VertiBird

The original VertiBird playset has a space theme appropriate for the Space Age attitude of the 1970s. The first set was reminiscent of the Project Mercury program. Later versions of the VertiBird would continue to revisit the space theme as well as other popular television and movie themes of the 1970s and early 1980s time frames.

The helicopter is controlled using a two-lever control unit. The controls operate similarly to a real helicopter. The throttle control provides proportional control of the blade speed. The pitch control provides for tilting the Vertibird forward or backward.

Distribution was not limited to the United States. Mattel produced international versions of the VertiBird playset for various markets including Canada, Brazil, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Mexico. To date, it is unknown just how many markets and languages Mattel distributed the VertiBird into.^{[citation needed]}

Mattel also licensed the VertiBird for production by other companies.^{[citation needed]}

Several Mattel VertiBird commercials were made in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of the advertising agencies used for production was Ogilvy & Mather.^{[citation needed]}

Episode 12 in season 8 of the original TV series Hawaii Five-0 ("Honor is an Unmarked Grave", first aired on November 28, 1975) included a scene of a young boy flying a VertiBird Air Police helicopter.^{[citation needed]}

Tiltwing aircraft called "Vertibirds" appear in the games Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.^{[citation needed]}

There are 13 known different US versions of the VertiBird playsets.

There were also some contracted production runs of the Mattel VertiBird for other companies.