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A Mattel Eagle Make-over
On Christmas Day of 1976, the Eagle has landed in my living room without much surprise since I
had discovered the hiding place weeks before. Nevertheless this toy brought me endless hours of fun, braving the elements and some abuses as I would take it out in the snow, swimming pool or sand box. It
originally came with 3 characters (Landau, Bain and Morse) had some kind of an interior with chairs, weapon rack and winch. The command module and engines were (and still are) detachable allowing you to
connect them together to make a smaller ship. It's also totally inaccurate.
And still is. I realized very early that the conception of the toy would make it impossible to make it
100% accurate to the studio model. Plus my margin of error was very thin since they don't manufacture this toy anymore. I could not afford to start cutting plastic and go "whoops!" That's why there
are no sensor domes on the side of the command module. I was not equipped to drill satisfactory holes. But for the rest I did what I could and tried my hand at techniques I had never used before: casting
parts, scratch building, kit bashing and making my own decals except for the main logos which I got from Tangent. I screwed up a lot but also learned a lot.
Stephane Gariepy
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