Anyone recognise this?

[mumbles]

So I was at a bach for New Years, and in amongst all the rainy day stuff I found this:





The quality of the kit itself is nothing to write home about, and looks like it may have been engineered to snap together.
I've never heard of the brand, although I suspect it may be before my time.
Anyone know anything about this brand and its history?

[kiwi]

The last time I saw one of this brand was in the mid to late 1980's and it was a similar quality P 51 .

[Dave Homewood]

Panda also used to make 1/48th scale WWII vehicles in the olden days before Tamiya made it trendy.

I love their use of the term swing wing fighter....

[corsair67]

Ah, the good ole days, when New Zealand still manufactured its own stuff!

I remember having the Panda NA P-51 and Fuji T1 jet trainer in my collection.

That kit could be worth something, Mumbles! ;D

[Dave Homewood]

Toltoys also bought sdome of the Airfix moulds and brandname in the late 1970's or early 1980's the first time it went bust. I have a few unmade Toltoys Airfix kits, I wonder if they're worth much to collectors? They had exactly the same boxing as the 1970's Airfix, but with the added Toltoys brand and Made in NZ stuff. And the plastic wasn't as good.

[corsair67]

Now you've stirred some memories, Dave! I had a Toltoys Airfix Harvard at one stage - which I don't think was too bad as far as Airfix kits were concerned.

[agalbraith]

Aaah memories! I remember building the Fuji and Mustang also. The Mustang was my pride and joy when I first got it. I couldnt wait for mum to take me to Brighton shops (Pegasus toys and cycles actually)to get a brush and paint to finish it off and hang it from the ceiling.

[mumbles]

corsair67 said:

That kit could be worth something, Mumbles! ;D

Yeah that occured to me too, I left a note for the rightful owners saying as much

I remember seeing a Fuji kit in the early 80's, but I think it was Hasegawa.

[corsair67]

I remember I painted my Fuji T1 Glossy Sea Blue: I had some paint left over after completing a USN F4U-4 Corsair! ;D

At that stage of my younger years I didn't even know the RNZAF had even operated Corsairs!

Anthony, you've rekindled some memories from the early 1970s of Saturday shopping at New Brighton.

[Bruce]

I definitely remember that kit, in the mid 1980s the Panda kits got me into model making. there was a model shop in Cambridge that operated for a short while in comptetion to the long standing Cambridge model shop, and amongst thier stuff they stocked the complete Panda range, at about $3.50 each from memory. I also built the P51 and B5N2 kate, and even joined two P51s to make a twin mustang! They also did an Avenger as well. The thing about the Kate, Avenger and the Hellcat was that they had folding wings and retractable undercarriage. The concept was quite fun, but wings had masses of slop when extended, and the Grumman hinges kept breaking - which was why I built several Hellcats! the undercarriages kept rectracting as there wasnt anything much locking them down, which made them lie on thier bellies a lot. The accuracy of the scaling was extraordinarily casual - the Hellcat was a good 20 - 25mm smaller than the Matchbox kit I eventually replaced it with, and the Avenger was about 3/4 the correct 1/72 scale.
Great thing to find an intact kit of one of these beauties now though - them were the days.....

[Dave Homewood]

I had forgotten all about that second model shop. 'Triple H' it was called, standing for Hobbies, Hardware and something else.

Actually there was a time in the early 1980's when you could buy models at four stockists in Cambridge, Cambridge Sports and Models (Dick Wong's shop), Triple H, MacDonald's Arcade Bookshop and Tree Town Toys in the Hub Mall. Ah, happy days.