the late 70's including Electronic Battleship and ROM the Spaceknight.
switch to imply a doppler effect
acceleration or taking-off, while a nose down orientation gives the sound of decelerating engines. A button at the rear of the cockpit activates the LED
s at the front of the toy, along with a blast noise, to simulate the firing of its lasers. The button was designed to be pressed by the thumb while the ship was held by the main body or engine piece (in "dragster" configuration). Two simple, detachable drone-like "Interceptors" are provided at the end of each wing. Star Bird also had a rotating laser turret which doubled as an escape-pod/orbiter-type ship. Very much to the dismay of current-day collectors the twin lasers from the turret are often missing in today's offerings of the play set.
In accordance to local markets' demands the packaging for the Star Bird was manufactured in English, French, Spanish, Dutch and German (Supervogel). The Command Base came in German packaging as well.
A spin-off from the original Star Bird was the Star Bird Intruder. This model was issued with a black hull and consisted of the cockpit and Interceptor section only. It featured a pistol grip and feature that, when used along with the Space Avenger, could be used to simulate outer-space dogfighting. The Intruder hit the market in 1980 (mainly USA and UK).
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
from 1979 until ca. 1981. It was developed by Bing McCoy who designed a number of successful toys in the late 70's including Electronic Battleship and ROM the Spaceknight.
Specifications
The Star Bird manual describes it as "THE AMAZING SPACESHIP with realistic engine sounds and flashing laser blasts". The toy was constructed in three main pieces: the front inner hull which held the electronics and front lasers, the front outer hull (a thin plastic shell over the inner hull), the main body consisting of the center stalk like section and wings. A molded plastic engine piece fitted into the rear of the main body and was removable. The toy is only used in three configurations: the Star Bird which consists of all available pieces, the Star Bird Fighter which is mostly only the front hull attached to the bare engine piece, and the Star Bird Orbiter which is the main body without the front outer hull. When turned on the Star Bird mimics an engine sound. If the toy is pointed upwards the sound would be altered by a ball bearingBall bearing
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...
switch to imply a doppler effect
Doppler effect
The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from...
acceleration or taking-off, while a nose down orientation gives the sound of decelerating engines. A button at the rear of the cockpit activates the LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s at the front of the toy, along with a blast noise, to simulate the firing of its lasers. The button was designed to be pressed by the thumb while the ship was held by the main body or engine piece (in "dragster" configuration). Two simple, detachable drone-like "Interceptors" are provided at the end of each wing. Star Bird also had a rotating laser turret which doubled as an escape-pod/orbiter-type ship. Very much to the dismay of current-day collectors the twin lasers from the turret are often missing in today's offerings of the play set.
Configuration
The dragster configuration is notably out of scale with the others as, for the craft to be the small, fast, maneuverable fighter its design implies it would have to be much smaller than the scale of the escape pod and interceptor pieces (and of the simple plastic astronaut figures supplied with the play set).Franchise overview
Follow-up toys to the Star Bird, called the Star Bird Space Avenger and the Star Bird Command Base, arrived on the market in 1979.In accordance to local markets' demands the packaging for the Star Bird was manufactured in English, French, Spanish, Dutch and German (Supervogel). The Command Base came in German packaging as well.
A spin-off from the original Star Bird was the Star Bird Intruder. This model was issued with a black hull and consisted of the cockpit and Interceptor section only. It featured a pistol grip and feature that, when used along with the Space Avenger, could be used to simulate outer-space dogfighting. The Intruder hit the market in 1980 (mainly USA and UK).